Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Eliminating Buyer Resistance Part 4 – Inertia

This is the fourth post in the series on buyer resistance. This will cover the third type of resistance called Inertia¹. The initial post, The 3 Types of Psychological Resistance Buyers Experience That Kill Your Sales, is an overview of the 3 types of resistance in this series. It summarizes what’s behind each type of resistance.

What Is Inertia?

“Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion.” – from Wikipedia

Inertia is your most challenging form of resistance. It isn’t about you, your offer, or the sales process.

Inertia is rooted in your buyer and stems from his life experience.

It can be his past failures and disappointments replaying over and over in his mind. It can be his belief he already owns/knows what you’re selling. Either way, this stops him from considering any decision.

Inertia sometimes appears before you have a chance to present your benefits. And, if he won’t consider your offer, it doesn’t matter what benefits you present.

Other times, he reads your sales letter or listens to your offer yet he won’t commit. Something from the past keeps him from moving forward.

Here are the 6 ways to bring your buyer out of this inertia and pull them back into your product.

1. Disrupt and Reframe Resistance

You’re in a trance…most of the day. Almost every moment of every day you’re in some form of trance. You’re unconscious automatically runs the show. Your conscious mind is distracted with little things and your unconscious keeps you alive, safe, and functioning.

Your customer is in a trance too. His unconscious is working hard to keep him protected and safe. It runs the same routines day in and day out. This trance is behind the resistance called inertia.

Snap your buyer out of his trance.

As they say in traditional sales and marketing, “You have to get the customer’s attention.” This will help you do that and make more sales in the process.

In research², students went door-to-door selling note cards for charity. In the some households they said a packet of 8 cards was “three dollars; it’s a bargain!” This approach sold 35% of the households. Some households were told they’re, “300 pennies; it’s a bargain!” This disruption, the change from “three dollars” to “300 pennies” almost doubled sales to 65%.

They also tried other versions of the phrase with “it’s a bargain at 300 pennies” and simply “they’re 300 pennies.” These sold in the 30% to 35% range, the same as the control phrase “three dollars; it’s a bargain!”

When the students disrupted the customer’s thought with “300 pennies,” it allowed the sales message “it’s a bargain!” to bypass the resistance. It creates a brief state of confusion allowing the message to be accepted. (If you’re familiar with Milton Erickson and his use of confusion in hypnosis then this will sound familiar. If not, that’s okay too.)

In a similar study¹, college students sold cupcakes at the school for 50 cents. Randomly they said, “I’m selling this half-cake for 50 cents, it’s delicious!” or “I’m selling this cupcake for 50 cents, it’s delicious!” The percentage in sales results were the same as in the 300 pennies research with half-cake outselling by almost double. Because “half-cake” is not a common way to say cupcake it interrupts thought and allows the message “it’s delicious” to slide by the inertia.

How Much Fun Will You Have With This Technique?

My bride always laughs at me when I do this but I love it. Plus, it’s a great way for you to practice watching interrupts work.

Wherever we go, almost always I ask whoever is helping us, “How much fun are you having today?” instead of “How are you?” I’ve asked this question to thousands of people for over 10 years. I love how it opens people up.

It’s an obvious interruption. When was the last time anyone asked you that question? You usually hear a routine “How are you?” and reply with a mindless, “not bad and you?” Neither of you in the conversation, if you want to call it a conversation, will remember the interaction.

The elegance of the question, “How much fun are you having today?” assumes you’re already having some fun today and asks you to recognize how much of it you’ve actually experienced.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a panacea to make people excited about life. Most people often reply, “none, I’m at work.” But they’ll smile or chuckle when they say it.

After their reply, I’ve altered their perception. If they said “none,” I can now say something as simple as, “That’s too bad. I promise you’ll start having fun now that I’ve been here.” (with a grin) They may give a goofy reply. It doesn’t matter. I get to practice working with resistance and I get to make someone’s day a little better. And, I have a little fun myself.

I started asking this because I noticed most people don’t recognize the fun in life. It only takes a little attention to enjoy things more.

Give this a try the next time you’re at a grocery store, restaurant, bank, wherever. Ask the checkout clerk or the waitress, “How much fun are you having today?” (Emphasize “you” in the question and remember the word “today” to give them a time frame to process the question. Also, make it sound playful.) Notice how they react.

