You've heard about FOMO... but what about FOLO?

One thing I’ve always found fascinating is diving DEEP into how the human mind “operates”.

I remember being sat in uni lectures during my Maths/Comp Sci days, and the ONE subject I always looked forward to was Game Theory.

It’s literally a mathematical “model” of how people make decisions when they’re faced with uncertainty, or conflicts of interest. And if you study it, you get a “peek” behind the curtain at what makes people “tick”, and what makes them act (or not act) under different circumstances.

And this isn’t just fun to learn about.

It’s a VITAL subject to understand if you want to build a profitable business.

I’ll illustrate:

Let’s take “selling”, for example.

If you’ve ever sent someone a DM, hopped on a sales call, pitched someone your offer, or wrote a sales page… only to hear crickets…

Then you need to understand WHY this happens (so you can figure out how you can fix it).

Now…

There’s a bunch of different reasons why someone might not be interested in your offer.

And people will often say “it’s because they don’t trust you”.

That might be true.

But that doesn’t help you fix it.

And it doesn’t cut to the ROOT of the problem.

Because it’s not that they don’t trust you.

It’s the FEAR of the negative consequences they might experience, and which arise BECAUSE they don’t trust you (see the difference?).

That’s what’s stopping them from biting.

And we can unpack this further.

Because (and this is where we start getting into the Game Theory/Prospect Theory element of this email), when someone is considering buying something...

Fear arises in THREE ways.

First:

1) Fear of loss

This is obvious.

It’s pretty dang clear that when you’re asking someone to pay you money over the internet, that they might be afraid of losing it.

But we can go deeper.

Because there’s a phenomenon called “loss aversion” at play here.

In short, humans would prefer to not lose $100 than to gain $100.

You know this yourself.

Think back to any time you have unexpectedly lost money. Maybe it fell out of your pocket? Maybe the stock market dipped 20%?

How much PAIN did that cause you? I’m guessing a lot.

Now, think back to a time when you unexpectedly GAINED money.

Maybe you found a £20 note on the floor? Maybe you won a small bet?

I imagine it felt good.

But the GOOD feeling you experience when GAINING money was nowhere near as strong as the BAD feeling you experienced when LOSING money.

And that’s “loss aversion” in a nutshell:

The fear of losing what we already have is far stronger than the desire to gain something we don’t yet have. This is biological, hard-wired from millions of years of evolution. It is our most primal survival mechanism.

And you CANNOT fight this.

Adding more “benefits” to your offer does not work. Because you are offering them “more” when they are scared about having “less”.

So, when you are selling or writing copy, ask yourself:

What is at stake for the person on the other end? 

What are they afraid to lose?

Money? Time? Status? 

And then, here comes the key point:

How can you reframe this to show them that the loss which will arise from NOT acting will 100% outweigh any loss which might arise from acting.

Boom.

Suddenly, you’ve reprogrammed their mind.

Now they fear missing out on this “opportunity” more than they fear any potential loss which might arise from it. 

You’ve taken them from FOLO (fear of losing out) to FOMO (fear of missing out).

And you’re now using their fear of loss to drive them towards you, rather than away from you.

Nice, huh?

OK. But this runs deeper still.

Because they’re not just afraid of losing stuff.

They’re also experiencing…

2) Fear of regret

Fear of regret is a direct consequence of fear of loss.

First, your mind fears losing what you already have.

And then your mind starts “projecting” the negative feeling which will arise because of YOUR part in the decision making process. The self-blame. The “how could I be so stupid” feeling we’ve all experienced after making a bad call.

That’s what their brain is fighting so hard to avoid.

And there’s a couple ways to conquer this:

First, you show them the cost of indecision.

Because that’s where they are right now – sitting on the fence, struggling to make the call.

So, your job?

Show them that the regret they will experience from NOT acting is far bigger than than the regret they will experience from making EITHER decision (yes, or no).

There’s never going to be a “right time”.

They just need to nut up and make a call.

Second:

How can you make it feel like there’s less at stake?

A small deposit instead of a massive upfront payment.

And once you’ve got them MOVING, how can you offer them a “quick win” so they start building MOMENTUM in the right direction?

That’s what you need to ask yourself.

And, finally, they’re also experiencing…

3) Herd Mentality

You’ve heard about “herd mentality” before.

But what you probably don’t realise is that herd mentality is the “logical follow-on” from fear of regret.

After all…

As much as it hurts to make the wrong decision (fear of regret), it hurts a whole lot more to be the "one" idiot who went against the grain, and... got it wrong.

So, by following the crowd and doing what everyone else does, you "absolve" yourself of some of the negatives (even if the decision goes against you).

In other words:

It wasn't just "you" who's the dummy (and you can take some solace in that).

And you can trigger this “herd mentality” to JOLT people into action.

Ask yourself:

How can you show them that everyone else is making moves?

How can you make them feel like everyone else is acting, and they’re getting “left behind”?

How can you make them feel like they’re going to be the “odd one out” by not acting?

This is how you TRIGGER herd mentality TOWARDS your offer (instead of away from it).

And that is how you spark action in your prospects.

And to end this email…

A little “test” for you:

Can you see how you can use the above mechanisms to sell something like a coaching program, or a mentorship?

Can you “cite” other domains of life (e.g. financial experts who hire people to manage their money) where people have all the “expertise” they need to make these decisions on their own, but are still happy to shell out $1,000s (or more) every single month for external advice because they understand they are limited not by their knowledge, but by their ability to make good decisions for themselves due to these evolutionary mechanisms which they CANNOT fix?

And then position yourself as the solution.

Food for thought.

Right.

That’s all from me today.

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. Thinking of turning this into a mini-series on the human mind/game theory.

Reply “Game” if you’d like that (I’ll only do it if 20+ people reply, so it’s in your best interests to be one of them if you’d like to learn more)