One of the goals we’ve had for a long time – and one that its been alternately fun and tough to see Will actually push towards – is the idea of having an idea on Sunday, and delivering a fully featured version by Friday. We’ve been doing this on a small scale for some time, [...]

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People tend learn efficiently by “feel”. Here is an activity/experiment meant to teach the idea of efficiency in a way one can feel. I used to use it with my Tae Kwon Do students to explain the importance of technique. Take a piece of paper and a pencil with an eraser on one end. Try [...]

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The smallest commitment from someone can significantly increase their likelihood of eventually buying . Lots of research on it…some scary research even… Read the rest of this entry

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Robert Cialidini found so much research pointing to this conclusion that he devoted an entire chapter to it in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The bottom line: Whatever action you want to someone to take, whether it be to buy, or vote, or to sign a petition, your chances of success are significantly better if [...]

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Want more bang from your ad dollars? Turn your product into the advertisement. In Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, Seth Godin makes the case that traditional advertising has reached the point of diminishing returns. He points out that most of your customer’s big needs are already being met. So if you want [...]

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Show potential customers images and examples of people like them, using and benefiting from your product. Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion presents a mountain of evidence showing how powerful the idea of “social proof” is and demonstrating how it works. Show potential customers images and examples of people like them, [...]

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The smallest commitment from someone can significantly increase their likelihood of eventually buying . Lots of research on it…some scary research even… The smallest commitment from someone can significantly increase their likelihood of eventually buying . This is Robert Cialdini’s conclusion from years of research on the subject and is featured in Influence: The Psychology [...]

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Your odds of making a sale increase if you lead with the most expensive option, and follow up with the more “reasonable” option. Tons of research… Here is “One Good Idea” from the chapter on reciprocity in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion ) by Robert Cialdini: Your odds of making a sale increase if you [...]

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Discern which of your customers will pay more for your products, and you can increase your profits: Tim Harford observes how this works and identifies three strategies for doing it in his book The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor—and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!. [...]

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To win mainstream users with a new product, try to concentrate your first efforts on a segment you can dominate. In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore writes about how to take a product from early successes with customers who want the “next big thing” to more practical “mainstream” customers. To win mainstream users with [...]

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