A couple of years back, I heard Dan Kennedy tell a story of a beer company that surveyed their list to find out which beer they preferred:

The regular beer or the premium beer.

80% of their customers said they preferred the premium beer to the regular beer … but on looking at the sales most people actually bought the regular beer.

Which made no sense to the company.

But it makes perfect sense if you understand how humans act.

Those customers felt they were meant to prefer the premium beer, so that’s what they said. But in reality, they preferred the regular beer and that’s what they spent their money on.

This reminds me of something the legendary copywriter, Eugene Schwartz once said.

He said humans have a lot of “lying circuits” built into us.

Over several years, we have developed the ability to interpret cues and act accordingly – so we no longer act true to ourselves, we simply act how we feel is appropriate for the setting.

It is not necessarily a bad thing (as it helps us to be decent human beings) but it can sometimes screw with the truth.

Especially if you are basing business decisions on the information people give you (which is something we as marketers do all the time).

So how do you get good, truthful information … seeing that people lie all the time?

Well, here are 3 ways to get true, clean information from people:

#1 – Make indirect feedback your best friend:

The best place to do this is on forums.

On most forums, people are anonymous so they tend to say how they truly feel as there is no shame attached and no one knows their identity.

Reading through forums will give you a way better understanding of your market than asking them directly.

#2 – Follow the dullarrrrr:

You can never go wrong by looking at what people buy.

People can say whatever they want from now till Christ comes, but if they aren’t spending their money there, you shouldn’t take them seriously.

People always put their money where their heart is.

So you’ve got to follow the munny.

#3 – How people react is more valuable than what they say:

This might not be practical for every situation, but if you can physically get people to give you their opinion on something (whether a product, a piece of advertisement, a blind taste test … whatever), then look for gut reactions.

Instead of asking them what they think, look for involuntary reactions (e.g. facial expressions, body movements, etc) as this will tell you a ton about what they actually feel.

People can say whatever, but gut reactions will always tell the truth.

Use this information to your benefit.

If you would love to grow your business using email marketing this year, then book a call with me.

My goal with every call is to see if you are a good fit for my services, while also helping you get clarity on whatever marketing problems you are facing.

For more articles like this on marketing, sales and copywriting, check out my website: https://ikonmedia.net/

When you get there, you have the option to join my email list.

If you join you will get my free book that shows you how to multiply the amount of revenue you make in your business using your email list.

If you’re interested, use the link above.

Fola