Posted by Do you know all the psychological tricks that marketing and salespeople use to manipulate you into buying their products? We’ve all been on the receiving end of persuasive tactics, but did you know that savvy marketers often use specific psychological techniques to get us to part with our cash?
If you’re aware of these methods, it can arm you with enough knowledge not to fall victim to them, so this week I want to talk about some of those psychological tricks, explore why they work and what we can do to protect ourselves from potential manipulation.
Why is this important?
I think it’s important to help you identify and strengthen your awareness of this because, particularly if you’re starting out in the industry, these are traps that you can easily fall into. There are countless people out there who may not consider themselves scammers, but to some degree that’s exactly what they are.
Now, I don’t want to entirely knock the selling of online programs – obviously I have my own courses available! If a mentor or a coach is good at their job, I think that’s a great investment for you to make. I often talk about the importance of having a mentor or somebody in your corner, as it can really boost your learning and understanding of a particular area.
But what I do object to are psychological tricks and techniques that are used to push your buttons and manipulate you into buying. How many of these have you fallen for before now?
Priming the audience
If a seller doesn’t know you or had a chance to build rapport with you, they’re at a distinct disadvantage. On the whole, we tend to buy from people that we know, like and trust, so when someone is selling to a stranger, they have to find a way to bypass the fact that you don’t know them, you don’t necessarily like them and you have no reason whatsoever to trust them yet.
That’s a massive hurdle to a sale. When you trust the seller, there are almost no barriers: you’re happy to buy from them because you know they have your best interests at heart. It’s not so tough to part with your money because you know you’re going to get value; with somebody you don’t know, you have to find a shortcut in that “know, like and trust” process.
Have you ever found yourself at an online conference waiting for a speaker? Everyone is encouraged to engage positively in the chat to break down the barriers: “Who wants to make some money today? Write in the chat if you do!” Of course, everyone responds positively – it’s why they’re there in the first place.
That’s called priming, which does two things: firstly, it hypes you up so you’re more likely to say yes to the sale, and secondly, when you see lots of other people saying the same thing, it gives you a kind of social proof that if you don’t buy, you’re going to get left out.
Try and keep a level head if someone’s trying to hype you up – really take time to evaluate if you’re really going to benefit – and whatever you do, don’t fall victim to FOMO!
Building authority
Building authority (otherwise known as niche authority) is where a seller tries to impress you by outlining all their accomplishments and success. It’s important because it establishes they may be a very worthy mentor for you to learn from. It shows you a positive outcome, but it doesn’t connect you with them emotionally yet because you might see them as being above your level.
So, what they do in order to create that connection is go into their backstory to make themselves more relatable. You’ll get the whole “When I started out, I grew up in poverty/ didn’t have a clue how to start my journey into real estate/ didn’t know where to start investing in the stock market. I was so broke, I couldn’t afford anything/ was really struggling/ wanted to get my family out of this situation.”.
These statements may be true, but they’re designed to put your words into the seller’s mouth. And by expressing the emotions you may be currently feeling, it creates connection and trust: the seller has been in your shoes and they’ve been through the journey that you are going to be embarking on, and so therefore, they’re a good person to learn from.
Whilst there may be elements of truth in these backstories, you should probably take them with a pinch of salt, as they’ll have been twisted to sound better for an audience.
Breadcrumbing value
In a sales presentation, a substantial amount of time is often spent showing you some interesting strategies, techniques and advice – anything that you’re going to find helpful and/or useful.
They’re usually really effective strategies, designed to draw you in and make you want to learn more – the trick is then that the seller tells you that they’ve given you (for example) just a few tips, when they have dozens more available to share, when you buy into what they’re selling.
It’s showing you just some of the value and letting you know that there’s an awful lot more where that came from. Again, take the time to evaluate if there’s anything in the ‘paid for’ offerings that’s really going to help you, preferably before you part with your cash.
Testimonials
Social proof is a really important psychological part of marketing and sales. People look around them for proof that they’re making a good choice. So, when you see customer testimonials from people who bought the product and had great results, you may start to think “oh, that could be me.”
A lot of testimonials are genuine, which is great, but how can you tell which testimonials are real, and which are completely made up?
There are plenty of scammers out there who will fake them. But even the ones that are completely genuine are designed with the sole aim of making you buy the seller’s product: social proof to knock down those hurdles to the sale.
Look at independent review sites to really get a good measure of the salesperson and their business – obviously no one is going to put a negative review on their own website – so look at something like Trustpilot to see what experiences other people might have had.
The offer
This is where the seller presents the core product and generally follows a pattern.
The seller summarises everything you can get (priming you again), and tells you the ‘normal’ price, which is usually far higher than anything you’d want to pay. Then they give you a ‘special’ price (like a deal for event attendees), which is a massive drop, and more affordable, which will pique your interest. Then you’re going to get the bonus offers – maybe it’s event tickets, maybe it’s a bonus course, maybe it’s a free mentoring call with the seller.
This is where they start to introduce scarcity and urgency: they’ll recap the value, show you what a great deal it is, but then tell you that it’s only available for (eg) the first 20 buyers. Scarcity is absolutely essential in this kind of selling because it makes you decide right there on the spot that you have to buy: any delay at all is going to make you lose this potential offer, which eliminates any hesitation. But remember – a lot of the time the scarcity is fabricated.
‘One-off’ offers are rarely just that – there will always be more offers down the line, so don’t be tempted to make a snap decision purely because you’re caught up in the moment.
Tread carefully out there. Again, I don’t want to be a hypocrite – obviously I have programs and products to sell, but I’m absolutely confident that you’ll get so much value for money from anything that you’ve bought from me that the only comments you’ll find online nothing but positive!