Book Consultation

PERSUASION WIKI

Desire

Building desire is one of the main ways to prime or qualify someone without actually needing to change anything in your offering. The more the person desires your product or offering, the more they will be qualified. It can also be used to weaken objections (because usually, objections are a sign of lack of certainty or desire. Increasing it decreases and destroys them).

There are four main ways to create desire in someone:

  1. Use a hero’s journey or nightmare-to-dream journey;
    1. “John had [ABC] of negative. He just wanted [ABC] of positive. With our product, he was able to make that bridge”;
  2. Using associations or bundling
    1. Associating your value proposition with something known, famous, or that brings pleasure;
    2. E.g., products associating themselves with influencers or celebrities;
  3. Building anticipation or expectations
    1. Telling the person what to expect;
    2. E.g., “90% of people buy this on the first week”;
  4. Using intent labeling
    1. Making the person state they want something actively

The Persuasion Psychology Behind the Technique

Desire works through the principle of suggestion. As soon as the person desires something more, they will start anticipating it more and changing their expectations (which may be met or not at the time of purchase/doing your ask).

Specific techniques may work due to other principles:

  • For example, the hero’s journey works through the principle of perceived contrast. Contrasting something bad with something good makes it seem better in comparison;
  • Intent labeling works due to the principle of consistency. When someone states they want something, they will continue to act in accordance to that;

You leverage desire in someone by either building anticipation in them, contrasting the dream and the nightmare scenarios, or other methods that make the person want this more.

Usage

Sub-Techniques
(1 in Total)

Examples

Sales Letters

When websites have long sales letters going into detail on everything the person wants to avoid and what they want to achieve, it's this at work.

Hype

Hype is nothing more than building expectations or anticipations in a person. Which may correspond to reality or not

Placebo Effects

These are a great example of expectations. Even when nothing happens, the person thinks something did, due to their beliefs alone

  • Other examples:
  • Product launches (In marketing, one of the most powerful formulas. Instead of having an “evergreen” product that is constantly available at the same price, there’s a specific 60-90 day period where a product is hyped up, so that then the “launch” happens and many people are converted immediately)
  • "Before and after"s (The before and after scenarios that you frequently see, for example, on weight loss products are an example of the hero’s journey)
  • Strategy sessions (The name given to the 1-hour "free consulting call" with certain experts. The goal is not for the expert to add value, but just twist the knife to get the person to buy);

Use Cases For the Four Quadrants

Key Takeaways
(4 Total)

How to Stack This Technique