What happens when you develop anchoring and priming techniques?

Persuasion – influencing someone to believe or do something that you want them to do; convincing someone to say yes.

Pre-suasion – guiding people so that they are receptive to your message before they see or hear it.

Pre-suading focuses on when to influence.

Pre-suading is about attention and association – your customer’s attention when it comes to associating with your offer.

Pre-suading is about the time BEFORE you present your idea or offer.

Successful pre-suading is built around the ideas of anchoring and priming.

Anchoring refers to a perception bias when a decision is being made. People rely heavily on the first piece on information they are given – the anchor.

For example, when it comes to pricing, do you ever try and convince your customer that your price is fair AFTER you have revealed it? Instead, why not ‘set the scene’ with a large number at the beginning. This makes the eventual price you discuss and agree on feel less steep by comparison.

This is pre-suasion at work – the number you share BEFORE you show your price to your customers has a huge impact on how they perceive your price.

Steve Jobs used this anchoring technique to fantastic effect when launching the Apple iPad in 2010.

Priming refers to how our attention and responses are affected by what we are exposed to. For instance, German music played in a wine shop raises the sales of German wine, and French music sells more French wine.

If a furniture shop’s website landing page has pictures of clouds, it moves customers towards buying softer, more comfortable furniture. A landing page with pictures of coins usually results in a preference for cheaper furniture.

How can you use the concepts of anchoring and priming in your business to persuade a customer to choose you over the competition?