Seth Godin makes a very powerful point when he says "What you have doesn't make you unhappy. What you want does."

In terms of persuasion, your goal often is to make people unhappy by increasing the emotional connection to what they want. By keeping them focused on the source of their unhappiness and increasing their desire to be happy by getting what they want you cause them to buy.

And, as the brilliant Seth Godin points out, that all changes once they do buy from you, now all of your focus has to be on reminding people how happy they are . . . but happy related to products is fleeting so you must continue to provide them with more opportunities to see ways in which they are happy with your product or service that they haven't even considered yet.

Happiness is a core belief study for all true persuasionists and one of the best short videos on happiness and how it occurs was done by Dr. Dan Gilbert, Harvard Professor of Psychology and author of the book Stumbling On Happiness . Watch this very informative video here by clicking here or just watch below.

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I was very surprised to see the review by Executive Book Summaries (I didn't realize they were reviewing me), Deb Micek gave me the heads up. I thought the review was very thorough and positive even though the reviewer missed one point when she indicated that I undermined my credibility by employing some of the techniques I wrote about in the book by recommending Moleskine notebooks and the Canon SD pocket camera.

My favorite line from the review: ". . . Subliminal Persuasion is a fascinating entree into the mysterious world of influence and internet marketing."

By recommending products like that in the book and employing the techniques I was describing, I wanted the reader to recognize what I was doing so they could see practical applications. There are many more there as well. Not being critical of the reviewer but I've heard that several times now and I wanted to clarify the purpose for you the reader. And, these ARE products that I use regularly.

Thank a million for the great review Elizabeth Corcoran of Executive Book Summaries!

One of the questions I often get is why do sellers set prices ending in .97 or .95 or other specific pricing schemes and which is more effective. The answer is a little more complicated than they hope for but here it is.

When it comes to pricing people are often applying the rules of bartering internally. They are asking themselves if this item is actually worth x and if it isn't then how much should it be worth. In that determination of worth comes a decision about whether or not to purchase something.

To test these ideas University of Florida marketing professors Chris Janiszewski and Dan Uy tested whether or not some characteristic of the opening bid would influence the way the brain thinks about value and shapes bidding and buying behavior. They documented their research and findings in a paper called "Precision of Anchor Influences The Amount of Adjustment" published in the February 2008 Psychological Science journal.

Ultimately the question is are we more persuaded by something priced at $19.97 than a round $20.00?

Using a series of tests participants were asked to make an educated guess. For example, they had subjects think about a scenario in which they were buying a high definition plasma TV and asked to estimate the wholesale cost. The participants were told the retail price and given the additional information that the retailer had a reputation for being competitive in their pricing.

There were three scenarios that involved three different retail prices. One group of buyers was given a price of $5000.00, another $4988.00, and the third was given a price of $5012.00. The group given the price point of $5000 guessed much lower than the those who were given more precise prices, they moved further away from their mental anchor than those who were given more specific prices.

In order to test this in the real world they looked at real estate sales in one county in Florida for a five year period and compared listing prices with actual sale prices of homes. They found that sellers who listed their homes more specifically, say $495,500 rather than $500,000 consistently got closer to their asking price. Also, houses listed in round numbers lost more value if they sat on the market for a few months.

Understanding that competition is like an auction, I can get this product from you at X price and I can get it from that vendor for Y price makes pricing an important issue in the persuasion process. So, even when they generalize and say the price is $20.00, you should drive back with "Actually, $19.97." Setting the anchor and reinforcing it works in your favor.

Look at your pricing and see where you can set better anchors, then get started today.