I crossed a Rubicon of sorts yesterday.
I was helping my mom set up her new laptop. She just got the same Macbook as I have.
“My God,” I thought to myself, “it’s so clean.”
I’ve had my laptop for years and I’ve never once bothered cleaning the keyboard or screen. It was gross. So last night, when I got home, I took some wet wipes and spent 15 mins wiping down the screen, polishing the trackpad, getting in between the keys to get the accumulated grime and dust.
That was in the evening, in the dark.
This morning, I got up and saw the laptop in the light of day.
And no, all the scrubbing hadn’t ruined it or scratched it or corroded it.
But I did see it wasn’t perfectly clean still. So I got more wipes, and revisited all the same goddamn keys and the little strip above the keyboard and why won’t this foggy area on right side get polished?
Mind you, I had lived with a filthy laptop for years.
So why get obsessive now?
And why not be happy that my laptop is simply good enough, much cleaner, although not perfect?
I believe there’s a fundamental law of human nature at work here. It underlies my obsessive laptop cleaning… the massive success of companies like the Franklin Mint… and even the behavior of defecting American GI’s in Korean POW camps.
You’ve probably heard of this fundamental rule. It’s one of Robert Cialdini’s 6 pillars of INFLUENCE.
I’m talking about psychological consistency and the need for completeness.
It’s one of the reasons why people who have bought your product are the absolute best prospects for buying even more of your product.
Or buying a very similar, highly substitutable product.
Odds are, even if they don’t absolutely need it… they will want it, in order to be psychologically consistent with themselves.
That’s why, if you’re only selling one product to your customers one time, you’re missing out on a big opportunity.
But here’s some potentially good news.
If you want to find out about a risk-free, guaranteed way to make more sales to such customers at zero cost, you’ll want to read the third and final part of my upcoming book. More info here: