If you want to win customers from your competitors you must break their Status quo bias. We are all affected by it. It means that we quite simply hate change and prefer things to continue as they always have.
Think about it yourself: Where do you sit at the breakfast table? And which route do you take to work? The answer is probably “the same as yesterday.” When things don’t change, we need to spend significantly less mental energy on the task, and we feel secure knowing that our choice works.
If we put this into a marketing perspective, the general conclusion is: If you want to keep existing customers? Do everything you can to lull them into a sense of security so they don’t even bother to consider new alternatives. On the other hand, if you want to win new customers? Shake them up and make them realize that it’s worth the effort to make a new decision.
Breaking status quo bias is a major challenge. What is known to work has many advantages, and the alternative needs to be substantially better. Believe it or not, this also applies to purchasing managers. Switching to a new supplier involves risk – feel free to emphasize the value of this during negotiations.
But how should you think in order to succeed? A classic approach is to let your potential customers make a small and simple decision first, for example, trying the product for free or attending a seminar. If that goes well, a first decision has already been made, and the customer only needs a small nudge to swallow the whole bait.
An example from behavioral theory illustrates this. A residential neighborhood in the United States was divided into two halves. In one half, people went around asking homeowners to put up a sign measuring 1×1 meter on their house with the message “Drive slowly, children at play.” Everyone concluded that they sympathized with the cause but did not intend to put the sign on their house. In the other half of the neighborhood, residents were asked to put a sticker on their car with the same message by their mailbox. 80% percent said yes. The interesting part is that the group with the large sign returned to the houses with the small signs a couple of weeks later and asked if they wanted to put up a larger sign on their house. Suddenly, 50% said yes. The reason is obvious: they had already made the principle decision, and this was simply a logical consequence.
So think about what your “small/simple decision” could be.
We ourselves have tried this technique when we worked with one of the Nordic postal companies that launched a digital postal service. Few people wanted to sign up despite massive campaigns, because there was uncertainty about the value. We suggested that instead of asking the target group to decide whether to join the new service, they should be given the opportunity to reserve their future password based on their full name – in my case, whether I preferred my future password to be:
- ulf.vanselius
- krister.vanselius
- lennart.vanselius
Since I’m never called Krister or Lennart, these were very odd alternatives, and I quickly reserved ulf.vanselius. In that way, I had opened the door and, in principle, already said yes to the service.
And if you want to discuss how to win new customers, you are always welcome to contact ulf@sfinxagency.se
