Powerful MENTAL TRIGGERS
What is it that makes people take an interest, buy a product, sign an agreement, support a cause?
What is it that actually motivates people to make a decision?
COFFEE! I have to admit it, I am a coffee addict.
Yesterday, after paying for my coffee to the cashier at Starbucks I was sent to the barista, who I have seen before a few times. The barista asked me “would you like 3 or 4 espresso shots with your Caramel Macchiato?”. I was stunned, not only he remembered my name, and connected it with my face… but also offered me a FREE extra espresso shot, and EVERYONE heard it.
“Sweeet! I gotta leave this dude a review – people always leave reviews when something terrible happens” I said to myself, as I sipped the juicy drink of life, and pulled out my phone to write.
Whether the barista understands what he just did to me and my selfish ego, or not, I decided to explore this phenomenon a bit more on my own.
As I got back home I did some research, as a businessman and social media account owner, I need to know everything about selling, and persuasion.
..and the results were quite interesting, as there are 7 obscenely powerful triggers that will make people want to throw their money at you:
- Authority
- Reciprocity
- Trust
- Anticipation
- Scarcity
- Social proof
- Likeability
Imagine two scenarios:
- Your annoying sister walks into your room, and tells you that you need to buy an air-freshener because it stinks in your room
- A dude from your high school that had 7 girlfriends at the same time, walks into your room and goes “dude, this book will get you laid before you’re done reading the first chapter”. Throws the book at you, and leaves.
Whenever we see a man wearing a policeman suit, we think of authority.
Whenever we see a man wearing a white coat at a hospital, we think of a doctor with a PhD degree.
As a matter of fact, I remember that one time when I was stuck in a traffic with my boys. We were driving my friend’s dad’s car that had a police siren inside. At some point, he pulled it out and a strong noise came out. Surprisingly, everyone made space for us.
Why not give yourself a title, make yourself appear as an authority or an expert at some topic you know more than an average person.. and have people 1 step closer to willingly buy your products?
2. Reciprocity
Ahh, yes – the reason why I actually took 5 minutes out of my busy schedule, to write a thank you review for my barista at Starbucks.
Reciprocity is the very basis from which humans were able to create commerce and trade. For trade to occur, there has to be some amount of trust when we give a product or service to someone, they will complete the trade by “holding up their end” of the agreement
– Launch – written by Jeff Walker, Product Launch Formula
This pretty much means one thing:
In fact, give out even more than you know; let them know you care, bless them, they will love it. And most importantly, they will feel important, and be much more willing to return you a favor. It’s a human thing.
3. Trust
If someone trusts you, they will ( within possibilities ) listen to your instructions. Let’s take a look at dating, women will not spend much time on a guy they do not trust. Women are fragile creatures. Be a “fuckboy”, someone not trustworthy, and you are automatically a red flag. Unless you have godly looks, they will not risk their reputation for you.
But once you have a woman’s trust – she will follow you till the end of the world. Anyone would follow you there, as long as they can, they want to, and you are a trustworthy person.
Keep in mind: Not even trust will help you, if you have do not have what the other person wants.
At the same time, it takes a tremendous amount of time to build trust. The shift from MySpace to Facebook took a long amount of time, “why would I switch if I like this place already?” was my first thought.
Then I gave it a try, and eventually I became addicted.
4. Anticipation
Have you ever rolled in bed trying to fall asleep, while being excited for something BIG to happen!?
If so, you know how powerful anticipation can be. It could be additionally used as a great marketing technique to break through the fog, and get new possible customers.
Elliot Hulse used Instagram and anticipation to release his book. And I have to say ” IT FUC**** WORKED BETTER THAN THE BEST!!!”
As he was revealing small little things about the book’s content, and counted down the days till release he was gaining thousands of new followers each day. It was crazy, his account went from a bit over 60k to a whooping 107k followers in a matter of days!!!!
Perfect method for a product launch!
5. Scarcity
A few days ago, my grandpa’s sister, who lived in Eastern Europe, had died. He was forced to order plane tickets from NYC to Warsaw, Poland to see her for the last time [*]. While usually the tickets cost about $1,000 for both ways – the funeral was supposed to be within the next 2 days.
We paid over $2,000 to help him get there.
While many people overlook this technique, there are some people out there willing to pay tremendous amounts of cash for an answer you have.
A large amount of online coaches offer special classes for only 10 people, allowing them to charge more.
I have no clue who this is, but his stuff sure does work – it was the first thing on google images.
I could imagine struggling body builders looking for extra help before their upcoming competition – I would definitely pay a good amount of money to have him personally train me.
6. Social proof
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and not knowingly what to order you said ” let me get the same thing as he did “.
The idea behind social proof is that if we see someone else taking action, then we will be inclined to take that action as well.
The reason behind Amazon’s success is their review system. While eBay focused on SELLER reviews, Amazon completely ignored that area. They assumed that their sellers were honest, and in case of any issues they returned the money.
Instead, Amazon focused on the quality of their products.
Fast forward a few years, now it’s the biggest online marketplace in the world.
7. Likeability
You are very familiar with this mental trigger. The more you like someone, the more you are willing to give them a bit of your time to listen to their ideas.
People generally like to do business with other people more than with a large faceless corporation.
Just take a look at social media’s. No one is clicking on ads anymore, people follow and get in touch with other real people that are sharing a piece of their life with their audience.
Not only it gives credibility to the audience, but they can also see the pros and cons. At the same time the comment section can be used as a tool for reviews.
Barely anyone calls a radio station, or a TV ad to buy from them – they have a fake appearance to us. Well, unless they are in trouble and scarcity forces them to make the phone call.
Boost the power of the triggers, combine them!
- mix authority and social proof – you get trust that is so hard to achieve
- combine anticipation with scarcity – and I am afraid of the results you will obtain
Now go, make yourself proud & remember these 7 tricks – they will help you go far. The sky is the limit!
Want more?
There’s no better book on Influence & Persuasion
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Hope I helped you today! Feel free to drop a comment and let me know what you think!
More on my blog SuccessfulandClassy
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