According to Robert Cialdini, people are obliged to give back to others in the form of a behavior, gift, or service that they have received first.When used tactfully, appropriately, and in a non-cheesy manner, reciprocity makes it difficult to say no.Also, the key to using the Principle of Reciprocity is to be the first to give and ensure that what you give is personalized and unexpected.

What is The Law of Reciprocity?

Guilt is sending a follow-up email to a buyer and leading with, “I never heard back.” But here’s the thing: While this wording does tend to increase reply rates, it actually decreases meetings booked by 14%.“Never heard back” makes your buyer feel guilty.It’s the opposite of The Law of Reciprocity.

Reciprocity Isn’t Guilt, Here’s How They’re Different

When sending follow-up prospecting emails, it’s possible to send a valuable note while still being tight, compact, and straightforward. Even emails that are 150+ words (considered “long”) can be effective if it’s concise, well-crafted, packed with value (info that connects the prospect or their company to your offer, AND if the message is personalized, direct, and intentional in every sentence.

Personalization matters!

Send your buyer a personalized, customized, one-off, just-for-them video. It takes extra time, effort, and additional research, but it's totally worth it.even just having your prospect see you is powerful, not just because they see you in person, but … wait for it … because of the Law of Reciprocity

Send A Custom Video 

Burden: a duty, a responsibility, the bearing of a load, something oppressive or worrisome.One of the worst things you can do as a sales rep is to ask your buyer to DO SOMETHING … to burden them.Build your champion’s buying guide for them. Take the burden! Nobody pitches your product better than you, one of the company’s top sales reps, right? Unfortunately, if you let your champion give it a go, they will likely fall back on feature selling (dumping).

Take The Burden

The top-notch sellers delight buyers with the unexpected. Generally speaking, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to meet your buyer in person. BUT, you can still do something meaningful and unexpected.COFFEE GIFT CARD!

Trigger An Unfair Exchange

Learn how the best of the best sales pros leverage the law of reciprocity to build rapport and box out the competition.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

The Law Of Reciprocity: How Top Sellers Use Psychology To Win More

We usually spend more time on how to figure out our margins based on costs and the financial goals we need to reach and underestimate some seemingly small and unimportant factors that can influence the perception of pricing and cause a potential customer to buy. When choosing between multiple pricing options, psychology and brain functioning can influence how we perceive the price.

Missing factors that  influence pricing

Avoid overly colouring. Colours are typically used to highlight or “add a weight”. When it comes to pricing, weight makes them look less affordable. But there are instances you can use light colours to your advantage.

Avoid colours in the pricing sections

The position of the price tag can make it look even lighter. A recent study showed that the location of a product image on the packaging influences consumers’ perceptions of what they call “visual heaviness”. If prices are placed at the top, potential customers subconsciously think they must be lighter and thus more affordable.

Position the price tag at the top

As a general rule of thumb, try to bring pricing plans together as much as possible. Research shows that customers will consider it as a group and feel like they will be taking advantage of the benefits listed in all pricing plans.

Shorten the distance between the available plans

You should properly name every single pricing plan and ensure that the size of the name is larger than the price. You want your customers to focus on what they will be offered rather than how much it will cost.

Naming your pricing plans

If you use colour to highlight your most expensive plan, it would be the first thing a potential customer will look at. The first reference price for your product should be the highest one. After that, the remaining plans will look much more affordable.

Highlight your most expensive plan

How to price your products more effectively using concepts from psychology and brain functioning. Pricing Techniques for startups

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

The Psychology of Pricing

Underearning occurs when someone makes under their potential and has a mental block around deserving or earning more. It can feel like being stuck in a loop—only making enough to get by. It can be caused by an accumulation of bad habits or even a mindset full of limiting beliefs. Either way, anyone suffering from underearning deserves to break the cycle.

Earning Less Than You Are Capable Of

Constant financial crisis: You're always in a financial mess, in debt, or feel dead broke.Financial ignorance: You're clueless about how much money you have, earn or need. Isolation: You're not comfortable asking for help, especially about ways to earn more or to do your work in a more efficient or cost-effective way.Procrastination: You generally mismanage your time or drag on work that could be done quickly.Undercharging or accepting low pay: You underprice services for fear that you'll lose clients or that you don't deserve that much.

High Tolerance For Low Pay: Self-Diagnosing If You Are An Underearner

If you are in denial about your financial situation, you cannot make the money moves needed to fix it. You must first concede that you have a problem. Perhaps you fear that if you make over a certain threshold, your friends and family will expect handouts. Or maybe no one else you know has ever made over a certain amount, so you think it is impossible for you to do so. Maybe you think that only people who have certifications and degrees—or those who work in certain fields—can earn in increasing amounts.