Let me know in the comments below, or through the contact page, what you experience. If you run across any challenging replies I’d love to help you out.

How To Use Disrupt And Reframe In Writing

The first step in copywriting is to get attention. This is why your headline is so critical. You want to grab your reader by the eyeballs and make him want to keep reading.

Here are a couple of classic headlines that use a Disrupt and Reframe technique as an example:

“Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks And Slices…And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!” – John Carlton

How I Made A Fortune With A “Fool” Idea

At 60 Miles Per Hour The Loudest Noise In This New Rolls Royce Comes From The Electric Clock – David Ogilvy

Notice how these headlines take a basic idea and make you think, “How?”

How could a one-legged golfer help me improve my golf game? How can a foolish idea make someone a fortune? How can an electric clock be the loudest thing in a car at 60 miles per hour?

What these examples do is create a slight state of confusion in your mind, which briefly jolts you out of your trance. Then, while you’re in this brief state of confusion, you pay attention and the suggestion (your product or service benefit) is allowed to drop in and arouse curiosity.

It’s that simple.

2. Boost Your Customer’s Confidence

Obviously, you’re an intelligent person or you wouldn’t be reading these posts. Most people give up and let life take them from one situation to the next. They never fully consider the ways you can influence the outcome. You should be proud of yourself for realizing you have control over many areas of your life. And, you should be proud you’re making these moments even better.

How do you feel about that?

I am sincere when I wrote it. I deeply believe you’re an intelligent person. Anyone searching to improve their life and learn more about how people behave is intelligent. You should be proud of yourself, if you weren’t.

If you felt a little proud, were you feeling pride before you read this?

In reality, we all have fears and our failures haunting us from the past. They lay there in your unconscious and get triggered to keep you from making the same mistakes again.

Do you remember that time a teacher said you probably won’t amount to much? Or, maybe a parent said you were destined to achieve great things and you don’t feel like you’ve done that yet? Maybe you wanted to start a business and haven’t or you’ve failed? Maybe you didn’t get that job or promotion you wanted because you screwed up? Maybe you bought something that didn’t live up to its hype?

I’m sure you can find all the areas you’ve failed in the past (if you want to feel bad for a while).

However, I don’t want you to feel bad. We all have this baggage. It’s part of life and part of learning. (Put any negative feelings aside now and feel proud again )

Your customer is not looking back at his past failures as examples where he can change and grow. Instead he has a feeling sitting in the pit of his stomach. It’s a pain that grows whenever someone reminds him of taking a step forward.

This is inertia. It’s a protective reaction everyone has and you have to build confidence in your customer so they’ll feel strong enough to buy.

The goal is to give the customer a sense of pride, confidence, and success for their past.

Have you ever been around someone that always makes you feel better than you think you are? When you start talking about your inabilities they have a magical power that transforms everything about you. There aren’t a lot of people out there like this so when you’ve met someone like that, you remember.

In essence, that’s what this is like. You want to be able to give your customer the confidence they need to use what you’re selling. You don’t need to lie to him. There’s success in everyone. You have to be able to pull it out.

When I would discuss retirement planning with customers I had to show the amount needed at retirement so they could live comfortably. It’s always a large sum and will overwhelm anyone who isn’t already financially set. One way we could ease the fears is to show the success they’ve had at managing their finances up to today. It could be as simple as pointing out they’ve saved $500 over the last year (a big feat for many of people). After building on the small successes we can start moving to the next decisions.

In a sales letter it’s a little different. You don’t know each person’s challenge and success. You have to make assumptions.

If you’re selling to beginners make sure it’s easy enough for a beginner to use. Demonstrate the simplicity and compare it to things they’ve most likely accomplished without frustration.

If you’re selling to an advanced market you want to give examples an experienced user would relate with and has completed successfully. With an advanced market it’s okay to explain your product isn’t for beginners. By excluding beginners you’re giving those past the beginner stage a bit of pride; they’re part of a special group. They’ve passed the ‘beginner’ stage and qualify for this next step.

Hopefully, when you read the beginning of this section you felt a little better about yourself. I complimented you as an intelligent person and told you how you were better than the average person. This too is an example of building confidence.

Now, as you continue feeling better about yourself, continue reading through then next few examples. It’s okay to stop occasionally and reflect on how this will help you. That’s what intelligent people do anyhow.

