Use this simple psychology to get people to switch to your product
I put the simple psychology of how to influence people to switch to my new solution/product into a tool called: The Switch Decision Canvas. Here is what you need to know to use it.
When I see a new product, my mind says: I have a solution that works. I lose when I change….
- I lose the time and mental effort I’ve invested in understanding how my current solution works.
- I’m an expert in how my current thing works and I lose my ability to show off my expertise.
- I suffer regret if your new thing doesn’t really work for me in my situation as you claim.
- I don’t know anyone that uses your thing so I have to spend effort to find someone.
- I probably have to spend money that I don’t get back if I don’t like it.
- Fear of failure lurks in the background.
You (Company X) and your marketing machine are pitching me benefits (e.g. gains). It only makes me think you are hiding something that will make my life worse. All new things have some downside. My first thought is not gains….please deal with it.
Here is a shocking idea: Start with acknowledging what I lose. No really, what I will lose and what I think I will lose. I bet you don’t even know what I will lose when switching. You are cursed with too much knowledge of how great your new thing is.
Reading this, you are following the exact pattern. When I say: discuss what I will lose in switching to your solution. Your mind immediately thinks that’s absurd. I would not bring up negatives (losses), when selling something new. I will lose the new customer. It’s not logical.
Ok. Think that way. Then don’t claim you are customer centric. But, the time tested behavioral science research says it is about losses and gains.
Back to me. Over time, maybe I’ll change my thinking. Maybe.
If, after I first hear about your new thing, a friend tells me it’s a great, then I might think a little less about what I give up and get a little more excited about what I could get. Maybe…
An Example
You want an example? Here you go: INRIX Traffic Maps. How many days do I wake up thinking I need a new traffic map? Zero.
INRIX (why is your name shouting at me in CAPS..a flag already) says this:
- “A smarter way to drive” [So I’m driving dumb right now? I’m thinking loss remember.]
- “..take the guesswork out of when to leave and how to get there.” [I’ve lived here for 30 years. I think I know how to get there. This immediately causes me to think of all the losses listed above]
- “By automatically learning a user’s driving habits,….” [Sounds like you are tracking me all the time. Privacy problem. Losses mount. Who is getting this data. What does it do to battery life. Why are you doing that? I could enter my own info.]
This is just the opening paragraph on their marketing. I’ve already stopped considering the solution. They don’t seem to be aware that I am using Google Maps when a situation arises, which is not every day. I am already worried that Google is tracking me and you just implied you are going to track me. No thanks.
That, in a nutshell, is the general mental process people follow when making decisions and specifically, switching solutions for a job-to-be-done.
The solution provider is confusing their need (get new customers and revenue now) with the target customer’s need: reduce the struggle but don’t make the losses greater than the gains.
All the elements outlined above are just subsets of the rational and emotional switching process I described in: Getting Consumers to Switch to Your Solution. The example above includes:
- Prospect Theory
- JTBD Timeline
- Forces Diagram
- Reference point
- Gains: Acquisition Utility, Availability Heuristic, Optimism Bias, Social Influence
- Losses: Status Quo Bias, Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion
From an innovator’s perspective, when a consumer becomes aware of a new solution for a job-to-be-done, the hope is that the benefits will cause the consumer to switch.
Decisions rarely happen this way, as the example above shows.
Rational, emotional and time variables all interact to influence a switching decision. Notable researchers such as Dr. Richard Thaler and Dr. Daniel Kahneman have long argued that only 30% of human decisions and beaviours are actually driven by rational considerations.
But there is hope.
The Switch Decision Canvas
A core part of solution switching is Prospect Theory: an evidence-based theory developed by Dr. Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics and Dr. Amos Tversky. In Getting Consumers to Switch to Your Solution, I wrote:
Prospect theory’s fundamental finding is that people make decisions based on the value of gains and losses from a reference point. And further, people are loss averse. That is, they don’t like losses, a lot. The pain of loss is more than twice the pleasure of the resulting gains in most cases. It’s called loss aversion and it impacts your decision making every single day.
Prospect Theory has stood the test of time. Meaning, many experts have deeply analyzed the theory and found it to still be predictive and explanatory.
