Influence - Sherwette

5 Traits that make people ‘cool’

Consumer Behavior November 5, 2019

Cool people.

Huh?

What does that even mean?

Have you ever met someone, who without even opening his mouth to speak seems ‘cool’ to you.
It’s a big party. People are trying to socialize. Some work to impress others. Others seem like they don’t belong.

Yet, that there is this one person who seems, without interacting much, ‘cool’.

How does he do that?

It wouldn’t be long before you see him interacting with others. He is comfortable in his own skin. Whether he is speaking to others or not, it doesn’t matter. He is ‘cool’ right there, where he is.

Learn how modeling can influence behavior

Cognitive Bias Consumer Behavior November 2, 2019 1 Comment

One of the key principles of persuasion is being liked. If people like you, they would be more likely to be influenced by your behavior. If they like anyone, they would be influenced by what they do.

Robert Cialdini had a whole section in his book, Influence just about liking.

… which brings me to talk about ‘modeling’ as a tool to influence behavior.

To persuade, ask, don’t tell

Cognitive Bias Consumer Behavior Sales skills October 25, 2019

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To persuade” could be one of the hardest things you can come across. I have been there. Multiple times. Every single day if you ask me.

Having a sound and logical arguments may work with some people, especially engineers and programmers, but at the end of the day, we are human. Humans are emotional, and whether you can do a good job hiding it or not, your emotions have an unneglectable impact on your decisions.

I have mentioned before the “endowment effect”. It’s such a powerful cognitive bias, and because it’s so powerful, you can use it in multiple ways.

The endowment effect basically says,
“We place greater value on items because we own them.” – Adam Ferrier, The Advertising Effect: How to Change Behaviour

Previously, I have demonstrated how you can use the best of the endowment effect before consumers buy your product so that they feel they own it, value it even more, then take out their credit cards.

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But…

What if all you want is to persuade someone to buy into your idea?

Amazing negotiation and persuasion tricks to try right now

Book Reviews Consumer Behavior Sales skills Self development September 20, 2019 3 Comments

One of the top needed skills for the job market in 2019 is negotiation skills, persuasion, and influence.

LinkedIn: The Most In-Demand Hard and Soft Skills of 2019

Forbes: The Skills You Need To Succeed In 2020

… and what a better way to tackle this, than making the best of my favorite subject of consumer behavior?
Consumer behavior is the study of how consumers search for, choose, buy, and use your products or services.

Consumers are people. Whether you influence them to buy your products or services or influence them to buy into your ideas, you can more or less follow the same concepts.

Persuasion and influence could be one of the hardest tasks anyone can be assigned to. Some people are skilled, while others are left dazzled, not sure what could be the next step they can take to improve in that area.

I know. I know because I bet you are a bit like me and face this situation every single day — at work or in social settings. After all, I am a nerd, and well, I did study software engineering. This is quite far from negotiation skills if you ask me.

Read: Learn how consulting changed my life

The good news is negotiation skills, persuasion and influence can be taught. Yes. Some people think that only the born talented are the ones who can exceed in that area, but I beg to differ.

This is how we get tricked into buying expensive “stuff”

Cognitive Bias Consumer Behavior Consumer Marketing July 3, 2019 1 Comment

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The principle that Sharon used in her letter with her parents is called “human perception, the contrast principle”, where the order of how things are presented to us affects our perception on the way we see things and the difference between them.

Example,

You hold a glass of water at room temperature after holding a hot glass, you will perceive it colder than it actually is.

You hold a glass of water at room temperature after holding a cold glass, you will perceive it hotter than it actually is.

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It basically explains every time we got intrigued to buy products/ services just because they say it has been reduced from AED 1,299 to AED 899. We think we got a good deal because we have “saved” so much money in this deal. Our brain has set the baseline for the produce as AED 1,299, the higher price, and so we place a high value on the product. When we see AED 899, we immediately think we just saved AED 400. In reality, though, we actually just spent AED 899. Whether or not we had this budgeted for our purchase is not the primary influencer in making us think it’s a good deal… or making us buy the product.

Perhaps your budget was only AED 700. You would be thinking, “Technically speaking, that “great” deal is AED 199 more than my budget, but then again I just saved AED 400.”

In this scenario, you didn’t save AED400. You just spent AED 199 more than my budget.

Our thinking process deceives us into thinking it’s a good deal.

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Ok, maybe I could be confusing you here… so to set the ground clear, let’s answer this question:

How do marketers trick us into buying expensive products?