WNA #8: Psychology and sticky business
Part II: Clients dives into our relationship with the people who pay our bills. This section is predominantly about communication — and thus about psychology. Several of its chapters are based on the outstanding book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert B. Cialdini.
Communication is a dance we cannot conquer without our partners. It’s not merely about what we do; it’s about anticipating what they do, too — and guiding them.
A short snippet from the book introducing Cialdini’s theories:
These levers [of influence] are especially important when it comes to compliance; situations in which one person is urged to comply with another person’s request. As professional creatives, we constantly seek compliance. We want clients to inquire with us, then we want them to sign a contract, then we want them to green-light our ideas, and finally we want them to approve our creations and pay our bills.
Whether a client approves or rejects our work does not merely depend on the quality of it. Compliance doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s a combination of many factors, but not in the least, it’s a result of which shortcuts we triggered in our clients’ minds.
To be clear: it’s not our aim to trick clients into doing things they don’t want to. However, understanding the underlying mechanisms of how and why people do and don’t comply with our requests will help clarify seemingly arbitrary client behavior. In addition, it can help us to better guide our clients on a subconscious level.
In his book, Dr. Cialdini talks about 7 levers, all of which are fascinating in their own way. In the coming chapters, we will focus on 4 levers that stand out to our practice as professional creatives: Authority, Liking, Social Proof, and Commitment and Consistency. In addition, we will discuss the concepts of Precedent, Opinions, and a strategy called Anchoring.
I particularly love these chapters (totally unbiased) because they take out the guesswork of interpersonal relationships in a business environment. Dr. Cialdini’s theories help us understand why clients behave the way they do. In addition, they provide us with — almost literally — buttons we can push to move our clients in the direction that’s best for them and us.
More on this later. I’m considering reaching out to one or two behavioural psychologists to further help me put this stuff in perspective. Let me know if you know any!
Sticky business
I’ll do a full cover update soon. For now, just know that I’m working on making it… better. Some quick tests from the other day:
“Dude, you didn’t need yellow board or blue tape.”
I know. I could have used any two contrasting colours, or better even, just black tape on a white background. I thought about this — trust me. But I wanted to have a sense of the final result while I worked. It closes the gap between me and the work. I believe, subconsciously, this helps me make “the right decisions” — whatever those might be.