The Hidden Persuaders: Unlocking the Secrets of Sales Psychology with Behavioral Economics

In this episode I interview behavioral economist Melina Palmer. We chat about how behavioral economics can enhance sales strategies using techniques like price anchoring and framing. The episode also tackles ethical considerations and the psychological principles behind decision-making. Melina shares actionable insights to help course creators, membership owners, and coaches improve their business communication and ultimately boost sales.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Melina on www.thebrainybusiness.com, LinkedIn (Melina), LinkedIn (The Brainy Business), Twitter , YouTube, Instagram, Facebook  Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   Transcript Teresa: What is behavioral economics and why on earth should you care? Well, the short answer is because it helps you communicate better to your customers and ultimately helps you to help them make a buying decision. My guest today is a behavioral economist and she shares the most amazing tools and strategies and just generally super smart stuff that we can do in our businesses, such as things like price anchoring and framing that will help us help our customers make that buying decision. If you need to sell something in your business, which is everybody, then do not miss this episode. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. And I hope you are really, really well. Okay. Today, I've got a great episode for you. I first heard today's guest on someone else's podcast and I listened to the podcast twice. In fact, I think I even gave it a third listen because it was so good. And so much of what she said was just genius and really, I totally geeked out on it. I absolutely loved [00:02:00] it. And if you are trying to sell things in your business, which I hope to goodness you are, then this is definitely going to be an episode you want to listen to. My guest today, Melina Palmer, is a behavioural economist. She is a globally celebrated keynote speaker and author and the CEO of The Brainy Business. Now you might be wondering what on earth is behavioural economics, I've really struggled saying that, got to do with us as business owners. Well, basically it's all around how our customers buy from us and how we can help them with that buying decision. Now, as you will hear in this episode, I get a little bit nervous at the beginning of some of these things, you know, how, like, you know, we all know bro marketing tactics. We all know like real scammy, horrible ways, NLP ways in which people get people to buy. And My worry was, is that what people do with this? And it isn't. And as Melina kind of demonstrates really early on, it's about using it for good. [00:03:00] Like, you know, as if you're a superhero and we'll give you these powers. Now only use it for good. So, so yeah, she talks about so many cool things that, like I said, your brain might hurt a little bit at the end of it, but it'll be a good hurt and you'll be so glad. She talks about things like price anchoring and how having a price anchor can actually help you then sell something else. She talks about things like framing, where how you say something matters more. Sorry. Yeah. How you say something matters more than what you say. She talks about social proof, but in a different way. She talks about it from a herd mentality point of view. And again, some really cool stuff. Basically, I don't want to waste any more of your time. I want you to just jump in, listen to this. This episode is full of super, super smart takeaways, and I know you're going to get a huge amount from it. So I have two tiny favors to ask. First favor. Please tag me and Melina in on [00:04:00] social and let us know what you thought of this episode. It means the absolute world to me when someone does this. I think I've said to you before, I sit in a room in my office recording these to myself, other than my two dogs by my side, but it To then hear your reactions and find out what you think about it is brilliant. And if you're feeling extra generous, then why not go ahead and give me a lovely five star rating over on Apple or wherever you listen to the podcast. Okay, let's get on with the episode. Here's Melina. I am super excited to welcome to the podcast today, Melina Palmer, Melina, how are you doing? Melina: I am doing fantastic. Thank you. Glad to be here. Teresa: I am very happy for you to be here. It's actually now in the UK while we're recording this, it's about coming up to 6pm. And normally by this point, I'd be like, hanging would be the official term. I'd be like, okay, we're nearly done. But honestly, Out of all the calls I've had [00:05:00] today, you are the one I've been looking forward to the most. Melina: Aww, well, thank you. Delighted, honored to hear it. And I know, yeah, end of the day interview too, especially depending on what you've been doing through the day. It's like bringing the energy for the interview is, is a thing. I get it. So. Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Which I somehow managed to have this good, and I guess When you do a job like I do, where you do have to be on camera, when I come off though, I'm great when I'm on, and when I come off it's like, don't speak to me. Don't look at me. Don't have a conversation with me. Like, my husband is like, how? How are you so nice on the calls? And then you are so mean when you get off them. Well, it's just because that's my job. So, yeah, sorry about that. Anyway. We are going to talk about something very smart today. So like, just be ready people to just get thinking because this is going to make you think. And I've heard Melina on another podcast, which I listened to [00:06:00] multiple times, which is unheard of for me. But I was like, this is so good. I feel like I need to write it all down. I feel like I need to listen to it again. So we are going to be talking about Behavioral economics, which doesn't sound the most sexiest subject, but it is, believe me. So what even is that? And why should we care? Melina: Yes, other than, you know, a field that needs some rebranding, perhaps, but that's not really the Teresa: Maybe. Melina: So essentially, I just like to say, you know, if traditional economics and psychology had a baby, you would have behavioral economics. And the reason that the field came about is because traditional economics assumes logical people making rational choices in everything they do all the time. And as we're all human, we know that that's not really the way that it works, right? We have the best of intentions sometimes and still end up, you know, we know we should eat right and exercise and we find ourselves, you know, [00:07:00] binge eating a bag of Cheetos while binge watching Netflix or something. Teresa: Were you, were you here last night? Melina: I know, right? It's like, not from personal experience, of course. Teresa: I've never actually done that, but I've heard people do it. Melina: Yes. And so, you know, what you end up with are these models that are built on bad assumptions. And so it's predicting what someone somewhere decided people should do versus what we actually do. And so over time, you had psychologists, economists, neuroscientists start working together, entering into another's fields, trying to do research to see if there are these common threads in the brain that can be used to better predict what people will really do. And thankfully, you know, there are and lots of them and that's where behavioral economics comes into play and my role as an applied behavioral economist is helping people in their businesses to be creating communication that's more brain friendly so [00:08:00] that customers buy and employees buy in. Teresa: I love that and I love the way you just said brain friendly because you know