Accept the Situation

Gather information: your earnings, your expenses, your debts, your assets, your habits, your preferences, and everything that affects your finances. You'll have to get very clear about what your expenses are and whether they're higher than they should be. Cancel subscriptions you don't need and get rid of anything that is a drain on your household income.

Get Educated

Learn about cost-effective alternatives that could lower the amount of cash flowing out. And plan to open your mind to quick and easy wins that will allow you to bring in more money, easily. This could mean committing to watching free YouTube and TedX videos around your industry to learn how to position yourself for a raise or how to justify a price hike in your business. Being open to learning is important to improving your habits and increasing your earnings.

Be Open To Learn And Implement New Ideas

Often, you're never in control of the things that matter most—your time and money. With the clarity gained from education, you'll need to commit to getting organized. Take an inventory of how you spend your time and your money. Are you spending too much time on things that don't earn you money? Could you be more efficient at taking on more clients or <a href="https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/how-to-hire-staff-save-money">hiring staff</a> to do administrative work? Once you get organized enough to find the inefficiencies in your current patterns and to create strategies to get organized, then you're on your way to breaking the cycle of underearning.

Get Organized

There are a lot of resources to choose from, and they're not all worthwhile. Your search might be misplaced if, for example, you haven't already done steps one through three to really identify what's holding you back. If you discover you have a savings problem, you'll want to look for books, podcasts, and experts who can help you understand why it is so hard for you to hold on to money, even when you earn large amounts.

Access the Right Kind of Resources

If you realize that you're constantly de-valuing your work, even after you've compared market rates and your successes, then you may need a therapist to help you tackle low self-esteem. Or you may want to hire someone specifically to handle the sales and billing for your company so that you don't have to have those difficult conversations about raising prices or increasing rates.

Devaluing Your Work

Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it does make you way better than you used to be. Whatever changes you're trying to enact, you must keep doing them—even if you're off to a rocky start. Relapses can be avoided, but they are common. You'll have spending splurges and you'll forget to turn off a bill. But with time and practice, these mistakes will happen less frequently.

Make It A Practice

It is so much harder to work your way out of debt and underearning than it is to get into it. So be gentle with yourself as you improve your situation, little by little. Take a look back every quarter and congratulate yourself on the things you're doing a lot better than before. Over time, your bank account will reflect your wins, not your stumbles.

The Bottom Line

You may be earning a lot less than what you are worth, and not know it.

A guide to overcoming chronic underearning at work, with five steps to get unstuck if you realize you're in a vicious cycle of financial dead ends.

habits

Habits

5 Ways to Overcome Chronic Underearning 

From groceries to gas, prices are up on a multitude of items — including one particular consumer staple: eggs.There’s a lot of chatter around exactly why inflation is relatively high, not only in the United States but globally. Some people blame the pandemic, others the supply chain, others government spending, others corporate greed. The truth of the matter is that there is a mix of factors in play, and there’s no one simple answer to how we got here — or solution to how to get out of this. To the average person, the whole thing can feel confusing.

Explaining Inflation

The <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm">Consumer Price Index</a>, which measures the average change in prices paid for things like food, clothes, housing, and transportation, was up by 7.5 percent overall over the past year as of January. The price of eggs, according to the measure, was up by 13.1 percent.The cause of the egg price increases we’re experiencing now is more of a production issue than a demand one, though both are in the mix. Egg prices depend in part on the chickens that lay the eggs — and currently, they’re more expensive to feed.

The Consumer Price Index

The egg industry, like every industry, is facing higher prices and challenges that are leading to costlier eggs for consumers overall.According to USDA data,the average year-to-date price on Grade A large eggs was $1.46 a dozen, which is up from $1.01 a dozen in 2021 and $1.00 a dozen in 2020. Because eggs are one of the ingredients in so many food items, you can see how all of this could push prices up on other things, too.

The Egg Industry

Increased freight costs are contributing to higher prices as well. Trucks to get the eggs from point A to point B are more expensive, as is fuel (likely becoming even more so now, thanks to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22949683/russia-ukraine-gas-prices-oil-inflation-stock-market">Russian invasion in Ukraine</a> and subsequent sanctions). Moscogiuri estimates that freight up 30 to 40 percent can translate into an extra 10 cents a dozen.

Transportation Costs

Everything is getting more expensive because everything else is, including when it comes to eggs. Like it has all industries, the pandemic has shaped the story of the egg market over the past two years, and that story hasn’t been a linear one. When the pandemic hit, there was a big spike in demand for eggs. People were cooking more at home, and eggs are often an item people could easily buy and store.The carton companies are struggling to make deliveries. Everybody’s raising their prices on everything, from cartons to corrugated boxes to the plastic wrap that goes around the eggs.