3. Wear Them Down

Constant repetition. E-mail follow up. Repeat mailings. Eventually their curiosity will build up to inquire.

In traditional face-to-face sales, I don’t encourage using this technique. Your customer will feel like you’ve mentally beat him up until he buys. If you’ve ever bought a car through a dealership you can probably relate to this technique. They wear you out with constant trips to the manager. The need to see if management can meet your price, get approval for financing, check if the car you want is actually on the lot, etc. It’s not a pleasant experience. Don’t do this to your customers unless you want them to feel bad later.

In marketing, this technique is a bit different. When you have someone on your email or mailing list, repetition increases the chance your customer will buy.

Online, you can email your offer in various ways every day. Naturally, you want to make sure you’re providing value beyond just a sales pitch. If you fail to give any value, you’ll only end up with a high unsubscribe rate (or worse, marked as spam).

However, email marketing is practically free for you to increase the mental impressions you make. This repetition increases curiosity and desire. Have you ever received multiple emails and eventually clicked back to the site to read more about the product? That’s this process at work.

It’s similar in direct mail. A few years ago, in my old insurance agency, we rolled over $1.6 million into retirement accounts directly from our monthly newsletter in 12 months. We never directly mentioned investments but routinely discussed taxes, retirement planning, and IRAs. After a few months we started receiving calls from people wondering what to do with their old 401k or IRA. These turned into appointments and into a dozen sales. The repetition in the newsletter did the selling and generated the interest.

Marketing caveat: If someone asks you to take them off your list remove them immediately. Your email system should include a 1-click unsubscribe option to comply with spam laws (in the USA).

With that said, as long as someone is willing to read your offer you have the ability to influence him and can take advantage of it.

4. Offer A Choice

Imagine you made a search on Google and clicked a link to arrive at a website. On the website there was a brief description about what you want. Then it reads “to better help you please choose one of two options, “Are you a male?” and “Are you female?” What would you do?

When you arrive at a website you’re searching for something specific. As good as Google is at finding the right website, you’re never sure if you’ll get what you expect. When you’re presented with an option like this, you’re more likely to click an option…and actually read the page after you click.

With inertia, you’re stuck. You’re not moving in any direction. One of the ways to get you engaged and moving (in any direction) is to give you a choice. It gets you focused on answering the question and moving out of the stuck state.

One place I’ve fallen for this is on a sales letter for a product I don’t want to buy. It’s usually a product where I already own something similar. However, I read the sales letter anyhow because I’m I’m curious what they’re offering. When I get to the “Buy Now” button there are a couple of payment options. I can pay in full for $100. I can pay with two payments for $50 or with 3 payments of $35 each (these are examples, obviously).

When this happens, I start thinking to myself, “well, I can make three $35 payments easily without it pissing anyone off at home (my bride)…” This decision took me from my stoic position (“I already own this”) to choosing which payment option is best for my situation today (“I can afford to get this too now”). I’m sucked back into the buying process.

Once you’ve made a choice, you’re engaged again. If you remember Newton’s Laws of Motion, an object in motion (or rest) remains in motion (at rest) unless acted on by an outside force. You’re job is to give a choice to take them from their resting position and get them moving in your direction.

In the example where you choose “male” or “female” on a website, you’re getting your customer to make small commitments. Once he makes the initial decision, he’s more likely to read the page. One commitment leads to another.

Start with small decisions to get him started moving, then increase the involvement. The point is simply to get him into the process so he begins moving.

Now, when you’re done reading this, are you going to sign up to get this entire series on resistance as an EBook with all the additional worksheets? Or, will you read the other sections before you sign up?

5. Minimize The Request

You want to make sure your customer can easily accomplish what ever it is your offering. Making the request seem small makes it easy for your buyer to take those first steps. This works really well when you also Boost Your Customer’s Confidence.

Minimizing the request was explained in detail in part 2 on dealing with Reactance. Go read that article for specific examples on How To Minimize A Request.

6. Acknowledge Inertia

This was also discussed in part 2 on dealing with Reactance. I know you may not want to click the link and read that article after you finish this one, but reading the examples there will give you very unique understanding of the lessons.

