You know what the expression “foot in the door” means, don’t you? Good.
Now, imagine yourself confronted with an old-timey door-to-door salesman, literally putting his foot in your doorway to prevent you from closing it on his pitch.
Madness, right? But there was a time that technique moved gazillions of dollars in vacuum cleaners, encyclopedias, cosmetics, and just about anything else a modern housewife could be persuaded to buy.
I’m telling you this because I was recently the victim of a more subtle, yet just as powerful, foot-in-the-dooring myself.
And if you’ll give me a few minutes to tell my story, you’ll see how my experience can help you …
Turn more prospects into obedient zombies who practically beg you to take their money.
I’ll even give you three proven ways to pull it off. But first, let’s go to our local fitness center. 💪
To be clear, we’re not here to work out. We just want a tour. Then, we’ll take our own sweet time to decide—without any outside pressure—if we should get a membership.
We’ve got ice water in our veins, you and me. And we ain’t fallin’ for any rat-faced flimflam artist posing as a harmless desk clerk.
At least, that’s what we’re telling ourselves.
Before our tour, we’re asked to fill out a short form. Our marketing brains tell us it’s so they can follow up if we don’t join today. Smart.
We are absolutely flying through this paperwork.
“What time will we be working out?” … “What equipment will we be using?” … An open field for us to write down our specific fitness goals … IT’S DATA-CAPTURE WIZARDRY, we think!
Now, they have all the information they need to send us “customized” emails in their feeble attempts to take our money.
And just when we think we know who the real sucker is … turns out it was us the whole time.
Or more accurately, it was me. 😖
Because immediately after I had a look around, I happily paid for a membership.
Of course, the friendliness of my tour guide and quality of the facility helped. But most of the selling was done when they got me to commit to the trivial ask of completing a form.
That was their “foot in the door.” You see …
By starting with a small request, they made it easier to gain my compliance with a larger one later.
Dr. Robert Cialdini refers to using progressively escalating commitments as building the “momentum of compliance” in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, where he talks about the indisputable potency of the “commitment and consistency principle.”
According to Cialdini, I actually got hit with a double dose of it.
Because after I committed to completing the form, I wasn’t only compelled to behave consistently with my initial behavior. But based on the information I provided, I also felt a need to act consistently with the positive self-image I recorded in my own handwriting.
Here, I’ll show you …
According to the form, I committed to working out X times a week, during Y time of day, using Z equipment. I was trapped. Now, doing anything less would make me look fickle and uncertain—negative traits we’d never want associated with ourselves.
For all I know, they could have tossed the form in the trash the second I walked away. Because the simple act of filling it out likely drives more memberships than a flurry of follow-up emails.
If you’re still with me, I admire your stamina.
That was a long way to go to explain how a business used the commitment and consistency principle to make a sale to a defenseless mooncalf like me.
So, to reward your patience, here are three brain-dead simple ways you can use this powerful behavioral trigger to get more customers …
💡 Sell small and build
Gary Halbert said: “When crafting the message for your offer, focus on the smallest but meaningful promise you can. If you deliver on your promise, they’ll come back for more and more and more.”
Why should you listen to Gary? Because he was the genius behind a mailing that generated 20,000 orders per day. The offer was for an unframed family “coat of arms” drawing specific to the recipient. The drawing and a one-page report about the family name cost $2.00.
He could have charged more by offering a framed option, too. But Gary preferred to make “back end” sales to prospects who committed to something small first—as they were likely to buy again … and again.
So, if you have multiple products, resist the temptation to sell the full menu all at once. If you can get someone to commit to buying a single item (and then provide amazing service), you’ll have that person primed to buy more from you in the future.
💡 Use a waitlist
Before you launch a new product, getting people to join a waitlist boosts your chances of converting them when your offer is ready to buy.
Why do waitlists work? Because once people make a commitment, they feel the need to live up to it. Plus, a “waitlist worthy” product feels inherently special. And the waiting period gives you time to build desire to make it even harder for prospects to walk away once the gates open.
You won’t convert everyone. But it’ll be much easier to snag a segment of prospects who have already “pre-sold” themselves compared to those you need to spend more time persuading.
💡 Provide a demonstration
You already know demonstrations are useful in getting someone to take a look at what your product can do for them. But it’s also a low-commitment first step toward agreeing to a larger request later.
And here’s a simple trick to put the odds even more in your favor …
Before you begin your demo, say to your prospect:
“Before we start, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me. What was it about our product that made you want to learn more?”
This will force the person to start saying positive things about what you offer. The more they say, the more they’re committing themselves to reasons to buy BEFORE you even begin making a case.
Of course, you never want to coerce someone into making a foolish decision. But if you use these commitment and consistency techniques ethically—where your customers benefit, too—you’ll have paved a reliable shortcut toward growing your business.
Thanks so much for reading. The next one will be shorter, I promise.
Here’s a song to play you out >>>
See you next time. — Matt
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