Imperfections are OK

Someone said this to me today. They also said “Are you writing that down”?

And I had to admit I was. It was like a bolt of lightning, it perfectly summed up what I had been trying to say to lots of business owners and managers lately.

I’ve also been saying it lots to my 15 year old daughter – but that has been about pictures of people on Instagram and the truth between perfect and just plain made up.

Whatever we call ourselves, business owner, manager, or marketer etc, there’s a common underlying end-goal to the job we do.

All of us are using a variety of means and methods to influence an individual to purchase a particular product or service.

And it’s always an individual. 

This is what I have learnt, whether you’re selling baby food to a new parent or bespoke accounting system to a multi-national across multiple locations, it’s a living and breathing human being that decides.

It amazes me how little attention lots of businesses pay to psychology when looking at how to best present their offering to their audience. 

Have you ever met one of those sales people where you walk out of their “” and think now why did I just buy that?

Those types can ‘read’ a person’s emotional reaction to something said or written, and use this information to direct the conversation. 

Perhaps it was planned to focus on how your thing was available on a wider range of sizes compared to the competition. But after hearing a remark from the prospective client about green credentials, you start talking about how your things are manufactured using environmentally-sustainable production processes.

Such tactics have their roots in psychology – the understanding human behaviour. Since most buying decisions have a strong emotional component, it seems crazy for any business to dismiss the psychological aspect of sales and marketing.

Marketing, in particular, is all about influencing behaviour.

Whether it’s convincing people to switch brands, pay more, or buy more often, it seems odd that we’re not having more conversations about behaviour change and buyer psychology. 

It seems pretty hard to create any kind of message based on an underlying intention, if we fail to fully grasp how that intention will be harnessed by the people we’re aiming to influence.

Showing Off Your Imperfections

Imagine this scene 

I don’t have to because it happened to me.

I was in an important meeting, giving a pitch to a big potential client, suited and booted, really wanting to get the work and trying to be perfect.

They gave me a coffee in the reception and I dribbled it.

Not down my shirt, I could have hidden than but all over the crotch of my new light grey suit (I’ve never worn it or one like it since) 

So, I went to the toilet to start the mopping and the patch got bigger and more pronounced.

No amount of directing the hand dryer towards my crotch was drying the trousers.

So I did what I think anyone would do, I took off my trousers to hold under the hand dryer, it looked like I’d wet myself, which was when someone walked into the toilets so red faced I said, sorry, I haven’t wet myself, I’ve spilt coffee on my crotch, I think I’ve burned my leg and I’m just drying theme off.

The bloke looked at me standing in my boxers, black socks and smart shoes drying my trousers and practically ran from the toilet.

I got dried up and it didn’t look too bad (at least that’s what I was telling myself) and went back to the waiting room, where someone was waiting for me (had been for 10 mins and took me into the presentation.

I was hassled, nervous and had forgotten almost everything, but got in the zone and started.

The pitch was pertinent, insightful, and well-presented…right up until the end when I got ready to answer the questions and realised the bloke that had just seen me in my boxers drying my crotch was on the panel – not only that he was the chairman.

It made me want to hide in embarrassment. 

He was actually really nice and joked about it – I was mortified but did get through it.

We got the contract as well; I’m thinking about flashing my boxers more often.

This is interesting, being in this situation and owning it according to a psychological observation called The Pratfall Effect, means your chances of getting a sale just went up, not down.

In 1966, social psychologist Elliot Aronson, together with colleagues Ben Willerman and Joanne Floyd, published The effect of a pratfall on social attractiveness.

What the study found was that people thought to be competent who then make some kind of blunder or mistake – what Aronson describes as a ‘pratfall’ – are considered more likable as a result.

That doesn’t mean that everyone who makes a blunder becomes more likable. 

If someone is considered an expert in a certain area and makes a mistake, they will become more likable. But if an average person makes a similar mistake, they will often be viewed in an (even more) negative light.

Competency seems to be the core piece of context. If that part is a given, then showing a vulnerability or pratfall increases the desirability. 

Aronson’s research suggests we can view people in a similar way to Kintsugi. (This is where the Japanese fix broken pottery with gold – Look it up if you haven’t seen it, it’s wonderful).

Assuming there was an inherent ‘value’ at the start, we find people, products – and even entire businesses – more appealing when they’re seen to exhibit some kind of a flaw, weakness, or idiosyncrasy.

The Pratfall Effect can be seen everywhere It’s a great example of something that goes against what we’d all initially assume: that showing your flaws makes your business more appealing, rather than less.

If a business or a business owner drops the fa?ade and admits a weakness, they’ve put their reputation on the line through the demonstration of their honesty.

As a result, they become more attractive, and more trusted.

Showing your business weakness isn’t confined to the product or service itself. It can expand to every part of your customer-facing presentation.

So, if we can accept the notion that admitting you or your business, product, or service has flaws and imperfections, then why do so few apply such thinking to their marketing?

The same reason why their website says dull, uninteresting things and is designed like 1001 other sites.

Why they continue to sell in the same old ways rather than via channels more aligned with current customer buying expectations.

Why their marketing communication is crammed with outdated clichés and comes from uninspiring and ineffective positioning conceived years ago.

Because they think it’s safe.

However, if you want the best chance of growing your business and capturing a market, pointing out your imperfections (before your competitors do) is sure to get you noticed.

Are you brave enough to admit your imperfections are ok?

P.S. That’s why I drink luke warm coffee now, it really burned!!!