Marvels of Mind-Bending

Does your staff push people? You might just find that, in today’s world, people just push right back.

“We think if we give people more information, more reasons, more why-they-should-do-something, they’ll do it,” says Jonah Berger, author of best-selling marketing tome Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

In his latest book, released last month, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind, Berger offers a fresh approach to making change happen. Rather than push (which often raises resistance), find unseen barriers to change, and aim to mitigate them.

“It’s all about figuring out what are the things standing between us and the desired change,” shares Berger.

To learn more about the process, EB checked in with Berger to discuss how eyecare professionals can become catalysts to fully cement the consumer connection. Here, he serves up four truly intelligent tips.

Tip #1 → Harness the Power of Freemium

People love free stuff. Offering a premium-value freebie—not cheap tchotchkes—is “freemium,” a strategy to initiate connections with new customers. Example: File storage provider Dropbox, Pandora music, Candy Crush, and LinkedIn offer free basic-level service with a deliberate upgrade path to paid access.

MAKE THE CONNECTION: “Try to be careful,” says Berger. “You don’t want to give away too much for free.” For The New York Times to offer 50 free articles a month would be too much because no one would migrate to the paid version.

Give away too little and the experience is insufficient for consumers to determine if they like what you have to offer. Freemium is “like an appetizer that draws you in and makes you want more.” Get creative: What nicety can be offered free without harming the bottom line?

Tip #2 → Reduce Uncertainty With Triality

Free is not a fit for all circumstances, but reducing uncertainty—the chief reason humans resist change—helps consumers try something new. Easy to try = likely to buy.

MAKE THE CONNECTION: Lower barriers to trial by removing any type of friction—the time and energy a customer exerts—to reduce uncertainty and make it easier for consumers to experience your offering.

One example: The AOA offered free Lyft rides to/from eye exams for the month of March. ECPs can also benefit by streamlining appointment-making and reducing wait times for less friction and greater convenience.

Tip #3 → Offer a Menu 

Serve up a small number of limited choices rather than just one, like, “You need trifocal contact lenses.” Berger says, “The problem when we push people is that they tend to push back.” 

MAKE THE CONNECTION: “There’s a subtle thing you can do to deactivate that pushback, and it is providing what I call a menu—giving people a ‘guided choice,’” he says.

Making their own choices gives people a sense of freedom and autonomy. “It can be as simple as giving two options,” explains Berger. “Rather than say, ‘Want to go for Chinese food?’ instead say, ‘Either Chinese or Mexican would be good.’ This puts them in a very different mindset that is more receptive to your suggestion.”

Tip #4 → Ask, Don’t Tell

An academic test prep instructor wanted students to study more but rather than tell them that, he instead asked, “Why are you here?” As the line of inquiry led to high test scores needed to get accepted to the best schools, students arrived at their own conclusion that 30 hours of study weekly is what it would take to be successful.

MAKE THE CONNECTION: Ask questions to guide the journey toward the desired outcome. “We are asking the right questions to help shape what people end up thinking, and what they end up deciding,” says Berger. “If we pick the right questions, we encourage them to put a stake in the ground—what we call, ‘committing to the conclusion.’”

ABOUT JONAH BERGER:

Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the best-selling book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. His new book is The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind (Simon & Schuster, March 2020). An expert on change, social influence, and consumer behavior, he’s consulted for a range of Fortune 500 companies.