Fogg Behavior Model
When you want to accomplish a goal or get someone to do something, whether in your personal life, in business or with your product or service, the first thing you usually use to get that thing done is some form of motivation.
If you want to lose weight you read about a new diet, you follow diet accounts on social media, you get a dose of David Goggins and on your next visit to the grocery store, you buy all healthy food.
Heck, you might even join the gym or buy a Peloton.
You go all in and start off strong. But, after a few days or maybe weeks, you start to break down.
You have a “cheat meal”, you miss a workout. Then two, then three.
Before you know it you’re back to where you’re started.
Usually with some guilt and shame. 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♀️
Same thing in business. You want to get feedback from your customers on your product or service. You run a giveaway that anyone who fills out the survey will be entered to win _______.
The results are OK, but not as good as you expected. You feel like your customers don’t care.
Here’s the thing…
Motivation is short term, it decreases fast and requires a daily dose to create a habit or behavior. That level of motivation is’n’t possible to keep up with or give out.
What you want to use is “Ease of use” or “Make it really really simple.”
Let me explain…
After getting my Masters in Psych I wanted to learn more around applying psychology to building products. I read about a professor from Stanford named BJ Fogg who was running a lab that at the time was called the Persuasive Computing Lab, now called the Behavior Design Lab.
One day I caught a post he made on social media that explained he was offering a certification course in behavior design. He was personally teaching it and if you successfully completed it you could become a Tiny Habits Coach.
I was excited and wanted to go. The challenge was, he was only accepting a small group of students.
I applied, crossed my fingers, and was lucky enough to be accepted. I even went on to become an Expert Tiny Habits coach because I enjoyed the subject so much.
If you want to accomplish something or you want to get a customer to do something, you have to MAKE IT EASY TO DO.
Make it easy and it will happen. Let’s take the examples from the beginning.
Want to lose weight. Sure, start by getting jacked up with some motivation, but at the very same time, make it easy.
Don’t go cold turkey, simply have smaller portions of the same thing you’ve been eating.
Maybe you drink two glasses of wine a night. Don’t cut it all out, just drink one. 🍷
That’s MUCH easier than going cold turkey and you’ll be surprised what happens once you start having success.
Then you’ll start changing what you eat. You’ll have more success. And it continues.
Want to get feedback from your customers. Get them to answer ONE QUESTION using the Net Promoter Score approach. That’s so easy you will not have to run a contest.
Want to start going to the gym. Start with going for 15 minutes once a week. Let me know how lmany times you’re going and long you’re staying after doing that for a few weeks.
Want to decrease your cart abandonment rate in your online store? Make paying so easy using the one screen approach that the person will not even think about paying you.
Want to get your kid to start flossing his/her teeth. Have them floss one tooth and that’s it. See what happens after a few days.
You can take this concept and apply it to anything.
The key is to use the “MAKE IT EASY” lever, not the motivation lever.
Try it, it works!
🫵 Your move
If you enjoyed this article be sure to claim your subscription to the weekly email I send out. It’s full of great information and other articles just like this one. This piece is from my 1/29/23, Week 5 update.