Devoted to how insight is developed, shared and acted on
In For A Penny.......
![\"\"](\"/FCKfiles/Image/charity_collection.jpg\")
Is it sometimes difficult for you to get time, help or input from busy colleagues? If so, try asking for a little and you may end up with a lot! There are a number of case studies that support the validity of this approach.
For instance, a team that was making collections for a well-known national charity decided to test the hypothesis for themselves. They thought that people who felt that they couldn’t give very much might feel that what they could give wouldn’t make any difference, or they would be embarrassed to give just a little. So in a door-to-door collection, the team used a split sample.
Half of the group introduced themselves and then said, “Would you be willing to help by giving a donation?” The other half introduced themselves in the same way, but added a small but significant phrase: “Even a penny will help!”
Adding this extra encouragement was hugely successful. The first group received a response from 29% of the people approached, whereas the second group had a much higher response rate – of 50%. Furthermore, there was no difference between the individual amounts donated across the two samples. (The team thought that the extra message might have reduced the average donation size, but it didn’t.) So the end result was that the second team ended up with considerably more money.
Little by little…
This principle of, ‘Even a penny will help’ can be applied in various ways in the insight world. For example, try using the following:
- ‘Even a brief initial phone call would help’ – when wanting a stakeholder to provide more background on a brief.
- ‘Just an hour of your time would really help’ – when you want some collaboration on a problem or project.
- ‘Just a few minutes of planning would make a big difference’ – when encouraging a colleague to plan a presentation or communication, rather than just deliver a deck of charts.
People tend to feel less threatened by a request if seems to represent less of a demand on their time – and they may therefore be more willing to help you. But the only way to find out is to try it yourself and see what happens!
Copyright © 2012 Customer Insight Solutions. All Rights Reserved