How to get a difficult customer to change their mind

Doing something new is HARD.

And there will always be plenty of people who will tell you that you are mad/bad/insane to even try.

The thing is, getting other people to change their minds is tricky. Or is it….?

So here’s a tip you can use to bend the minds of people round to your way of thinking.

People are stuck in the status quo. Because whatever the state of the world/ their job/their relationship, humans have a strong tendency to stick with what we already have. It’s called a ‘status quo bias’

So if I say –
“You have been left $5000 in stocks in Apple and other tech companies, and you have to keep the $5000 in investments. Do you sell the stocks and buy different ones?”

It FEELS different to
“Your broker called you to say your $5000 portfolio was accidentally liquidated into cash. Do you want to buy the same stocks again exactly, or do you want to review them?”

Why does it feel different?

Because in the first example, you’re giving up your current situation, your status quo, and in the second example, it feels like you’re starting from scratch. In reality, your approach should be the same both times. We ran questions like this last year on hundreds of people. Guess what? 95% of those in cash decided to review everything. And those who got the stocks? Only 40% of them said they would review.

So what do YOU need to do if your customer / friend / partner doesn’t want to budge on an issue? A brain-friendly strategy is to ask them to ‘pretend’ that what you want is reality, and then have them argue for going back to the way things are now. e.g.

“We’ve had this system for years”

should be countered with

“Imagine you are using the new systems and processes and everything is much quicker and all of the staff are more productive. Now make the case for transferring back to the old system”

Now it’s your turn : what’s the objection you’re facing, and how would you frame it as the reverse? Come on, you can't do nothing. That would be the status quo!