I’ve combined much of the information in the Switch article into this new tool: The Switch Decision Canvas. The canvas gives you a simple tool to map out how a consumer would go about thinking about switching to your solution. You can then alter your marketing accordingly. Features and benefits won’t do the trick by themselves…as per the example above.
Let’s walk through the pieces.
- Top → Job-to-be-Done: Identify your job-to-be-done (JTBD) in a situation. Use Alan’s format to structure the job story.
- Middle →Current Solution: The consumer has hired this solution for the job-to-be-done. The strong status quo forces cause the consumer to want to stay with the solution as time goes on (moving to the right).
- New Solution →First Thought: Incorporating the JTBD Timeline (see Switch article), the First Thought is when the consumer initially hears about a new solution to an existing job and wonders about change. The following on boxes, Event 1 and Event2 are further in time when the consumer goes further down the switch path.
- Gains, Losses: Right below First Thought are Gains and Losses. Per Prospect Theory, when faced with a decision, the consumer with evaluate the gains and losses from the current reference point; in this case, the current solution. The pain of losses are more the twice the pleasure of the resulting gains so you see a large box to fill in the losses and a small box to fill in the gains.
- Time: As you move to the right, Event 1 and Event 2 happen. These events can cause the consumer to put more weight on the gains and less weight on the losses. Hence you see smaller loss boxes and larger gain boxes as you move the right.
To better illustrate how to use the Switch Decision Canvas, here is a filled in canvas using the the NewPassCo password manager solution example I described the Switch article.
Walking through this Canvas:
- Job-to-be-Done: This is written in the format of job stories. The consumer wants personalized access to apps. Solutions require some type of authentication such as name and password. Here, NewPassCo is offering a password manager and trying to get a consumer that uses knowledge in their head and Safari passwords to switch.
- Timeline: 1st Thought, Event 1, Event 2. Each of these trigger a new analysis of the gains and losses by the consumer. Ideally, the perceived losses of switching shrink as time goes by and the gains increase. Event 2 is the most impactful: the user got hacked.
- After Event 2: In a typical scenario, the consumer makes a hire/fire decision to switch. Or, the status quo forces remain strong and cause them to keep using the current solution.
- Gain Forces, Loss Forces: These are the typical forces pushing and pulling on the consumer to switch or stay with the current solution. It incorporates elements of the JTBD Timeline. Here, the forces are cognitive forces that have been identified in the behavioral sciences. There are a long list of cognitive biases that affect decision making. As stated, decisions are 30% rational so you to understand the 70% of the emotional part of the decisions. Behavioral science and behavioral economics are well equipped to help.
A Friend Recommendation
A subtle but important point here is the value of a recommendation. If a friend recommends a solution, that goes a really, really long way to reducing the perceived losses when switching solutions. The friend is credible and re-assures the consumer that they won’t really encounter the losses or they won’t be as bad as they seem. This can occur even without words. Just by recommending, the recommendation tells the sub-concious mind that it’s ok to proceed. You won’t fail here. You won’t look bad. You won’t waste your time.
So you know that word of mouth marketing program you were thinking about? It is even more important than you thought.
Get Interview Data
You can obtain insight into the gains and losses by interviewing potential consumers. Find 3 to 5 people in each point in time: 1st thought, event 1, event 2. You can even fill out switch decision canvases for competitive solutions.
Once you have the canvas from interview data, you can then brainstorm how you would approach testing marketing messages that talk to the gains and most importantly, the losses. Try building a few landing pages that are linked to specific ads on Google or Facebook. See what type of click through rates you get vs. alternatives approaches you have used. Also, if you support attribution marketing, you can track your conversions from these test pages to engagement and retention.
It is definitely not conventional to talk about losses when marketing your new solution. But that is how the decision process works in the consumer’s mind. So when working on the gains (benefits) try packaging in the losses and see what results you can achieve.
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Previously I’ve written: Getting Consumers to Switch to Your Solution. The Switch Mountain Hypothesis I described used jobs-to-be-done, the forces diagram, Prospect Theory and cognitive biases to show how people make solution switching decisions. It’s like climbing a mountain with a constant fear of falling balanced against the benefits of getting further up the mountain.
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