It’s difficult to not see HUGE amounts of money and resources all around you…and all you have to do is ask for it…and sometimes they’ll ask you if you want it…and hope like mad you’ll take it!
From a Coffee with Kevin Hogan Reader last year:
(Discussion follows the letter so you can see the piles of gold laying around YOU.)
Dear Kevin,
I want to share with you a recent experience with a client of mine:
I offered the client the following two options (verbally and in writing) to complete a project:
Option A: Project costs 2100 pounds ($4000) and he gets 800 back through a government grant for which it qualifies. The final cost to the customer is 1300 pounds. If the customer wants, he can pay 2000 up front and he will qualify for a 5% discount reducing his final cost to 1200 ($2300). (100 pounds is the grant application fee)
**Customer would pay about $2300 and fills out a short five minute form.Option B: The same project as above costs 1600 pounds, but there is no money back from the government. As in Option A if all the money is paid up front he gets a 5% discount reducing his final cost to 1520 ($2800) pounds.
To my surprise the customer chose Option B with the discount even though he only had to fill a form to get the government grant (form would take 2 minutes to fill) and all the bureaucracy would have been taken care of by me (hence the 500 pounds difference in price).
**Customer preferred to pay $2800 and not fill out the 5 minute form!After reading your book I have an insight to the possible reasons the customer chose Option B even though Option A is the most ‘logical’ and everyone I’ve asked later said the customer would have chosen the A option.
There is one more detail to add. When I asked the customer as to why he has chosen option B he said that the difference between the two was not big enough to justify choosing Option A.
This does not make any sense to me at all since he is giving away free money, which is a big proportion of the total sale!
Best Regards,
Polyvios Gregoriades
Polyvios and Coffee Readers,
There is so much behind the story you tell that affects every Coffee reader that we can’t appreciate enough that you have written!
Observe:
There are a couple of things at work here. One level in persuasion; and another on the very strange and disappointing fashion governments and major corporations do business.
Fact is they are praying to give you a LOT of money….
Just Ask, Honey
First, the person obviously doesn’t care about 500 pounds of his company’s money.
Why?
It’s not his money.
But it is his five minutes in paperwork.
And his superiors don’t know anything about the grant!
Spending corporate or government dollars is actually necessary for a department to receive the same funding next year from the absolutely brain-dead budget people that create departmental funding each year.
Here’s how it works: Whatever they got last year, they will get this year. BUT they ONLY get the money IF it is spent the prior year!
If money is saved or a department is operated efficiently, it will receive the budget that it got this year and when it comes to office furniture, picnics, parties, …you get the idea… it won’t be there.
What companies? What governments?
About 85% of all corporations with more than 100 employees and 99.7% of all city, county, state and federal governmental bodies in the United States.
Those of you who run your own small business must have your jaw on the table!
This is one reason big companies and governments are dying. It is absolutely necessary to literally throw money away, especially at the end of the fiscal year, in order to “get budget” for next year.
The great scam works like this.
Divisions and departments in big companies and government must spend their budget. They fought tooth and nail to get money for x, y and z in their budget. Sometimes they could get $100,000 for furniture but only a $2,000 increase in salary. Welcome to government and big business.
Now, the deal is that at the planning meetings for the next fiscal year, budgets aren’t questioned they are simply met, unless the division/department is asking for MORE.
An example from my world: A lot of times a department will have money to hire a speaker but nothing for educational materials or vice versa…or maybe they have 15,000 left in training and they need to spend it all!!
Now, part of being creative is figuring out HOW to FRAME what YOU DO into the various line items in the budgets.
I know this all sounds ridiculous but it’s how the world works.
Who would want to fill out a five minute form when, if they did, filling out that form would cause them to lose some of their budgeting for next year?
No one in Corporate America.
That’s why money gets spent wisely or just blown on everything from parties to consultants, dinners to entertainers, furniture to flowers.
But there is more…less inisidious yet something you need to know…
Convenience vs. Cost – The Meta Filter
The person probably has a “Convenience” meta-program filter instead of a “Cost” meta-program filter. This severe of a meta-program aberration is seen only in about 1% of people. $500 or 500 pounds, for 5 minutes of work is not likely to go left on the table when it comes to their own PERSONAL money.
From a salesperson’s perspective, it reminds me what Dottie Walters said to me one day: “Just ask honey.”
You never know when they have to blow their money to have their coffers filled up…and you aren’t taking advantage. They are desperate to spend it!
Think this: They MUST give their business to SOMEONE. Why not let it be you?!
Now, from the strict perspective of influence, realize that the above is ONLY ONE common cultural scenario that causes a “Cost/Convenience” metaprogram.
Some people simply will do ANYTHING for convenience irrespective of cost.
Think about it….next time…you wonder if you should ASK for the order or their business.
There is SO much money out there. So many people waiting to say “YES!” All one has to do is ask!
Thanks for writing!!!
“The Power of persuasion transforms from art to science.” Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.
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