The Pandemic And The Egg

Looking at the <a href="https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/CUSR0000SEFH;jsessionid=26858E8F3C34E557BABA917F3F9E18CE">Consumer Price Index month to month</a>, you can see how egg prices have bounced around during the Covid-19 outbreak. The CPI for eggs jumped by 15 percent in April 2020 and then fell in May, June, July, and August. The price drop is in part because the early days of the pandemic curbed demand for eggs and egg products from restaurants and fast food companies and food service operations, even while people were buying eggs at the store.

Month On Month CPI

As corporations and states start to push for eggs from cage-free chickens, that is pushing prices up, too. Essentially, it’s pricey to be nicer to chickens.Consumer demand for cage-free eggs has grown, though it’s not everyone’s priority. However, when regular eggs are more closely priced to cage-free and organic eggs, consumers start to opt for the slightly fancier option.

It’s Expensive to Be Nice to Chickens

Eggs don’t paint the full inflation picture in the US, but they do a part of it — it’s more expensive to feed chickens and move eggs around, so it’s more expensive to produce and move eggs, so it’s more expensive for consumers to buy eggs.They also help highlight the difficulties of solving the inflation problem. The egg industry isn’t wildly concentrated, so there’s not really a singular Big Egg to lean on to bring prices down. It’s also not the case that consumers flush with cash have been pouring their stimulus checks into eggs.

From groceries to gas prices, inflation is showing up across the economy. An explanation of the dynamics of inflation, explained by chickens and eggs.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

Inflation, explained by eggs

When traveling abroad, you'll have to exchange the currency of your origin country for that of your destination, but what determines the rate at which these are exchanged? In short, the exchange rate of a country's currency is determined by its supply and demand rate in the country for which currency is being exchanged.Exchange rate sites make it easier for people to plan their trips abroad, but it's important to note that along with an increase in cost for foreign currency oftentimes comes an increased price of goods and services there.

The Exchange Rate

A variety of factors influences how a nation's currency, and in turn, its exchange rate, are determined, including supply and demand of goods by foreign consumers, speculations on future demands of currency, and even central banks' investments in foreign currencies.

The Factors Influencing Currency

Like any other price in local economies, exchange rates are determined by supply and demand — specifically the supply and demand for each currency. But that explanation is almost tautological as one must also know we need to know what determines the supply of a currency and the demand for a currency.<ul><li>The supply of a currency on a foreign exchange market is determined by the following:</li><li>Demand for goods, services, and investments priced in that currency.</li><li>Speculations on future demands of that currency.</li><li>Central banks occasionally buy up foreign currency to affect the exchange rate.</li></ul>

Short-Run Exchange Rates Are Determined by Supply and Demand

There is at least a rough level to which a currency should be worth, as detailed in the <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/economics-4133521">Purchasing Power Parity Theory</a>. The exchange rate, in the long run, needs to be at the level which a basket of goods costs the same in two currencies. Thus, if a Mickey Mantle rookie card, for instance, costs $50,000 Canadian and $25,000 U.S., the exchange rate should be two Canadian dollars for one American dollar.

The Worth Of The Currency

The exchange rate is actually determined by a variety of factors, which change constantly. As a result, it's important when traveling abroad to check the current exchange rate in destination countries, especially during peak tourist season when the foreign demand for domestic goods is higher.

The exchange rate of a currency is largely determined by the supply and demand of that currency in terms of foreign consumer demand for domestic goods.

What Determines a Currency's Exchange Rate?

Don’t accept a project without discussing what is expected on both sides. Make sure you understand what your client wants you to do, how much time they are giving you to do it, and to what extent they expect you to include them in the process. If you think their expectations are unrealistic, discuss alternative timelines or adjustments to the project. It’s a good idea to give each client a written copy of your process, including milestones where you’ll expect payments. This will keep them from calling you to ask about the next step, and it may prevent payment delays.

Discuss what is expected on both sides

There are many reasons that the details of a project may change, so you must plan for that when drafting your contract and discussing your work process. You should cover the steps a client may take when requesting changes to the original design plan, and this includes adjustments to the timeline and budget. Many clients don’t realize how much work is involved for changes that they consider simple. When setting milestone dates and deadlines, give yourself some room for unexpected delays.

Plan ahead for changes and delays

Don’t give a price quote until you’ve thoroughly discussed the needs of the client.There are some things that justify an increase in your rate, but you may not know that those things apply until you’ve thoroughly discussed the project. If they expect you to put other projects aside and rush their order, then they should expect to pay a bit more. They should also expect to pay for added elements or more complex designs, so hear the client out before you give them a number.

