Most people tend to think that if you want big results…you need big change! You need to spend big money! But that’s not entirely true!

If you know how to make the RIGHT change, you can still achieve great results even if it may just be a small tweak.

In the last post, I’ve shown that this is possible as I illustrated how we managed to increase the number of views on our video just be implementing a small change (using handwritten font to instruct users).

 

Let me tell you another story illustrating the concept of “small change, big impact”.

This is actually not my story. I read about this in one of Robert Cialdini’s presentations on how to be more persuasive.

If you are wondering, Robert Cialdini is a world-renowned authority in the study of influence. He is also the best-selling author of “The Psychology of Influence”.

The story goes like this.

There is a restaurant that takes advanced booking by phone. And for a while now, the restaurant has been facing a problem - there were many customers calling in to cancel at the last minute.

The thing is that the receptionist was trained to say “Thank you for calling our restaurant. Please call if you want to cancel your reservation” to all the customers making their booking.

Later, a small change was made to this statement. To be more precise, 2 extra words were added.

What was it?

After the change, the receptionist now says, “Thank you for calling our restaurant.

Will you please call if you want to cancel your reservation?”

That’s it. And because of these 2 extra words (“Will you”), there was a 30% reduction in cancellation.

What happened here?

Let me tell you, the restaurant just applied…

…to reverse the trend.

This is because we all like to be consistent. And if someone points out any inconsistency in your behavior or actions, it will cause you to feel highly uncomfortable.

Therefore, when we insert the extra 2 words “will you” into the question, it subconsciously tells the person on the other end, that now he has got to take responsibility.

He made the booking at first. And now he wants to cancel. So the receptionist let him know that if he do so, he is being inconsistent. By using the word “you”, the person is now more aware of this fact.

Amazing isn’t it? The addition of just 2 words!

Can you apply this concept to your website’s sales copy to make it more persuasive? Definitely.

Test it. And you will see the result.

The next time you meet a client, you may want to implement this principle to get the other party to do what you want.

While you may not succeed all the time, it will significantly increase your odds.

In the next part, I will share with you another “weapon of influence” that can yield powerful results with just another small tweak.

All success,

Jag Foo

www.AutomationEdge.org
www.EMoneyMarketing.com