Using Surprise To Your Advantage

May 4, 2009
Interview with Andy Nulman, author of Pow! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise

_______________

Mike Carruthers:
To be more successful, whether as a business or as an individual, one often overlooked strategy is the power of surprise.

Andy Nulman:
The definition here is it's the constant expansion of the boundaries of delightful extremes. What you want to make sure you do is delight a customer.

Andy Nulman

Andy Nulman, author of the book Pow! Right Between the Eyes

The goal is to cause what I call euphoric shock. The euphoric shock is that little tingle you give somebody where you reduce their resistances, you raise their level of happiness. At this point I call this the lubricant to yes, it makes people more susceptible to buy into what you're trying to sell.

Here's a good example of the use of surprise, Andy recalls being stuck in a long line in a bookstore at Christmas time and getting frustrated…

And suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around and it was this girl who worked in the store and she had a little basket of chocolates and said, "Listen sir I know it's Christmas time and we're very, very busy but would you like to have a chocolate to help pass the time?" And we all started talking to each other and suddenly the line, it just went like that, like nothing. For ten bucks they went out and got some chocolates and they completely changed the attitudes, surprised us all and here I am three years later talking about it on your radio show.

Think about when a business or an individual surprises you with something, it feels great.

It ends up bonding you - really this works not just in the business field but it's also incredibly powerful in a personal relationship field.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.