Every businessman sooner or later faces the challenge – how to attract customers? What to say and how to say to get hooked?
We share with you phrases and techniques that help you get what you want in business.
1. “Do you want to sell the sweet soda for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world? ”
In this famous phrase, thanks to which Steve Jobs managed to lure John Scully from PepsiCo, several techniques of persuasion were used at once. First, simplification. The problem always has many reasons, and it is rather difficult to solve it.
Reality constantly makes people feel uncomfortable. Professional manipulators help them to relax for a moment, ignoring the difficulties and offering simple solutions. A deodorant, machine or a certain brand of beer can make a person beautiful, popular and successful. Here, too, the Big Lie factor plays a role. As the great manipulator Adolf Hitler said: “People are treated with a greater suspicion of a small lie than a great one.” The third technique is also quite well known: reducing the choice to two options, one of which is obviously worse. Instead of allowing a person to think about a variety of alternatives, manipulators give only two options to choose from.
2. “After all, you want to have healthy teeth?”
Speaking this phrase, the seller of toothpaste uses two techniques of persuasion. The first is the use of rhetorical questions. They are put in such a way that they force them to agree with the speaker, because the answer is obvious. This is done in order to inspire confidence and the feeling that the seller and the buyer have the same view of life. The second technique, close in meaning, is the use of “yes-questions”. This does not necessarily have to be product related issues. The seller can ask: “Good weather, is not it?” Once a person agrees with something, even with a small and insignificant, it will be much easier for him to agree with more important things, for example, saying: “Yes, I buy it.” Just like “yes-questions”, humor acts when a person is in a good mood, more relaxed and ready to buy a product that he associates with pleasant emotions.
3. “This car is worthy of you”
People love flattery. They like it when they are considered special, significant and intelligent. In everyday life, you can use this, referring to a person with this phrase: “I do not think that a person of a level like you will agree to find time to help me …” In advertising, this technique usually involves direct treatment: “You appreciate the quality”, “You do not like to waste time for nothing. ” Sometimes, in order to evoke in the viewers a sense of superiority, advertising, on the contrary, shows people who commit stupid acts. We like those who make compliments, and we tend to trust those who we like. Therefore, it is easier for them to convince us to buy something from them.
4. “But you are absolutely free”
A cunning move, often used by manipulators, is to assure a person that he has freedom of choice. People hate when they are restricted. Asking another about the favor, the manipulator adds that he does not insist, but gives the right to choose. Christopher Carpenter’s study, which involved 22,000 people, showed that this simple-looking technique is extremely effective: it increases the chances of success by 50%. Researchers asked people to donate money to charity, borrow money for a bus ticket, and if after the request they added “but I do not insist” or “but you certainly do not have to help me”, people agreed much more willingly. The words themselves are not so important as the main meaning of the statement: “you are absolutely free, I do not pressure you.” Technique is particularly effective in personal contact, and in writing and over the phone, its effectiveness is greatly reduced.
5. “Only today a 50% discount”
The technique affects the survival instinct, causing fear to miss something valuable. Researcher Noah Goldstein of the Anderson School of Management calls it “the instinct to grab everything you can, or stay with nothing.” The advertising often uses the appropriate slogans: “The last chance!”, “Hurry up, before it’s too late.” According to statistics, during sales days people spend on purchases 10% more, giving in to panic. In a state of stress, a person loses the ability to think rationally. A well-known researcher of manipulations Robert Chaldini calls this technique “creation of a deficit”. By this principle, for example, the company TeeFury, which sells gikovskie t-shirts with a specific pattern only one day, works. The use of fear as a manipulative technique is possible in ordinary life. For example, your boss may at first hint to you that in the near future plans to reduce, and then invite you to work overtime. In the book The Science of Social Influence, an example is given: a stranger approached the people in the store and touched their shoulder. When they turned around in fright, they realized that it was just a blind person who wanted to know their time. After that a man approached them with a request to donate a small sum. Those who survived the fright, sacrificed much more often than other buyers.
6. “This machine, damn it, it’s worth it!”
It is proved that light abusive words at the beginning or at the end of the statement increase the degree of influence of speech on listeners. A study supporting this thesis was conducted in 2006 by scholars Shearer and Sagarin. They divided people into groups and delivered the same speeches to them. The only difference was that in one of them the words “damn it” were added. At the listeners, the speech with the curse made more impact. It seemed to the listeners that the speaker was more convincing, confident in himself, and aroused in them a sense of trust in the product. Moderate use of abusive words makes speech less formal and more human, removing barriers between the speaker and the listener. In Russia, you can try and a more rigid option, as, for example, Art. Lebedev Studio made in advertising: “Euroset – prices just oh … ET.”
7. “Why not?”
The ability to work correctly with an objection is probably the most important method of manipulation. You ask someone for a favor, you are refused. What to do next? Ask: “Why not?” So you can translate a firm refusal into an obstacle format that can be overcome. The person to whom this question is asked, stands in the position of the justifier, because he must bring logical arguments. Researchers who deal with this issue give several explanations for why this technique is so effective. First, perseverance plays a role. A person can find the strength to refuse once, but with each of the following questions, his confidence in his opinion is reduced. Emotional factors begin to act: feelings of guilt and sympathy. Secondly, this technique is associated with the state of cognitive dissonance – a sense of discomfort from the presence in the minds of two opposing points of view. A man wants to get rid of him quickly, even by giving up his opinion.
8. “Can I use your copier, because I need to copy my papers?”
This technique is called “placebo-information.” The manipulator reports some reason, which in fact is not that big. Langer’s research proves that if you call at least a visible reason, this increases your chances of success by 30%.
9. “It costs a million dollars!”
In English this technique is called door-in-the-face. The principle of operation is that at first the manipulator requests a meaninglessly high price, which the buyer, naturally, can not pay. Then he offers a much lower price in comparison with the first sum. Because of the strong contrast, the buyer seems to be a profitable proposition, and he agrees to buy. Often used and the opposite technique called foot-in-the-door. Here, on the contrary, the buyer is first offered to buy something inexpensive. Agreeing once, it is then easier for him to decide on more serious spending. A similar principle is used in the “boiling point” technique. In this case, the seller spins the buyer to buy an inexpensive item, and when he is ready to buy, “suddenly” finds out that now this product is not in stock, but there is a similar, more expensive. The buyer has already mentally prepared himself for the purchase and easily decides to spend more to just finish what he started.
10. “The second iron is free!”
This technique is used by shops in different versions. For example, buyers are offered free gifts, discounts and other “profitable” offers. They act because, firstly, people like to consider themselves rational (acting for their own good). And secondly, who does not like gifts? This gives a feeling of the same happiness as money found on the street. In addition, people like the process of buying, and free gifts, as it were, “justify” this pleasure in that the purchase seems more profitable. For the same reason, buyers are subconsciously impressed by uneven discount figures, for example, 99.99 rubles. What happens to people when they hear the word “free” is shown by the experiment Dan Arielli writes about in his book Predictably Irrational. He suggested that people in the nightclub do free tattoos, many of them agreed. But when he asked if they would change their mind, if the tattoo cost $ 1, then 68% of them refused.
If you want to get a free consultation on how to attract more customers, write to us!