Price quotas

Offer clients a first and second phase to control unrealistic expectations and nonstop additions.Clients come to you because they don’t have the knowledge needed to take the vision in their heads and turn it into a functional product. This is why many successful designers create a two-phase project. The first phase will include essential features which make the product functional. The second phase will include features that are more elevated but which aren’t necessarily needed. In many cases, the first phase product is exactly what the client needs.

Avoiding unrealistic expectations

Stay in the design business long enough, and you’ll run into at least a few clients that are on fire for their projects at the beginning but drop out of sight somewhere along the way. These are often clients with big dreams and a shortage of ambition or funds. As long as you’ve given the client a timeline for payments and are firm in collecting before you proceed to the next milestone, you won’t lose out financially. You just have to accept that there may come a point when your messages go unanswered and you have to set the project aside.

Accept that some projects are destined to die

Tips to help you become an effective and self-reliant graphic designer

career

Career

Being a Graphic Designer in the Modern World

product

Product & Design

5 Tips to Deal with Graphic Design Clients – Graphic Design Degree Hub

There are 8 million online stores in the world. This means that there are more choices to choose from. If you sift through the stores according to your unique criteria, including price, location and service, you may still end up with several stores you can choose from. If one of these stores have a loyalty program, they may sway you to order from them to gain additional benefits.

Loyalty programs 

In the United States, shoppers belong to 3 billion loyalty programs. But many business owners create mediocre loyalty programs so that they can tick it off their list. These undesirable loyalty programs are left unused and forgotten by consumers.With so many e-commerce options for customers to choose from, customers gravitate towards the programs where they feel valued.

Effective customer loyalty programs

<ol><li>Connect customers with unexpected surprises.</li><li>These perks should be tailored to the individual.</li></ol>Most customers prefer a VIP experience. A 2020 survey found that free shipping and discounts are considered a low bar. "Early access to sales" and "early access to new products" were most valued, followed by "tailored offers and recommendations."

How to build  a successful loyalty program

A loyalty program that is just a collection of coupons is more harmful than not having a program as it reveals your low regard for your customers. A loyalty program should foster value year-round.<ul><li>A baseline inclusion is giving a perk on your customer's birthdays. View it as an opportunity to interact with your customers. </li><li>Perhaps give them a 50% off coupon together with a fun birthday note. Or maybe provide exclusive access to content with a paywall or offer a voucher for a free item from your store.</li></ul>

The Best Customer Loyalty Programs

<ul><li>Personalised. Your program should not feel like a default for all customers. Instead, the program should feel tailored to each customer.</li><li>Unique. Ensure your programs looks and feels distinct.</li><li>Accessible. Build your program, then make it easy to access. Even loyal fans will lose interest if they have to complete too many steps.</li><li>Rewarding. Instead of reverting to the collection of coupons, consider free shipping, an extended window for product returns, or a discount on their birthday.</li><li>Consistent. Some loyalty programs start with enthusiasm, then fizzle out. Ensure that your program is consistent.</li></ul>

Must have's for a successful loyalty program

Suitable investments at the right time will always be beneficial. Balance the offerings with the cost of the program to ensure the value is symbiotic. Your incremental revenues - your incremental costs = loyalty program cost. The formula is based on the projections for customer response to the program. The incremental revenues include increased customer referrals, decreased turnover, and higher sales.

The cost of building customer loyalty programs

Building customer loyalty programs is easy. Making them successful takes effort. Get valuable insights on how to make yours shine.

Building Customer Loyalty Programs That Work

This article is an analysis that will help you identify what stories make the big bucks on medium so that you can learn from them and possibly do the same. Thanks to Michael Deng, I’ve been spending hours and hours using this wonderful resource.

How This Medium Story Made $1,744.21 in One Month

<ul><li>The highest performing story for members only of the year was Laziness does not exist by E price.</li><li>The story was published in March 2018.&nbsp;</li><li>According to the Partner Program Updates email, the most money earned by a single locked story in March 2018 was $1,744.21.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Medium Partner Program Figures

Medium.com received 56,888 claps from 5,616 people, substantially fewer than the top story of the previous month. How did the month's top Member-Story perform worse than the month's before but earn considerably more money ($1,200+) the only theory I've come up with is the scenario where of the total number of people who clapped for the story, medium members clapped more, thereby generating more payment.

Inside The Partner Program Hood

Medium.com Eliason’s story received slightly fewer claps (54,910), but from a greater number of people (6,950), increasing the likelihood of more members doing the applauding. The only reason I feel confident about the Laziness does not exist story earning the $1,744.21 is that there aren’t any other member stories that come close to it that month. It seems to show medium is making a genuine effort to reward quality writing and ideas.

