MedTech + Mindset Newsletter #007

Welcome to the MedTech + Mindset Newsletter! 

This week we talk about the Two Terrible A's, Loss Aversion, and Three (3) Things to Think About.

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1. The Two Terrible A's

Insight from Matt Tucker

My son has traveled most holidays between Chicago and Pittsburgh since he was 9.

He's almost 18 now.

As he ages, he's increasingly articulate about things that bother him, and sometimes long-held frustrations come out.

One of those moments happened this weekend.

We uncovered and talked about something that he has been holding in for a very long time. Anger he's held on to.

In the end I offered him a choice.

What did he want to do next: act out and hold onto the anger -or- start to have conversations to learn where it was coming from and try to work through it?

It led me to an insight about success in any part of your life, and helped me articulate something that held me back for a long time.

One of the greatest contributors and restrictions to success is how people handle the two big A's - anxiety and anger.

Do you let it have control OVER you...or are you willing to get curious ABOUT you?

If you're able to identify- IN THE MOMENT - anxiety or anger, can hit pause and get curious about the real reason for what you're feeling, your chances of success in building a happy and fulfilling personal or professional life skyrocket.

It doesn't mean to avoid feeling these things, or ignore, or try to sweep them under the rug.

Welcoming the intensity can lead to powerful insights which can radically change the direction you're going, or the relationships that are important to you.

You get to choose - rather than letting your emotions decide for you.

Email back or drop me a line about your reactions to this.

2. Loss Aversion

Insight from Natanya Wachtel-Jones

Suppose you were given the option to choose between a five-dollar discount on your purchase or a five-dollar gift card. What would you choose? Chances are you would rather have the discount.

There is a psychological principle that operates behind the scenes and influences your decision-making. We as humans are designed in a way that we tend to pay more attention to negative information. This mechanism is necessary because it is vital for us to analyze threats in our environment and manage to survive.

We also respond stronger to negative news, even if they aren't actual threats, but simply words about something negative. Positive information is still important, but negative information weighs more heavily on us.

In this context, it is no surprise that we dislike negative experiences, such as losing something we own more than we enjoy positive experiences such as gaining something new.

This preference for avoiding losses compared to acquiring gains is called loss aversion.

Researchers Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered this principle. Participants in their study were given an object. Then they were asked whether to keep their object or exchange it for another object of similar value. 86 percent of the participants decided to keep the object they were initially given.

How can we employ this principle in our marketing strategy?

The loss aversion principle can be implemented for items or services that customers have the option to own before buying. For example, you could give your customers a free trial period to your service. During this time, potential buyers would familiarize themselves with your product and become accustomed to using it, and when the trial period ended, they would be more motivated to avoid losing access to it, since they would consider it theirs.

The same logic can be applied to specific features of your service or product, by making them available to everyone for a certain time and then withdrawing access to them.

It's also significant that customers will feel loss aversion even before owning the product.

The loss of opportunity to get it is a strong motivator.

Therefore, we can employ the scarcity principle by presenting our product as a limited resource. We could, for example, inform our customers how many items are still available in stock, or we could limit the time they have access to an offer.

Similarly, loss aversion will be caused if they don't get what is available to them as part of a purchase. For instance, you could offer a discount code, free shipping, or free samples.

These offers will motivate those who are indecisive about the purchase.

TL;DR -  synopsis:

• We are designed to give priority to negative news.
• Therefore, we are driven more strongly to avoid losses because by losing something we could feel negative emotions rather than achieve gains.
• This psychological principle is called loss aversion.  Utilizing this principle in your marketing strategy can be highly effective.
• To do so, you may offer free trials, create limited-time offers, provide gifts to facilitate the final purchase, and more. 

3. Three (3) Things to Think About...

Insight from Kevin Kermes

1. The Truth comes after the "but..."
2. Conflating Security and Employment
3. Something to chew on...

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