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Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter
Maintain Your Computer and Use it More Effectively
to Design a Web Site and Make Money on the Web.
~ ~ ~ June 23, 2004 Volume 4 Number 20 ~ ~ ~
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Psychological Tricks in Selling : Part 1
By Stephen Bucaro
In this series of articles, I'm revealing six powerful secret psychological tricks
that you can use to increase the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing.
What if you don't sell anything? Should you ignore this information?
You ARE selling something. Whether you are a Real Estate agent selling multi-million
dollar homes, or a worker trying to sell your boss on the idea that you are a valuable
employee, everybody is selling something. So it would be wise to learn these secret tricks
and use them to achieve your own success.
The secret psychological tricks that I am going to reveal are not really secret. They
have been used by shrewed salesman for millenium. Their existence was revealed back in
1984 by Dr. Robert Cialdini in his book
"Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion". You will recognize these tricks being
used everywhere in advertising today. Now you will be able to put them to use to
enhance your own success.
The first psychological selling trick is "reciprocity". Reciprocity works like this:
you give someone something of value for free. That individual feels an obligation
to return the favor. Reciprocity is a very powerful principle.
To use reciprocity as a marketing tool, you give people something of value for free,
they reciprocate by purchasing your product or service. But you would be surprised
how many advertisers totally blow it. Either they don't understand the concept of
"free", or they don't have total faith in the principle of reciprocity.
For example, consider the offer "get a free camera when you subscribe to our magazine
for two years." That's not free. Or, "free installation with a one year commitment."
That's not free. The customer is paying with an obligation. No sale.
Consider the offer,"receive the latest issue of our magazine absolutely free. No
bill will be sent." If the prospective customer finds the magazine to be of value, they
feel an obligation to subscribe. Or, "one month of free Internet service. No credit
card required." If the Internet service performs well, the prospective customer feels
an obligation to sign up.
The trick is to create something that has high perceived value to a prospective customer,
but costs you little or nothing to produce. Free information is a good example. Here
again many advertisers totally blow it. The free information turns out to be nothing
more than blatant advertising.
Free samples of your product or service is another good example. Again, many businesses
blow it. They either produce a cheaper version of their product to use as free samples,
or they use the free sample campaign as a means to dump reject product.
The largest Internet Service Provider is well known for giving away hundreds of hours
of service for free. No credit card required. The largest cookie company is famous
for giving away free cookies. Reciprocity is a very powerful marketing strategy.
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