Your Customers Don’t Know As Much As You Think They Do
The Curse of Knowledge…
On a recent trip, I picked up a copy of the Invisible Gorilla – a really great book about the tricks our mind plays on us.
You probably know the famous story about the experiment where people were asked to watch a video of a basketball game and count the passes?
In the middle of the video a woman walks onto the court dressed in a gorilla suit, thumps her chest and walked off again…?
Did You See Her?
When asked whether anything unusual happened, around half of the people did not notice the gorilla.
Amazing. But our mind notices what we put our attention on – so by focusing on counting the passes, it’s totally natural that we don’t notice the gorilla.
But – I digress….
It’s Not About Gorillas, It’s About Knowledge
The story that caught my eye was a different one. One that is at the front of my mind right now as I’m preparing a new training programme.
How Much Do You Know?
Have you ever had that feeling that your stuff isn’t good enough? That everyone “must know this anyway” so are you really adding anything new?
Well maybe that’s overstating it! But the reality is, that as experts, teachers, and communicators, we often underestimate the value of what we know.
And it turns out this is a universal truth. It even has a name – the curse of knowledge (or at least that’s what the Yale researchers called it).
When they did experiments to test how good we are at assessing what we know and how good we are at assessing what other people know, they found that we are particularly bad at assessing what other people know.
And, even worse – we tend to assume that because we know something – other people must know it too. I often find myself telling my clients that they are underestimating the value of what they know.
Your Customers Really Don’t Know As Much As You Think They Do!
This backs it up. Because we know something, we think other people know it too. And the science tells us that this is often not true. We are actually pretty bad at figuring out what other people know.
So – when you next worry that your blog post or your training programme is “too basic” and “don’t people know that already” – the answer is – “no, they probably don’t!”
I’d love to hear your experience of this – do you ever think go through that phenomenon – that you under-value what you know? Leave a comment below and let me know!
In the UK you can get the Invisible Gorilla here
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Cathy, this is so true and it’s why we should get into the way of turning the tables and putting ourselves in the shoes of our clients, our target market, our readers etc.
Heather Waring recently posted… Live each day with love and appreciation and doing what you love
This is so true! I find myself falling victim to this too often. And it stops me from putting out products that could be useful to people.
That’s true about not knowing your audience and making assumptions. That’s where testing comes into play. Present some content see what kind of reaction you get. I gave a presentation recently and discovered just what some people didn’t know that I thought they did.
Mike
Mike recently posted… Facebook Changes for Businesses
Wow! Why do I keep forgetting this!
It never ceases to amaze me how basic even the biggest gurus stuff is, and yet I’m trying to figure out something more complex to teach!
Great post Cathy!
I often wonder if my blogs add enough value, and I probably overestimate how much my clients know.
I like Mike’s comment and agree with the rest of the comments above, particularly Heather’s – putting ourselves in our clients’ shoes.
Good to re-think this stuff!
Debbie
Hi Cathy,
Great post! pointing out the blindingly obvious is one of the most difficult challenges we have, do you think it might be our own ego that is massaged by maintaining a superiority that leads to this omission?
Dean
PS love the picture of the gorilla!
Great comments! Isn’t it amazing how we all fall into the trap of underestimating what people want – and undervaluing what we know and can offer.
Dean – I hope it isn’t ego lol! I genuinely think we forget because live at the cutting edge of our knowledge so we assume everyone else does too. Not so! We were all newbies once upon a time ….
cathyp recently posted… Your Customers Don’t Know As Much As You Think They Do
This is such an interesting concept to grasp. And I’d have to admit that I probably just as bad about it as anyone else is. I’ll have to keep this in mind as I’m going through the weeks ahead. Thanks for sharing!
Grady Pruitt recently posted… My Understanding of the Law of Sacrifice for Success
I agree entirely! If you live your life on the internet, you think everyone know The Secret or “the law of attraction” of what a niche is. It’s amazing, however, how many people have never heard of marketing or motivational concepts that we assume everyone knows. I’ve even talked to people who can’t really tell me what Twitter is.
Even worse than assuming that others already know our planned content is assuming that they will be bored with it. How can they be bored with something that is entirely new to them?
Diana