Direct Your Customers' Thoughts

Believe it or not you can guide the thoughts of your customers in a direction that works for you. One of the cheesiest, and most obvious, ways that some organizations like to direct the thoughts of more gullible customers is to list several prices for a product showing how much the product has been discounted. This method does work to a certain extent, and why you really shouldn't will be a post for another day.

You aren't convinced? I wouldn't be either.

So let's do a couple exercises to illustrate how this works. First I need you to get a timer or stopwatch, pen or pencil, and a sheet of paper. No really, no cheating, you need to do this exercise.

OK now that you have done that I want you to set your timer for 20 seconds and take those 20 seconds to write down everything you can think of that is white.

Finally, set your timer for another 20 seconds and write down everything that is white in your refrigerator that is white.

If you did this correctly you probably wrote more things the second time around. That is because instead of having your mind open I was able to direct your thinking in a more productive direction.

The second example is from one of my own experiences. This was in a classroom setting and so I felt confident that it wouldn't affect my career, or my grade. I wouldn't suggest doing this in an actual customer research situation. During a class we were asked to come up with an idea for several new products, and to poll people to find the best one to pitch to the class. However, when it came time to write the survey I was able to word the question in such a way that we were able to come up with a much better response than another team that actually had a very similar idea to ours. All with adding a few words asking the respondents to answer as though they were in the market for something in that product line.

The ways to lead your customers' thoughts in the best direction are varied and really depend on the situation, but with some practice and careful thought you can improve your customer response by guiding their thoughts in a direction that is advantageous for both of you.

Still don't believe me? The next time you go to do pushups or some other form of physical exercise focus on a number that is 50% larger than your last result and see how much better you do. Then leave a comment and tell me how much better you did.