Why?
Monday, June 30th, 2008As a kid I’m sure I used to annoy the heck out of my parents and teachers by continually asking ‘why’? I was always deeply inquisitive, and would never take no for an answer. I HAD to have a reason for things.
Studies have shown that giving a reason makes a huge difference in all kinds of situations.
You may have heard of the famous photocopier study by a Harvard psychologist. Forgive me if I mess up the exact details, but the gist of it goes like this… the study was setup so that a person who was waiting to use a photocopier went to the front of the line and said “May I use the copy machine?” About 60% of the time they were allowed to do so. However, when the same person approached and said, “Can I use the photocopier because I’m in a rush” they were allowed to do so 95% of the time. The other individuals standing in line apparently had no problem with the request because a reason was given.
The really interesting thing about the study came about when the person tried the same test a third time. This time, instead of giving a reason that made sense, they simply said, “Can I use the photocopier because I need to make some copies?” In other words, no real reason of any substance was given, BUT the word ‘because’ was included in the sentence. Guess what? The result was the same. The person using the copier still happily gave up their place - simply because it sounded like a ‘reason’ had been given.
A fascinating study in human behavior I’m sure you’ll agree. What’s the implication for our eBay business? Simply, you MUST give a reason for every item you sell. Why? Because it makes a huge difference in the mind of the prospective buyer.
In creating listing descriptions we naturally tend to ‘hype’ the item and make it sound very desirable. That’s fine, but one of the results of doing that is that there’s a psychology that goes on in the buyers mind – they say to themselves ‘why is this person selling this item if it’s so good?’ Valid question isn’t it? Can you see why it’s so important to give a reason why? And as you’ve seen, it doesn’t really matter what the reason is, as long as it’s believable. I’m not suggesting that you lie, but simply that you choose your reason carefully.
“You MUST use ‘Reason Why’ in your eBay Listings”
As an example, I recently sold a camera on eBay for a friend of mine. The truth was that he wanted to upgrade to a newer model when that came out, but rather than alerting buyers to the fact that this model was soon to be superseded, he told buyers that he was selling the camera because he hadn’t had time to use it, which was also true. I’m confident in saying that that latter ‘reason why’ was much better received. Is all this somewhat manipulative? Yes, it is. Selling is manipulative. It’s all about persuading people to take an action you want them to take rather than leaving things to chance or letting others have more influence over your prospective customers. As long as you’re being honest and up front you have nothing to worry about. What we’re doing is mastering the art of using words that sell. In this example, the word ‘because’ makes a tremendous difference. Fortunately we don’t have to go through the trial and error of guesswork, or invest thousands in controlled studies – that’s already been done for us. All we have to do is apply the results.
