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We are funny creatures, us humans. We convince ourselves that we are rational, thoughtful people when in fact most of our decisions are taken by our subconscious.

We think we’ve made a decision, whereas the actual machinery is whirling away in a dim recess of our brain, according to recent research. When we make a decision we are in fact simply telling ourselves about the decision our synapses made for us a few minutes ago.

This is one reason, in my opinion, why we love a bargain and why we fill our shopping trolleys with brilliant deals in food; food that we don’t actually need.

Us humans love a good product, neatly packaged and tied with a ribbon. Even the cheapest piece of jewellery looks much more alluring when presented in a chic little box.

We can take anything and make it more marketable by putting it a box. This gives it substance and form. Service products can be hard to sell because they are intangible, however we can think again!

We love to feel fruit in a supermarket, test drive a car, or smell flowers before we buy them.

We can’t do that with a consultancy, coaching, or workshop offering for example. They tend to exist in the moment and are only given form once the report has been written, or the handouts handed out during a taught piece.

Software has tackled this problem head on. Even online, products are often displayed in a mocked up ‘box’ graphic so they have a 3D form to them.

We tend to feel more secure in our purchase because our subconscious has mentally already handled the goods and decided they are good enough for us.

We can use the box trick to bundle up products, or services, into special, exclusive, value added packages.

Take three jars of jam for £1 each and you have £3 of sales value in front of you. Put the same three jars in a whicker basket and wrap a ribbon around it and voila… you have Richard Maun’s Mega-Jam Winter Breakfast Special …yours for only £5.99.

Even if we subtract the cost of the packaging we have still made at least an extra £1 by creating a new product in a pretty box (or basket in this case).

Anything can be turned into a product, given a cool name and sold for a higher mark-up than the component parts. The whole toy industry has thrived on this principle since board games were invented. 

The box trick is not a con. We are offering something more for the money …we are inviting our subconscious to be even more enthusiastic about its purchase. Everybody wins. The customer feels happier and our till is pleased with our efforts.

This week we can take a fresh look at all our services, products, training courses and so on and we can find ways to combine them, package them and add value to them, without needing to change the core contents.

Sometimes good business starts with a basket and a strip of shiny ribbon!

Go for it!

Next week: Career Coaching Counts

I love radio. It’s such an intimate medium. You have your voice, your personality and a microphone and that’s about it. I’m the creator and host of the Business Life show on Future Radio …107.8fm or DAB or with an app or via www.futureradio.co.uk 12-2pm every Thursday. I have to find my voice every week, for two hours of live radio. No pressure!

Anna Stevenson is our producer and co-host and she does a great job of booking guests each week …most of whom are nervous about being live on air. Yet when the mic goes live they find their voice and share successes and showcase their business.

Despite their reservations they fly! 

It proves to me that we all have the capability to speak up when we need to. Of course we are super friendly and supportive and put our guests at ease. I mention this because often our personal fantasy is that our voice is horrible, we are boring and that the experience will be ghastly.

The truth is that people want us to succeed. We can be our own worst enemy at times, when the reality is that we are lovely people, with great voices and a story to tell.

To find our voice the first step is to brush aside any anxieties we have about our accent, or our diction. I tend to roll my r’s when not concentrating, which used to be a nuisance being called Richard. However, I am me and we are not looking for perfection. Good enough is good enough and I’ve learned that our voice is part of our character. We can enjoy being ourselves!

The next step is to speak out. We can practice talking out loud in the safety of our kitchen. Most kitchens have a natural echo to them so this mirrors speaking out in a big room when networking. I pretend the chairs are people and talk to them …and being chairs they don’t undermine my confidence by looking bored, or rolling their eyes.

If we really want to get good then we can use a phone app to record ourselves. Listening back helps us to improve and don’t worry if you hate the sound of your voice at first …after three goes you will be more used to it. Wearing headphones when recording can be a big help too, as they give us instant feedback on our pace and volume.

Remember that our skull and ears are designed to reduce the volume of our voices so what we sound like to ourselves is not what people hear.

If we practice when we are calm we can find our voice when we are under pressure. Pianists, footballers, politicians all practice to hone their physical or oratorial skills. We are no different and the more we practice the easier it gets.

So this week we can all have fun talking to the chairs in our house. Maybe we can tell them a story, or read out a poem? I’m sure they’d enjoy either!

Next week: The Box Trick