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Jimmy DeGroot: Positive Effect of Negative Information January 30, 2025 (0 comments)

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Green Bay, WI--In Daniel Pink’s book “To Sell is Human,” he refers to a concept called the blemishing effect. Can a negative ever be a positive when it comes to moving others?

Three marketing professors in 2012 studied the behaviors of people shopping for hiking boots online. To half the group, the researchers listed all the benefits of the boots such as comfort, washability, orthopedic insoles, no tie fasteners and so on. To the other half, they listed the exact same positive benefits but then followed it up with a small negative. These boots only come in two colors. Amazingly, the people who were given a little dose of negativity were more likely to buy the boots than those who just received the positive information alone.

The researchers called this phenomenon, “the blemishing effect.” In their words, adding a minor negative detail in an otherwise positive description can give that description a more positive impact. Isn’t this interesting?

But the researchers say that it only works with these two caveats: The purchaser must be in a low effort state, meaning they’re not engineers combing every detail of this product, and second, the negative information must follow the positive information. You’ll notice this blemished effect in a few areas. First, with online reviews. People tend to place less trust in stores that receive all five-star reviews. For me when shopping online, I look for those negative reviews and if there are none, I’m suspicious. Then when I find some, I look to see first if the person giving the review seems credible or how the store responded to their review. Not every business or product is perfect, and I place more trust in folks who have handled their errors or product issues with integrity.

Also, when you go into a diner and see 100 items on the menu, you’re suspicious. How could they be great at making all this food? How could they keep all these ingredients fresh? How can a chef possibly remember how to make all this stuff, and can they make it delicious if they have 20 other orders for 20 different dishes?

Often, we can turn our little negative into the reason why the product is so amazing in the first place. For a custom-made guitar or piece of jewelry we might say, unfortunately because of the attention to detail with this piece, there is a six-week delivery turnaround on this item. Also, there might be something limited about our product because every item is made to order, or the mine only produces so much per year in order to give the workers time with their families. You can see here how a little negative can either be no big deal for your customer or they will actually see this little negative tidbit as a positive, adding to your product’s exclusivity.

Now I’m not saying go around to each item in the store and memorize something negative about it. But don’t shy away from something that is negative about the product. In your discovery through key questions, you’ll automatically know whether this little fact is a deal breaker for the customer. In our world where transparency is so very important, we shouldn’t be leaving out the negative anyway. It’s better for a customer to hear it in our sales presentation after you’ve listed the positives (the features and benefits) than for them to realize it when they get home. So don’t be afraid of a little negative. Use it to add to the product’s appeal.

From the article: "The Positive Effect of Negative Information," Bill Snyder, June 1, 2011.  Stanford Business

James (Jimmy) DeGroot is a professional jewelry sales and operations trainer from the jeweler’s side of the counter. Having been in management and the jewelry business for over 20 years, Jimmy offers weekly training to jewelers nationwide via the Train Retail website. Jimmy is an AGS titleholder and specializes in training relevant and timely methods for jewelry teams. He can do a full training on making Bridal Presentations the best they can be, among many other regular training options. Contact Jimmy at jimmy@trainretail.com or call 920-492-1191.