Yes! I just used the technique, Acknowledge Inertia, in that paragraph. By writing, “I know you may not want to…” I’ve acknowledged the resistance you may have had. Again, Inertia is something from your buyer’s history that stops them. When you acknowledge it, it’s like loosening the lid on a jar. The jar is still not open but, now that it’s loose, it’s a lot easier to remove the lid and open it completely.

Now, after you finish this post, go read part 2 in the series.

What’s Next?

This is the last in the series on the 3 Types of Psychological Resistance and how to overcome them.

Sign up below to receive the eBook on Resistance for free. It will be packed with more details and examples on overcoming each type of resistance. There will also be worksheets and other material to help you work through every situation.

You’ve made it through this post so you obviously understand the importance resistance plays when you want to get people to do what you want. You’ll love how the worksheets bring all this together into easy to use format.

Subscribe below and get the free eBook when it’s finished.

If you missed the first 3 posts in the series you can find them here:

• The 3 Types Of Psychological Resistance That Cause You To Lose Sales
• Eliminating Buyer Resistance Part 2 – Reactance
• Eliminating Buyer Resistance Part 3 – Skepticism

¹ From the book Resistance and Persuasion by Dr. Eric Knowles.
² Davis, B., & Knowles, E. S. (1999). A Disrupt-Then-Reframe Technique of Social Influence. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 76(2), 192-199.

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Eliminating Buyer Resistance Part 2 – Reactance

This is the second post in the series on buyer resistance. This will cover the first type of resistance called Reactance¹. The initial post, The 3 Types of Psychological Resistance Buyers Experience That Kill Your Sales, is an overview of the 3 types of resistance in this series. It summarizes what’s behind each type of resistance so you can see what’s next.

What is Reactance?

Reactance is experienced when you feel like you’re being pushed into buying. It’s a reaction evolved from the sales process. As the pressure builds and you begin requiring commitments from your customer, they begin to pull away. Something inside causes your customer to jerk away, disagree with you, raise objections, or stop reading your sales letter.

This form of resistance can also develop at the beginning of the sales process. For example, I have a strong reaction when I know I’m going to speak with a salesperson. I don’t like to answer questions beyond “yes” or “no.” I hold back. I know what a salesperson is looking for. I know their “tricks.” I don’t want to be baited and sold. I want to buy. And, when I start to hear the sales speak I immediately go into a negative state. This is another form of Reactance.

So how do you eliminate this reactance in your buyer?

7 Ways To Eliminate Reactance In Your Customer

1. Make It a Relationship, Not A One Time Sale

Nobody wants to feel like another notch on the headboard of your sales career. Yes, it’s important to watch your sales numbers and pay attention to your conversion rates, cost per lead, etc. However, when working with your list, niche, tribe, or whatever you want to call your prospect base, emphasize your relationship with them. Make them understand this isn’t a quick sale for you, even if it’s the only thing you sell.

It is funny to me how over the last few years, social media is buzzing with how they’re changing the sales process. As many there say, “you’re finally able to build a relationship with your customer base.”

I disagree.

Good marketing has always been about building a relationship. We did it with direct mail and newsletters 15 years ago (and in my businesses last year). Letting your customer know you’re here and plan to be around to help out in the future goes a long way. Social media is simply another way to extend the relationship experience.

Nowadays, blogging for the small business is becoming your way to build a relationship. It helps establish your credibility and knowledge. A blog is more than a single page website with sales information. You’re providing value before and after the sale. Your goal is to become an advisor in the eyes of the customer instead of a salesman only out to empty their wallet.

2. Use Stories To Create Distance From The Resistance

Stories have been used for thousands of years to pass along teachings without creating resistance. A story causes you to turn off part of your brain. You get immersed in the flow of the characters and allow the message to easily sink in.

Stories don’t have to be long drawn out tales. You can easily create a story by saying, “I had a customer like you once… and this is what happened with him/her…”

Then, as you continue the story, match the situation your buyer is experiencing. Go through their problems and objections. Show how your previous customer was able to move past his concerns with your solution. The person you’re telling the story to will begin relating those issues to himself. And, he’ll begin the process of finding solutions for himself.

It really is that easy. In fact, when I told a friend of mine about this solution he gave it a try. He was hesitant at first but decided to use it with the next person he had to deal with. He told me how nervous he was. He thought the customer would see through his story. As he got into it, he said his customer sat there listening intently and ended up buying, relating the story back to why he was okay with buying today.

Did you realize I just used the story principle in the last paragraph?

