So you think you’re a good marketer? A convincing salesperson?
Find an otherwise smart person who smokes and sell them on not smoking.
My dad is still paying for satellite TV. He often sits through commercials while zoning out to repeats.
I told him he could get Netflix and it would be cheaper with no commercials. But he refused to change. He likes having his shows on at certain times. It fits a schedule he’s been used for decades.
The evidence is there. Smoking is a pitiful habit. Satellite TV is a goner. This should be an easy sell.
But it takes more than evidence to get people to change their behavior, especially when you have to get them to change course and admit what they’re doing now isn’t working. It takes persistence, empathy, and – more than ever nowadays – time.
It’s ironic that in the instant information age of the internet it can take so much more time and persistence to change people’s minds. We get information fast, but it also means we get a lot more of it. There’s more to process, more to consider.
Furthermore, consumers don’t simply adjust their behavior based on inputs. If a dog licks an electric fence once, he’ll never do it again. But with behaviors like smoking or ingrained lifestyles, it can take generations. We’re stubborn.
I know quite a few intelligent, informed people who still smoke. But they are getting few and far between. Time and cultural shifts are catching-up with them.
It doesn’t take a great salesperson to convince a kid who put his hand on a hot pan not to do it again. But it does take a great salesperson to change a person’s mind when it requires that they admit they’re wrong.
Does your product or service often require that leads admit they’re wrong and need to change course?
If it does, plan for more than just presenting facts and evidence. You’ll have to key in on an emotional response that will nag at them. Fear, love, desire, triumph.
You know you’re selling them something that will make their lives better. But convincing the lead is another story.
Their story.
My kids wore away at Grandpa and got him to subscribe to Netflix. Recently I saw him perusing the shows, where he found one of his old favorites, Little House on the Prairie.
It dawned on him that he could watch the whole series straight through without sitting through commercials.
Satellite appears to be on its way out.
I wish I could say the same for my friends and their cigarettes.