The 'Foot In The Door' Effect
“The biggest challenge with cash commitment devices isn’t their effectiveness; it’s getting more people comfortable with the idea of using them. ”
If you walk the busier streets of London, it won’t be long before an overly enthusiastic, smiley individual who wants to have a ‘quick chat’ approaches you.
The novice caught off guard will naturally stop and engage this friendly stranger in conversation.
They will soon discover a motive behind their amiability: collecting donations for charity.
The money isn’t asked for straight away, mind.
Your new friend will get you talking about a neutral enough subject to build rapport before launching into a passionate story behind their charity’s objectives.
This technique is known as the ‘foot in the door’ effect, an example of what psychologists call a ‘commitment’ device.
Getting someone to agree or ‘commit’ to something small upfront makes them likelier to commit to something bigger later. e.g. signing up for a monthly donation
The term originates in travelling salesmen who knew that if they could get ‘a foot in the door’, they would be much more likely to get a sale than if the person hadn’t opened it in the first place.
This same idea includes car dealers letting you borrow the car you're interested in for an extended test drive and software companies offering free trials.
It is an effective sales strategy (hence why it is so common) and has implications for any person wanting to sell a product or service to someone.
If you can get them to commit to something small upfront, you have a higher chance of converting that into a sale later.
Foot meets open door.
If you want to learn more about similar techniques and what drives our decisions when paying for things, check out our Behavioural Economics online masterclass taught by the brilliant Rory Sutherland.
