One of the beauties of the study of psychology is that it helps us understand what makes people tick, and how you can use that to your advantage. So, before you rush out hiring “professional” sales people or consumer psychology consultants, wait a minute and discover the psychology of selling and how to apply little changes to your business that could make people more inclined to buying from you.
It’s also possible that a few of these consumer psychology tricks may not work for your business because of some other reasons that may be a hindering factor. But test each of these tips one after the other and track your progress. Go all in for the methods that’ll work for you if it produced great results for you consistently for many days.
1. Scarcity sells
When people come to believe that the price of your product would eventually drop in coming weeks, or months, they would be less likely to buy from you. However, when they realize that they could spend more money on that same product when it becomes scarce, it moves them to want to get it as it looks cheaper now, compared to how much it will be.
You could also use that opportunity to leverage loss aversion. A popular study says that people are more averse to losing, than they are willing to gain something. It showed that though the same people would be happy given $100 and will be unhappy given $200 if they had to give back $100.
This is also called FOMO, (Fear of losing out) and you could use that to your advantage. Then, structure your proposal to get people see that they could lose out on an opportunity if they don’t act as swiftly as possible on your opportunity.
2. Apply the middle effect
You may have different products you’d want to sell to a client. The law of middle effect says that when people are given three products to choose with prices going from small to the biggest on the products, people would be more inclined buying the product that has the “middle” price.
This technique would work best when you display two products to a customer and they have difficulty in making a choice. More often, the customer would be more inclined to buy the cheaper product than the more expensive one. But including a third product that is more expensive and has better features than the two could make your customer opt in for the product having the middle price instead.
3. Apply the left-digit effect
You must have seen this in a lot of stores, e.g, Buy XYZ for just $9.99!
See that 99 cents? That’s the left-digit effect. It is a great psychology trick that works every time and would work for you too. The interesting thing about the left-digit effect has more to do with ranges than pricing.
Having your product for $9.99, rather than $10 would make it look like your product is in the 0-9 range and not the 10-20. And the only difference is a mere $0.01. This method is great because makes people perceive your product to be more affordable.
4. Master the art of storytelling
Stories have a great way of building rapport with a client. One way to use storytelling to get people buy from you is to share a relatable customer success story to your customer.
This effect is great because it not only makes them connect better with your products and/or business, but also makes your product appear more valuable.
5. Social Proof
A lot of people do things just because other people are doing them. When you show your clients just how your product is accepted by a large number of people, it automatically boosts the value of your product.
They come to accept your product specifically based on the fact that other people have already justified the product by making it their number one choice, so, there is no need trying to be careful in making the wrong choice on that product. But be careful on this one though. You don’t want to come across as phony if you are selling directly to a customer. And ranting on and on about how people are buying your product. Instead, show the client, and tell less.
6. Leverage reciprocity
A great way to get clients to buy from you is to offer up something for free. When people get something for free, they would more likely feel “indebted” to you. It makes them feel valuable and important to you. People want to have that feeling that they matter, and are also very important, and that could get them do repay that kindness with a buy.
Another way to get people buy from you is to leverage Influencers, or authority. An experiment was conducted after World War II called ‘The Milgram Experiment’. The purpose of the experiment was to see if normal, everyday people could hurt others physically when an authority figure instructed them to.
A shocking 70% were willing to administer electric shocks to other people simply because they were instructed to do that by an authority figure.
You could build authority in your market by showcasing your knowledge and expertise. Speaking at conferences and seminars, writing books, and simply teaching what you know.