Another way to create a compelling story is to talk about yourself. First, remember talking about yourself is generally a bad idea. You never want to brag about how how wonderful you truly are. However, you can easily tell a story that makes you a hero, demonstrates your intelligence, how you solved the problem their in, whatever. It’s your life story, you find the solution. (If you want a great book on life stories you need to learn to tell, get The Story Factor by Annette Simmons.)

Last, the easiest way to create a persuasive story is with the “it’s just like” strategy. Using this strategy, you can easily create quick, off the cuff stories with layers of meaning by adding “it’s just like…” to the end of your sentence. Then, follow up with what it is like that would eliminate his resistance.

If this seems a little confusing that’s because it’s just like most new things you learn. Over time, and with practice, it becomes a lot more easy and natural.

Get it? (See my post on how to quickly create persuasive metaphors for more on the “it’s just like…” strategy.)

3. Minimize the Request

Obviously, big requests create more resistance than smaller requests. Whether your request is to buy your product or to opt-in to your email list, you want to make the request seem like a minimal commitment on their part.

In research by Cialdini & Schroeder², volunteers went door-to-door asking for donations to charity. When they added the words “even a penny will help” to the end of the request, there were 21% more households that donated. Not bad. What makes this even better? The amount the average person donated was almost the same in both options. That’s a huge impact.

They received a 21% increase in  the number of households that donated and the same amount of money was given from each household!

Amazing.

My Pay-Per-Click Example:

When I was running my last insurance agency, we used pay-per-click marketing to generate a large portion of our leads. The typical quote form on most insurance websites is several pages long. You fill out some information then click to the next page and fill out more. It feels like there’s no end in sight.

I made our quote forms one page. We still required all the same information, it was just on one page and not five. It was also a lot of personal information like names, address, birthdates, vehicle information, etc. for everyone on the policy. In our tests, one ad with the words, “Fill out our fast, 1 page quote form” outperformed others drastically.

Even though we were still requiring almost the same amount of information, we made the request seem simple and short. We told them it was a “fast, 1 page quote form.” (Also, the form itself reduced resistance because the visitor could see all the information required on the form and could easily determine how fast they could fill it out.)

How about another example where you can use this?

Let’s say you have a product with two price and feature options. Your “Basic Package” is the lower priced product and gives all the features most buyers need. Your “Complete Package” has premium pricing and gives your customer all the features plus a bunch of extra stuff beyond the Basic Package.

One way to test the Minimize The Request method is to put copy similar to this near the purchase options on your sales page, “If you were hesitant about how much this will help you, even the Basic Package will help you …”

This is language you want to seriously test instead of using as is. As much as I’d like to say this improves copy every every time, all markets are different.

4. Say “Yes, and…”

This method is easier to use in verbal rather than written persuasion. But, I’ll show you a nice twist you can use for writing copy.

You may not agree completely with your customer and you don’t have to. However, you don’t want them to know you don’t agree. They believe it and the easiest way to change their belief is to agree with them and then present your ideas.

When you reply to your customer’s question, here are three replies you want to keep in mind:

• “No” creates resistance.
• “Yes, but” says you agree, but not fully, and still want to push your ideas.
• “Yes, and…” demonstrates you’re listening and you agree with your customer.

Notice how you can make the problem worse by using the first two? It’s not that it will ruin a sales presentation completely but it can create additional challenges.

So, when your customer objects, reply with, “Yes, and this will be a good choice because…” and lay out your reasons. He’ll be a lot less willing to argue with you, if at all. Why?

You’re not arguing with him. If you’re agreeing you can’t be arguing. You’re simply taking his comment and continuing on with it. Essentially you’re reframing what he said in an agreeable manner. “And” is a powerful little word in influence.

Give it a shot.

Over the next few days, with your friends or family say, “Yes, and…” when you get reply. Tell me how this changes your interactions. You’re probably in a habit of saying “no, but…” and will have to practice to break it. Once you do, email me or leave a comment below and let me know how it changed things.

Using “Yes, And…” in writing…

If you’re using this in writing, here’s a quick lesson from Ericksonian hypnosis. (This works even more powerfully in speaking but is a way to incorporate “Yes, and…” in writing.)

Ericksonian hypnosis is, what we call, conversational hypnosis. Milton Erickson pioneered these concepts. One of the key ways he found to get people to go into trance is to “pace and lead” with his words and body.

