How to Use Conformity for Business Advantage

business advantage

We’ve all seen conformity used to create business advantage.., just look at branding.

How can we use the conformity instincts in our minds to create business advantage? Specifically, how do we leverage the brain’s chemical responses to conformity? After all, we get a pleasure chemical when we conform and a threat chemical when we don’t.

Conformity and Business Advantage

Here are a few ideas for using the power of conformity to create business advantage.

1) Stories.  The conforming brain explains why stories with positive opinions about your business advantage are so powerful – especially when it comes to engaging with new buyers.

  • When you share these opinions in a non me, me, me way, you can literally trigger the pleasure response of your buyers’ brains.
  • As soon as they agree with the opinions they get rewarded.
  • The caveat here is this. Share the opinions of others and keep your mouth shut about your me, me, me  thinking. Let their reptilian brains do the work for you.

When you create and share stories that feature the positive opinions of 3rd parties whom your prospects view as trusted, you are setting up that reptilian trigger to conform. It’s that simple.

2) Community. The power of community is one of the most underutilized opportunities for our business advantage. The opportunity to get people talking about our business, our offerings, their solutions and value is unprecedented. We simply need the courage to defy our status quo beliefs about controlling our buyer conversations and step into the digital reality – they are already talking!

Imagine the influence the conforming brain will have within a community –  when you facilitate the sharing of opinions you also create the motivation for prospects to conform – and buy.

3) Questioning.  Conformity can be a threat to our success. When we have employees conforming to new opinions that are untested or out of sync with our desired path – we fragment our efforts. Similarly, when we’re all conforming with status quo opinions that were yesterdays news but not today’s truths – we are threatening our business advantage with gravity.

That’s why I suggest to clients that they question, question, question every belief, opinion and behavior.

  • When we question our beliefs with an eye to proving ourselves wrong, we shift our brains out of the conformity mode and into the search for a better way.
  • Once you find that better way – then you can use the power of conformity to realign your organization toward your new strategy, belief, behaviors and more.

The Bottom Line

The options for leveraging the conformity instinct to create business advantage are as endless as your imagination.

You can use it to create conformity – or you can use that same instinct to move away from conformity.

We can use this aspect of our minds to drive everything from employee motivation to strategic focus to wooing buyers and more.

Think about it. How can you leverage conformity to create business advantage, today?

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