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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING INSIGHTS

| 1 minute read

The IKEA effect - if you build it you value it more - and what that means for selling your services

Yesterday I attended session two of Mo Bunnell's GrowBIG Accelerator program.  I was reminded of the strength of selling by building the strategy, process, team and price together with your prospect/client - nicknamed the IKEA effect. 

Follow this simple pathway to success when it comes to shaping the buying process of your prospect:

  1. Build the strategy together
  2. Build the process together
  3. Build the team together
  4. Build the pricing/deal together

Do it in that order and always focus on getting to the next stage, not the close. 

 In short (and kind of obvious when you think about it) if you build something you are more invested and regard the output of greater value.

The IKEA effect was identified and named by Michael  Norton of Harvard Business School, Daniel Mochon of Yale, and Dan Ariely of Duke, who published the results of three studies in 2011. Their studies showed that people who assemble IKEA's flat-pack furniture themselves value that furniture more and negotiate higher prices when selling that furniture to others when compared to people who were given the furniture already fully assembled.

I was particularly interested in this as we often talk to teams of Passle Users and suggest they create posts (online expert content) together - for example, one person suggesting a subject to a colleague who writes the post, or they decide to co-author posts.  The important thing is that they do it themselves.  You will not value a post as much if you outsource it to a third party however much you are tempted to as it seems easier.

The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created. The name derives from the name of Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer IKEA, which sells many furniture products that require assembly.

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Tags

e2e, sales, buyerjourney, best practice, legal, professional services