Pacing is saying/writing something that is true or common knowledge. If I was doing hypnosis, these would be things like, “you’re sitting here” “you hear my voice” “you’re thinking.” These are things that are all true. When you hear them a part of your mind says, “yes.”

Leading is saying what you want your customer to do or believe. Again, more examples from hypnosis, “You’re beginning to relax” “You’ll make the changes necessary” “You’ll follow my suggestions.”

Do you notice the difference between the two? Basically, one is stating what’s true (pacing) and the other is making stuff up (leading). Everything you say or write falls into one of these two categories (either a pace or a lead). And, when you follow this structure below you’re feeding your reader the, “Yes, and…” statement. They’ll be thinking “yes, yes, yes, and…” inside their head.

Here’s the structure:

You start with 3 pacing statements and then a leading statement. Like this (with a blatantly boring example).
Pace, pace, pace, lead…
You’re reading these words (pace), there’s a lot of ideas available to you (pace), there’s something here you want to learn (pace), the things you learn will make a big impact in your life (lead).

Then, two pacing statements and then a leading statement.
Pace, pace, lead…
As you use what you’ll learn (pace), you’ll come up with other ideas (pace), which will help you make better use of these tactics (lead).

Then, one pacing statement then a lead.
Pace, lead…
These tactics aren’t known by most of society (pace), so you can use them wherever you want without fear of being caught (lead).

Then you can randomly use pacing or leading statements throughout the rest of your copy.

The point is to gradually build up to statements and behaviors the reader may not fully accept as true. In traditional sales, this would be a version of building a “yes” set. The theory being if you get someone thinking, or saying, “yes” they’re more likely to continue thinking, or saying, “yes” when you ask for the order.

After you’ve finished reading this, go read classic sales letters or listen to political & religious leaders speak (search YouTube). Try to find where they go from pacing to leading. You’ll notice how they blur the lines of fact and making up stuff as they’re speaking/writing.

This structure takes some practice. It will also cause you to write more. Which, in essence, will help you build your skills even more.

5. Acknowledge The Resistance

When people complain, often they just want to be heard. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that their complaint isn’t valid. Usually, it’s a simple psychological need to let it out. We want to be acknowledged and validated. This method allows you to address the resistance and validate what’s going on in your customer’s mind before they even know it’s there.

A good sales letter will always bring up objections and address them. What are the reasons against your customer buying your product? What thought would be gnawing at them in the back of their mind? Find those and tackle them one at a time.

For example, if you were selling a coaching package, you can address any resistance by stating, “Some people may not want the entire 12 month coaching program because…That’s okay. (a version of ‘yes, and…’) The people that do want this go for it because…”

Not everyone will use this technique in their copy. That’s okay. Those that do use it will find it’s something worth testing to see how well it helps increase conversion.

6. “Reverse” Psychology

Reverse psychology was briefly touched on in the first post of this series. You probably did this, or were victim of it, first when you were a child. Basically, you’re telling someone you want them to do the opposite of what you really want them to do.

When my oldest daughter was in preschool she told me some of the kids wouldn’t play the games she wanted to play. I told her when she wanted to play with them to say, “Hey, I have a great game to play! But…um, well…never mind, you wouldn’t want to play this fun game…” and then start to walk away.

The next day, when I picked her up I asked how her day was. She was beaming because she got several different kids to do things she wanted to do. (proud daddy)

My bride does this with me all the time on difficult decisions (because I have the mentality of a preschool kid). It drives me nuts because I know what she’s doing. She prefaces her requests with, “I know you won’t want to…” and then asks me to go to the opera or some other horrible thing.

Even though I know what she’s doing, because of the form of the request, I have to listen to make sure I don’t have a knee jerk reaction.

You get the point?

Now, remember to use this with care.

If the person isn’t resistant to the idea, using this could backfire and actually cause resistance. I’m sure you’ve been in a situation where this backfired so I’m not going to go into it much more. Use with care.

7. Direct The Resistance Where It’s Useful

This is one of my favorite techniques. Ever.

If you’re on social media sites, like Twitter or Google+, you may have seen this from certain social media personalities. It’s a great way to build expertise and following without creating resistance.

Since we all have a need to resist at some level, instead of waiting for the customer to tell you his objections, tell him what he should be reacting against. Sounds complicated, right?

