BUSINESS MATTERS Know your customers?


New research recently published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology suggests that even though we claim to be good at predicting the likes and dislikes of others we are, in fact, anything but good. Surprisingly, the longer we know someone the worse our predictions actually might get. One set of studies required people to rate on a scale of one (don’t like it at all) to four (like it very much) 118 different items and at the same time predict how a person they were in a relationship with would rate the same items. Some people were asked to predict the preferences of people they had known for a short time and others those they had known for much longer. The four point scale was an important part of the study because it meant that a complete stranger could be expected to get at least 25 per cent of their predictions correct just by chance.


Steve Martin


So you think you really know those long standing clients and colleagues? Think again says Steve Martin, co- author of the New York Times best seller ‘Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion’.


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36 COMMS DEALER JANUARY 2012


ersuading others can be a tricky business requiring us to not only think through our approach carefully but


also make sure that the person or the organisation we are attempting to persuade actually need or will be interested in what we are proposing. This can be especially challenging in the early stages of relationships when we know relatively little about our influence target. Fortunately, most of us have long standing relationships with clients and colleagues. And surely one of the major benefits of having regular contact with people over an extended time is that it is generally easier to predict their needs and preferences and as a result construct more effective persuasion strategies. As it turns out, perhaps not.


Unpredictable results Fortunately, everyone was able to better predict the likes and dislikes of someone they knew more than a complete stranger. But not that much better. Those asked to predict the preferences of people they had known for a short time were accurate 42 per cent of the time, but those who had known a person much longer were accurate only 36 per cent of the time. Perhaps the most telling result was how little awareness people had over how well they actually knew people. Both groups estimated that their predictions would be at least 60 per cent accurate.


There are number of reasons why a longer standing relationship could lead to a reduced understanding of another’s likes and dislikes. Firstly, the majority of understanding and learning occurs in the early stages of relationships when the motivation to get to know someone is high. Secondly, people in long standing relationships often consider themselves as more committed to each other and as a result may think that they know each other better than is actually the case. As a result, they are less likely to notice changes in attitudes and preferences


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when they occur. In some instances people may even be tempted to tell ‘white lies’ to protect a relationship which can further dilute our knowledge of others over time.


So given that older doesn’t necessarily mean wiser, having processes in place to ensure a continuous and honest exchange of likes and preferences, especially with long standing customers, will increasingly become an important pre-persuasion activity.


Find out how persuasive you are by taking the free test at: www.influenceatwork.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Steve Martin is the New York Times best selling author, business columnist, speaker and Managing Director of Influence at Work UK. He is co-author of the international best seller ‘Yes! 50 Secrets From the Science of Persuasion’, a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller. Yes! was nominated for the 2008 Royal Society annual prize for science writing and in 2009 the Harvard Business Review listed the book on its prestigious ‘Breakthrough Ideas for Business’ list. To date Yes! has sold almost 400,000 copies and has been translated into 25 languages.


Steve regularly features in the media and the national press. His popular business columns appear in magazines and online all over the world. As well as his monthly ‘Persuasion’ column in the British Airways in flight magazine he is a regular columnist for the Harvard Business Review blog and a staff writer for Inside Influence and the Institute of Leadership & Management. His columns are read by over 1.8 million people every month, and he will be providing Comms Dealer readers with information and advice on the science of influence and persuasion and its application.


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