In his ChannelCon 2015 keynote, noted author Adam Alter encouraged the audience to focus more of their time and attention externally to grow their business opportunities. He started out noting the premise of his New York Times best-selling book Drunk Tank Pink, which referred to the calming powers of that particular color on human emotion and behaviors. The University of Iowa football program painted its visitors’ locker room based on that principle, which its coaches claimed worked incredibly well at sapping the energy from the other team.
Alter noted that environment and context are important factors in developing successful, long-term business relationships. That was emphasized throughout his presentation, detailing three paths that can help businesses better understand and connect with their customers. Those points include:
Convey your value more effectively
According to Alter, the single most important thing businesses can do is to convey things quickly. There is a high correlation between what happens in the first three seconds you meet someone and the perception of that individual has of you long-term. For example, the ratings of a college professor at the end of a semester are very similar to those the students form in the first few minutes of the first class.
Perception is everything today, so the feeling you project in an introduction can have a long-lasting affect. “You can classify everyone you meet into one of four quadrants based on warmth and competency,” points out Alter. That includes the evil genius, doddering fool, dislikeable and incapable individual and the likeable and capable person.
People also associate with familiarity. He shared how a fundraiser request sent out to individuals with names similar to the person who would benefit from the donation are more successful than broader appeals. In the example Alter shared, it was actually eight times more effective. Name and other personal associations inspire the warmth side, getting those who don’t respond to other methods to take action.
Convey product value
Alter stressed that context truly matters. Using an artist’s work as an example, he showed how color and texture improve perception and the user experience, which drives value. Business owners can create context by anchoring, which establishes a baseline for the price, quality or other factors. For example, if you show a consumer a high numbered football jersey or bingo chip, they will be more willing to pay more if the number they were shown originally is higher. It may not seem to make much sense, but apparently these anchors throw off a consumer’s perception.
If you break down the value into digestible numbers and components, it establishes a base to work from. Concreteness of value is important to clients, so give “pennies per day” comparisons and never speak about long-term costs unless your offerings are considerably less expensive than those of the competition. Make them feel like the solution is affordable, using methods such as:
- The cost of running this green mainframe for a day is the same as [for example, buying one cup of coffee from Starbucks].
- Superior customer service: “This customer service plan pays for itself; trouble-shoots problems before they grow; costs as much as [powering three light bulbs a day].”
Alter also suggests not using round numbers since they make it sound like you plucked them out of thin air. It also makes it harder to discount.
Reduce Complexity
When you have too many options, it confuses the discussion and potential customers. Alter recommends paring down the choices or putting them into categories that make it easier for clients to make an informed decision.
The old “good, better, best” categories Sears used to use worked fairly well, differentiating the pricing and value for consumers. It’s all about setting the proper expectations. Just be sure to take time and figure out what your organization is doing to connect contextually with your clients.
Brian Sherman is Chief Content Officer at GetChanneled, a channel business development and marketing firm. He served previously as chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and senior director of industry alliances with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@getchanneled.com.