How the social media gurus use it is by pointing out what everyone is doing wrong. They’ll post something like, “If you +1 your own post on Google+, you’re doing it wrong,” or, “if you’re using direct mail to lists to build leads, you’re doing it wrong.”

While this somewhat implies a solution, all it’s doing is pointing out where you should be angry. Then, when you run across this situation you can say inside, “yeah, social media guru was right, that’s annoying.” He gets to look like the good (smart) guy. Then, since this is true, other things he posts slips by without you questioning his validity or expertise.

Pretty fancy, right?

You may recognize it as version of the good cop/bad cop you see on TV and movies. You’re giving your customer a bad guy to rally against so he will “confess” or trust you, the good guy.

If you don’t have an industry to move people against, like the social media “experts,” you can point to small flaws in your product or service to resist against. You can point out the shipping time is going to be longer than usual. Point out how that’s a problem because your customer wants to get this as soon as possible. It, in a way, distracts from other issues that would’ve arrived and gives the person a place to focus their emotion.

Tell them where to be resistant and it won’t surprise you later.

What’s next?

This wraps up Reactance, the first of three types of buyer resistance. The next post we’ll dive into skepticism and what you can do to eliminate it from your customer’s mind.

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¹ From the book Resistance and Persuasion by Dr. Eric Knowles.
² Cialdini, R. B., & Schroeder, D. (1976). Increasing compliance by legitimizing paltry contributions: When even a penny helps. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 599–604.

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: The 3 Types Of Psychological Resistance That Cause You To Lose Sales

Most marketing and sales training concentrate on ways to make the product and service you’re selling more appealing. They give you ways to build your message up so your customers drool with excitement. However, they don’t address the underlying resistance customers have when approaching their buying decisions.

We all have some sort of resistance when buying. You know the time when you really wanted something but there was that thing inside you that wouldn’t let you buy it. That’s a form of buyer resistance. This resistance is also a major cause of buyer’s remorse and product returns.

When you address the resistance beforehand you can not only help more people buy your product, you will allow them to feel more comfortable during the process. This comfort will stay with your customer and reduce the number of returns, complaints, and make your life easier.

There are three types of resistance.¹ Each has it’s own cause and unique way it stops your customers from buying.

Reactance

Reactance is a resistance to the sales process itself. It’s the little kid inside all of us that says, “No I’m not!” Or, “you can’t make me!” It’s the hostile customer that won’t open up and is afraid of being sold.

One example is marketing online. If you do any marketing online, you’ll find a lot of people complaining about long sales letters. Their natural rant is, “the long online sales letter doesn’t work” and, “I won’t buy anything with a long sales page like that.”

They’re right. It doesn’t work…on them.

If this is you, you have a triggered reactance to that type of sales letter. It’s not that the sales letter itself doesn’t work. It’s that they don’t like the process. The reality is these sales letters work with many people or they wouldn’t continue to be used.

On the other hand, if you want to market to people that react negatively to the long sales letter, you need to address this reactance from the start or build sales letters without the long-form appearance.

One way to address it is using “reverse psychology.” It’s the “you may not want to do this but…” Use this carefully because it could elicit resistance that wasn’t there. However, when it works, it’s one very effective method to address reactance.

Skepticism

Skepticism is what you hear about in most marketing and sales training. It’s your customer who’s suspicious of you, your product, or your company. If you’re selling in person, he always has another question. Your customer is resistant to buy because of his suspicion.

The most common way you’ve probably heard to deal with the skeptic by offering a guarantee. By offering the guarantee you help remove the doubt and fear behind his disbelief. This doesn’t add any benefits to the sales message. It simply lowers the resistance. And, the best part, it doesn’t cost you anything to implement or add to your product.

When addressing skepticism, realize your ideal customer wants to buy what you’re selling. Your customer understands the benefits. More bullet points on your sales letter may help but it’s highly unlikely.

Think of it like this, your customer is standing at a wall, yelling over it to you. He wants to give you money. He is wondering how to climb it to get to you. He doesn’t believe there’s a safe way to get over it though. Once you explain there’s a safe elevator that will take them up and over he will hop on and bring his wallet with him.

