Lecture 4: Psychology of Sale - Omega Strategies

Question 1

persuasion knowledge (PK) model

Answer 1

• PK develops over time
• PK has (mainly) negative
consequences
• PK determines how skilful
people cope with a persuasion attempt

Question 2

examples of resistance

Answer 2

“I don’t like it”
“I won’t do it”
“I don’t believe it”

Question 3

three forms of resistance

Answer 3

1. reactance
2. skepticism
3. inertia

Question 4

if there wasn’t _______ , there would be no need for _______

Answer 4

if there wasn’t resistance , there would be no need for persuasion

Question 5

what are omega strategies about

Answer 5

reducing resistance

Question 6

reactance

Answer 6

resistance to the influence

• Persuasion can threaten feelings of freedom of
choice
• Results in motivation to resist the influence attempt (reactance)
• Can result in opposite behaviour
• Reactance is caused be the influence attempt itself and not its content

Question 7

skepticism

Answer 7

resistance to the proposal

• Focus lies merely on the content of the persuasion attempt
• Skepticism about the proposed change

Question 8

elaboration likelihood model in short

Answer 8

central and peripheral routes to attitude change

Question 9

inertia

Answer 9

resistance to change

• Hard to change as not related to the content of persuasion
• Resistance with the aim to preserve the status quo and avoid change
• Focused on the past
• No active consideration of the persuasion attempt

Question 10

tactics to reducing reactance- general

Answer 10

• Don’t activate it in the first place
• Remember, reactance = perceived threat to freedom of choice
• Degree of reactance felt depends on:
1. Number and importance of freedoms threatened
2. Blatancy or coerciveness of the threat

Question 11

tactics to reducing reactance: specific

Answer 11

1. minimise the request
2. depersonalize the request
3. the power of yes
4. acknowledging resistance
5. providing choices

Question 12

minimize the request

Answer 12

• Minimising the request decreases reactance
• Incremental change is easier to achieve than abrupt change
• Smaller requests elicit less reactance
• Cf. Foot-in-the-door technique and “even a penny will help” technique

Question 13

depersonalise the request

Answer 13

• Reactance to an influence attempt is rather personal
• “I don’t want to be influenced by you!”
• Depersonalisation of the request takes away this
personal component and therefore decreases reactance

How?
• Disavow personal authorship of the request
(“it’s the manager’s policy”)
• Deny any ad hominem element in the request
(“it’s the same deal we give everybody”)
• Storytelling

Question 14

the power of yes

Answer 14

• Limiting freedom of choice is a “no”
• Always saying yes (or avoiding no’s) is an effective tactic to avoid reactance
• “Yes and” instead of “No, instead”
• Telling someone what to do raises less reactance than telling them what not to do

Question 15

acknowledging resistance

Answer 15

• Focuses on already raised resistance

* Acknowledging resistance dramatically increases compliance

Question 16

providing choices

Answer 16

• Offering only one alternative focuses all feelings of resistance on that alternative
• In case of several alternative, resistance can be satisfied by one of them, helping the other (s)
• Having a choice provides a sense of control (more freedom = less reactance)

Question 17

Tactics to deal with skepticism

Answer 17

1. Guarantees
2. change the comparison
3. reframe the proposal

Question 18

guarantees

Answer 18

• No matter what the customer does, they cannot lose
• Skepticism in sales = “is it the right thing to do/buy?”
• Guarantees can remove any doubt
• They imply high quality/reliability
• Only a small percentage of sales are actually returned

Question 19

change the comparison

Answer 19

• Every judgement involves an implicit comparison
• It is often easier to change behaviour by changing the comparison than by changing the offer
• Efficacy 0f sales prices build on this principle

Question 20

reframe the proposal

Answer 20

• Casting new meaning to an
alternative
• Remember loss and gain
frames
--> People want to avoid losses

Question 21

tactics to deal with inertia

Answer 21

1. disrupt

2. increase self-efficacy

Question 22

disrupting inertia

Answer 22

• Inertia results in disengagement and
disinterest
=
• Disrupt inertia through unusual and confusing messages

• Increases motivation for engagement
• Confusion can occupy a person’s resistance

Question 23

increase self-efficacy

Answer 23

• “the judgement of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations”
• Inertia is often rooted in the belief that one can not achieve a certain goal
• Fear of choices, unknown, or transitions
• Increasing self efficacy/confidence decreases inertia

Question 24

conclusions about resistance and omega strategies

Answer 24

• There are three different types of resistance
➡ Reactance
➡ Skepticism
➡ Inertia
• Different types of resistance require different types of tactics (omega)
• Omega strategies are relatively cheap
• Alpha strategies work because they overwhelm resistance
• Omega strategies work because they take away resistance
• Omega strategies need desire and reluctance to be high to work