The Real Stats

Doing research for a Medium writing tips course, I stumbled upon a discovery. I found a way to prove that one Medium story made exactly $1,744.21. This article is an analysis that will help you…

Technically, there’s no minimum amount of money needed to start investing in stocks. But you probably need at least $200 — $1,000 to really get started right.Most brokerages have no minimums to open an account and get started buying stocks. So theoretically, you could open an account today with just $1.That said, there are three factors that set a natural floor on how little money you can start investing with. In general, you should have enough money to:<ol><li>Afford a single share of stock.</li><li>Properly diversify your portfolio.</li><li>Protect your profits from trading fees.</li></ol>

How Much Money Do I Need to Start Investing in Stocks?

While many brokers allow you to open an account with just $1, there’s still the question of, “What stock can you buy for $1?”Based on your research, there will be a stock (or several stocks) you want to buy. In order to start investing, you need enough money to afford at least a single share — which could range from $1 — $300,000.However, there’s a relatively new workaround to this problem. A few brokerage startups allow investors to buy fractional shares for as little as $5.

You Need Enough Money to Buy a Single Share of Stock

Put simply, your goal should be to own between 10–30 positions.If you only have $1,000 to invest, it’s fine to start with just a few positions, especially if you’re planning to add more over time.As you add money to your investment account,buy a different stock with your next $1,000, and a third stock with the $1,000 after that. You want to avoid piling all your money into a single stock since this leaves you overly concentrated and your entire investment future tied to a single position.

You Need Enough Money to Properly Diversify Your Portfolio

If you’re starting with a small amount of money in your investment account, trading fees could really eat into your profits.

You Need Enough Money to Protect Your Profits from Trading Fees

In general, try to invest as much as possible in the stock market because the incredible power of compounding can create so much wealth over the long term.Every extra dollar you invest wisely in the market today could be worth $5, $10, $20, or more in the future.Some very important guideline to follow to limit how much you invest in the stock market:<ul><li>Never invest so much money that it would risk your financial future.</li><li>Never invest money you’ll need in the next 5–10 years.</li><li>Never invest so much money that you can’t sleep well at night.</li></ul>

How Much Money Should You Invest in Stocks?

Learn how to start investing in stocks with just $5. Plus explore how much of your money you should invest in the stock market vs. save for the future.

The first step to managing financial stress is having the courage to actually do something about the situation. Many are scared to look at their bank account balance, but we need to make an honest evaluation of the situation by doing the following:<ul><li>Make a list of your liabilities that's burdening you (car loans, investment loans, etc.,)</li><li>Organize your financial accounts. If you don't have an online account for each of your banks, investments, or credit cards, make one for easier tracking</li><li>Make time to assess your accounts and establish what needs to happen moving forward</li></ul>

Face the Music

Once you have organized your accounts into a notebook or an excel sheet, set aside the time to track your expenses so that you'd be able to identify where you spend the most should you need to cut back. Being able to direct and redirect your money will ultimately lead you to a healthier financial and emotional place.

Create a Budget

It's likely that from all the financial planning you'll eventually get overwhelmed and think about giving up. Should that scenario happen, allow yourself to take a break and self-soothe. Afterwards, list down everything that you need to do and divide them into manageable tasks then allocate a certain amount of time to accomplish each task. The goal here is to make financial planning less complex and more motivated to tackle them.

Break Down Your Tasks

When feeling overwhelmed self-soothing is the best option anyone can take, however, make sure that your coping mechanisms won't negatively affect you. Allow yourself to sit with the uncomfortable feeling and process it, possibly through journaling, exercise, or a hobby that relaxes you.

Let Yourself Feel

Debt is the main source of stress and frustration for many, and being constantly stressed can take a toll on our health. To help with this here's a suggestion that might help:<ul><li>Contact all of your lenders, bill providers, and bank services if they can assist you with reducing your monthly statements through any programs they might have like discounts you qualify for or deferment programs.</li></ul>

Asking for Help with Debt

Our mental health and financial situation overlap with each other. The Mental Health Policy Institute stated that when financial situations become troubling, the mental health of the individual worsens along with it. With the right resources and availability of these resources, you may be able to reach out to therapists that can assist you to have a healthier relationship with your finances.

The Law Of Reciprocity: How Top Sellers Use Psychology To Win More

The Psychology of Pricing

5 Ways to Overcome Chronic Underearning

Inflation, explained by eggs

What Determines a Currency's Exchange Rate?

Roger Conrad