Psychotactics

As a retailer, which is the most important sale of all? Is it the first sale, second sale, third sale or future sales?
Actually the answer is: “All of the above.” But you knew that already didn’t you. What you probably didn’t know, is the importance of the third conversion.
So what’s the third conversion?
The third conversion [...]

On December 25th, 2009, something quite remarkable happened at Amazon.com
For the first time in Amazon’s history, the sale of e-books overtook the sale of physical books. And on that specific day the paper book downslide officially began. The Kindle officially put the early set of nails in the coffin. What the Kindle didn’t complete, [...]

Switch on your TV.
It doesn’t matter what program is going on, you’ll notice something quite interesting. After about seven seconds something changes.  It may be the scene, it may be the camera angle, it maybe a whole new shot. But almost like clockwork you’ll find there’s a change every seven seconds or so.
Then look [...]

If you’re like most folks you’ll have run into the price vs. value dilemma. No, not in your marketing strategy, but just lazing over coffee and looking at real estate. There in front of you is this great looking house in the real estate section of your newspaper, and you notice that there’s no price [...]

Early in the year 2002, Psychotactics didn’t exist.
We weren’t selling any products. Barely even managing to get any consulting. And selling workshops or training to clients was just a dream.
Then an amazing little book came to our rescue.
Well, technically it wasn’t even a book. It was a presentation I’d made about ‘how customers think.’
Then someone [...]

There are writers. And there are writers.
But you see I was a cartoonist.

It was way back in the year 1988
I was drawing cartoon strips for a very popular newspaper called ‘Mid-Day’. And every day, I’d draw a new strip, and submit it to the newspaper. And since it was back in the days before the [...]

When you complete an article, you always have one of two reactions.
You think it rocks. Or you think it sucks. And you may be wrong on both fronts. You may think your article rocks, when in fact it sucks.
And vice versa.
So how do you know if your article works?
You would think you needed to read [...]

Every day at a certain point in my day my brain is exhausted. And this tiredness has nothing to do with writing. It’s rather got something to do with walking. And listening.
And yes, let me explain.
Every day I take a brisk walk for about an [...]

When I first started doing seminars in the year 2001, I’d start off talking. And flipping slides. And then talking some more. And then two days or three days would pass. Then I’d hand out the feedback forms.
And invariably someone would be upset.
They’d think the music was too loud. They’d wonder why there was music [...]

As a journalist, I might reject your PR piece for lots of reasons. Here are just a few. Avoid as many as you can, and you’re more likely to have positive results.

1) It’s irrelevant to what I do or what I’m working on. If I cover health topics exclusively, don’t send me a release about [...]

So you’re all focused on customers. Customers bring in the bread, the butter. And yes, sometimes the jam. But if you focused on competition for an itty-bitty while, you’d find that you could have a lot more jam.

Doesn’t make sense?
Well here’s how it works. Let’s say you’re selling a product or a service. Let’s take [...]

I love the New Yorker (I’ve been a subscriber for years—yes I get it all the way to New Zealand). And this cover summed up perfectly what I wanted to say. Saved me having to draw a cartoon instead.

In the year 2003, I went to a presentation in Australia.
There were 450 people in the room. [...]