Green Chair Or The Blue One

[admin]

 

In the Milton Model, there's a pattern called the "Double Bind."

It's one of the more common patterns, as it's found its way into sales and dating.

You offer our target two choices, but each choice is really the same thing.

Milton Erickson famously (or allegedly) told his patients:

"Do you want to go into a trance in the blue chair or the green chair?"

The whole reason he invented covert hypnosis in the first place was that people were kind of scared about letting an old guy in a wheelchair into his brain to monkey around.

Not wanting to waste any time, he figured it was much easier to sneak his way in, rather than waste time swinging a watch back and forth.

The Double Bind is easily applied to sales.

Even basic appointment setters know this.

A pretty abysmal pitch would be:

"Hi, I'd like to come visit you at home and talk to you for a couple hours about life insurance. I'll be there in a couple minutes, OK?"

A slightly better version would be:

"Hi, you sent in a card about some life insurance. I've got some time tomorrow afternoon, how's that sound?"

Not only do you pace their experience (you sent in a card) but you also "sort of" give them a choice.

Of course, it can be better.

Enter The Double Bind:

"Hi, you sent in a card about some life insurance. I'd like to come over and talk to you about it. Which is better Tuesday at four or Thursday at five?"

This makes it more likely to get the appointment, as they feel as though they have total choice.

But we can make it better by leveraging the law of comparison and contrast.

When we position a choice next to a much more costly choice, the first choice seems MUCH better.

Our appointment question might be like this:

"Hi, you sent in a card about some life insurance. I'd like to discuss this with you further. I've got about ten minutes tomorrow at four, or I could give you the full presentation on Thursday. Which is better for you?"

Ten minutes sounds a lot better than all the other times, which are unspecified.

So you'll get a lot higher probability of setting the actual appointment.

Then when you get to their house, you can use all kinds of other techniques to virtually guarantee the sale.

Of course, you don't HAVE to use these for direct sales.

You can use them with your friends, or you can use them to seduce sexy people and make them desperate for your attention.

You can understand these intellectually, or you can use them to make a crap ton of money.

Which is better for you?

Seven Laws