Make it Easy
At every one of our Skyrocket retreats, our director of ops brings a box of microwave popcorn. Of all my favorite snacks, piping hot, soaked-in-butter microwave popcorn is my absolute favorite. However, not once have I made even one bag of popcorn. No one has.
That’s because the microwave is at the other end of the building. Granted, it’s only about 100 feet, but still, it’s more of a commitment than I’m willing to make for a bag of popcorn. I imagine others feels the same.
In their book, Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath talk about the importance of “Shrinking the Path” for people you’re trying to convince to do something. That making things easier for others (or having them think what you’re asking is easier) is a key to getting them to change their behavior.
They share the following example to illustrate this point.
At a certain car dealership, whenever anyone bought a car, they gave them a card for a local car wash. The card had eight spaces that were to be punched by the car wash after each wash. One per wash. After the eighth was punched, the ninth car wash was free. Then, they did another test for a different group. After these folks bought cars, they gave each a card too. Except these cards had ten spaces on them, so the 11th wash would be free. However, two spaces were already punched. A perceived bonus for buying the car and using that car wash.
In both cases, drivers needed eight washes to receive the next for free. However, the drivers with the cards that already had two punched redeemed their free wash at vastly higher rates than those who received the blank card.
Both needed eight washes for a free one. But the people who perceived achieving that as easier as they felt they were part way to their goal, succeeded much more often.
I receive two dozen messages a day from people trying to sell me things. I try not to see these as annoying, as I know everyone is just trying to make a living. When it’s clear they have no idea what I do and are blindly emailing or messaging me on LinkedIn (Dear Business Owner), I delete their messages right away. When they’re personalized, I read them. Even though I almost always delete them in this case too.
Last week, someone reached out to me on LinkedIn. He’d just listened to a webinar I was on and could speak specifically to some of my responses. He, like many others, was selling something. Something I’m not interested in, but when he asked to connect to tell me more, because of his personalized emails, I agreed to a call. At which point he sent me his email and asked that I set up a time and then email him an invite and Zoom link.
Just like that microwave popcorn that’ll never get made, I’ll never have a call with that guy. He made it too hard. For things that matter, all of us would climb Mt. Everest. For a call with someone I don’t know or to make a snack, it needs to be much easier for it to happen. Remember that as you’re trying to change other people’s behavior.