Inertia

Inertia is the biggest challenge you’ll face. I call this person “the lump.” He’s simply unresponsive to anything you offer. He doesn’t want to change. It’s nothing against you or your offer. He has a fear of choice or a fear of committing to anything.

When I was in the insurance business, this is what I commonly ran across. Insurance isn’t something people seek enjoyment from buying. They usually have a car, home, life, health, or business insurance policy and don’t have any reason to change. They’ve never had a problem (aka reason to change). They fear changing and losing out if they switch companies.

It’s the same with your customers. He’s resistant out of self-preservation. He has lived his life up to now without your product and survived. Maybe you’ll make their life worse.

Who knows?

One of the best ways to deal with this is to acknowledge the inertia. You can say, “I know you probably don’t want to deal with this issue…” This helps them put it in place and sense that you understand his struggle associated with the decision. You can then continue on with your message.

Your Opportunity!

The most beautiful thing about addressing resistance issues: you can sell more without having to stack any additional benefits or cost. When you’re adding bonuses or throwing in special discounts to increase the attractiveness of your offer you’re spending more and pushing your customer to buy. The resistance is still there. And, it can rear its ugly head later.

Reducing your buyer’s resistance allows you to walk side by side with him. You won’t have to push or pull him in the direction you want him to go. As you move in one direction he’s right there by your side. Both of you happily get where you want to go with little struggle along the path.

This is the first article in my series on resistance. I’ll go into more detail on each of the sides of the resistance triangle. You’ll learn more on how the resistance is created and multiple ways to eliminate or reduce your buyer’s resistance.

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The process to reduce resistance isn’t for everyone. It may not have the sex appeal of flashy headlines and bullet points but it’s important to understand.

And, after you sign up below, you can imagine yourself a couple weeks from now, looking back on this first post as the start of something new and wonderful for your business.

¹ From Resistance and Persuasion by Dr. Eric Knowles. While this is a very good book it is a textbook and very academic. In other words, not an easy read.

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Testing Your Marketing: When Is As Important As What

I was talking with a client about a current mailing they were running. They told me that letter B was converting at a better rates than letter C. When I asked how they ran the test I was baffled at the response. I thought this was common knowledge. Ultimately, it became a lesson in market testing factors.

When you test your marketing piece is just as important as what you test. Here’s what they did in a nutshell.

They took a list of prospects and cut it in half. They sent sales letters to a group A and measured the results. They sent group B a letter with a different headline and tracked the results. This is not bad. It’s a good way to start testing your marketing however, the second group was sent letters one month after the first group received their letters.

The easiest way to test your marketing is to test one variable at a time and measure the results. If headline X pulls better than headline Y then use headline X as your control and continue testing to see if you can beat those results. This process is called split testing and is nothing new to anyone with direct marketing knowledge.

One factor commonly overlooked when performing split testing is time. The split test has to be run at the same time to be considered an effective test. If you send one mailing this week and another mailing four weeks later then you’ve essentially thrown in another testing variable called “time.”

“So, what’s the big deal it’s only a couple of weeks difference?” he asked. Imagine mailing a mortgage marketing piece right before the recent financial meltdown and a month later after all the headlines hit the news. If you’re selling earthquake insurance you’ll see a difference in response from a mailing before and a mailing after the recent Haiti and Chile earthquakes. As you can imagine, awareness in society changes over time and is another piece of the marketing puzzle you need to put in place.

What About Online Marketing?

The same rules apply online. If you’re marketing through email, most email responders allow you to perform split tests. Run tests changing the subject to test open rates. If your email system allows you to run more than two then test two different offers with each headline to test click-through rates too. Make sure it’s the same mailing and you’re not sending one email blast today and one email blast tomorrow. (that’s time and sending a second mailing to the same list, another variable)

What if you’re testing landing pages or opt-in forms? You want to run split tests as people visit the site. Testing one page for 3 weeks and another page for 3 weeks will not give you accurate results. Time can skew your statistics plus your source of visitors could change.

Most email providers offer a form of split testing your emails but, do you use it? If you have a sales page, opt-in form, squeeze page, etc. are you split testing to see what works or are you going by what the gurus tell you works? (I recommend SendPepper for reliable email and landing page split testing and marketing.)

Marketing Is Not A Science

Marketing is not a science but it does require one to step back, analyze the variables and, look at the results. The only scientific rule I know that works every time is test and measure.

What’s your experience?

Photo by Redstamp