In this episode of Sequence Over Strategy, Michelle breaks down the 1978 "Copy Machine Study" by Harvard professor Ellen Langer, showing how providing a reason—no matter how simple—can make requests far more compelling.
Ever wonder what to do to get people to say yes more often? In this episode of Sequence Over Strategy, Michelle breaks down the 1978 "Copy Machine Study" by Harvard professor Ellen Langer, showing how providing a reason—no matter how simple—can make requests far more compelling. She explains how this insight can improve networking, sales, and client engagement by adding a meaningful 'because' to your business communication. Tune in for actionable tips on boosting conversions and making your offers irresistible!
Check out the full episode at TheMichelleWarner.com
Hi, I'm Michelle Warner, and I'm a business designer and strategist, and in the 15 years I've done this work, I've noticed the same trend everywhere. Business owners are falling into the trap of centering strategies first, and they need to be centering sequence, because the reality is the steps you take in your business and the order in which you take them is more important than how well you implement any single strategy. So on this show, my goal is to fix that by helping you find and trust your own sequence of actions, rather than blindly following someone else's strategy. Welcome to Sequence Over Strategy.
In every episode of this show, I tackle a real question I'm hearing from real entrepreneurs. And today we're going to have a little bit of fun, and we're going to have fun with one of my favorite tricks that I was introduced to all the way back in undergrad. It's this little thing called the copy machine study. Some of you may have heard me talk about it before, or you may have run into it before, but I want to take a look at it again, because there are so many lessons that we can learn about simple steps that get missed in business, that you can really fill in if you understand the copy machine study. This is a study that came out of Harvard in 1978, and it provides an answer, again, to just so many typical questions. Questions like, how can I up my chances of someone responding to me when I reach out, right? AKA successful networking.
I'm always getting questions from you guys in terms of, what can we do when you're reaching out to someone to up the chances that they are going to respond? Or I hear, no one's moving past my discovery calls. How do I get them to be ready for a sales situation? Or I'm having trouble completing the sales process and helping people understand why they need the services I'm pitching to them. Something's not connecting once we get into the details of my program. And those are very different questions, right? But they all come back. We can find some answers within this study.
So if you've ever asked yourself any of these questions or similar ones, today is for you. Because we're going to find some breadcrumbs that we can follow by understanding some of the psychology around how people operate. So before we get into the business implications, let's talk about the copy machine study and let me tell you about it. I want to tell you about what was learned, and then we're going to go back and, again, apply it to all those questions I gave you. So stick with me, because this is fascinating stuff.
So here's the background. In 1978, and those were the days when you had to go to a library to stand in line to make copies of research you needed, you know, to write a paper or to do anything. This was a little bit of an ordeal. I'm going to date myself because while I wasn't doing this in 1978, I do remember these days when you couldn't look something up online. And so if you were writing a research paper or if you needed to do any kind of research, you went to the library, you looked it up, and then the most important stuff that you needed with you to complete the assignments, typically you went and got in line at a copy machine, paid your coins, and made copies of those things so that you could have them going forward to refer back to as you finished up your work. So enter a professor named Ellen Langer.
She's a Harvard psychology professor, and she decided to run an experiment based on this phenomenon of people lining up to make copies. And what she did was she sent three of her students to the Harvard library, I believe it was on like a Saturday afternoon, it would be busy, and she asked them to attempt to cut in line at the copy machine. And she gave each of the three a specific script to follow when doing so.
One of the persons said, excuse me, I have five pages, may I use the Xerox machine? Another person said, excuse me, I have five pages, may I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies? And the third said, excuse me, I have five pages, may I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush? And here's where it gets interesting. Of those requests, the first, which was, if you recall, may I use the copy machine, was successful 60% of the time. So apparently people were really nice in 1978, and if you just said, may I use the copy machine, 60% of people would let you cut in line.
The second, where somebody said, may I cut in line because I have to make copies was successful at a 93% clip. And the third, when someone said, excuse me, may I cut in line, I have five pages, I'm in a rush, that was successful at a 94% clip.
So you're listening to this. So I'm going to reiterate again, the conditions that those numbers happened under. In the first case, person gave no reason, and they were successful 60% of the time. In the second case, the person gave a meaningless reason as to why they needed to cut in line. They literally said, because I have to make copies, everybody in that line needed to make copies, right? So that's a meaningless reason. And yet they were successful 93% of the time. And then the third time, the person gave a good reason. They said, I'm in a rush, may I cut in line? And in that case, they were successful 94% of the time.
So that first one, without any kind of reason, had that 60% success clip, which is still pretty impressive, but it was clearly the least effective. Because if you remember the results of the second two, the second was successful at a 93% rate, and the third was successful at a 94% rate. And so two things we need to keep in mind there.
Both of those situations in which they gave a meaningless reason and a good reason, both of those were over 30% more effective than giving no reason at all. So the person who just asked to cut in line was only successful at 60% of the time. But the person who asked, may I cut in line because I need to make copies, which is totally meaningless, was successful 93% of the time. So 33 points higher. And there was only one point difference between the two reasons that were given. One reason, the meaningless reason, because I need to make copies, which is true of everybody in the line, successful 93% of the time. The other reason, because I'm in a rush, was successful 94% of the time. So a nonsense reason was only one point less successful than an actual reason. So what does this tell us?
This tells us that people, or more specifically our brains, like being given reasons to do things, specifically 33 points. We like it at a rate of 33 points, right? From 60% to 93% was the rate of improvement when given any kind of reason.
And we're going to be willing to do things even if the reason we're given isn't of the utmost importance, right? Because let's remember again, that second prompt, because I need to make copies, everybody in that line needed to make copies. So that reason didn't make sense. So we learned that giving no reason at all, again, was 33 points more successful than giving a reason that made no sense. And that reason that made no sense was only one point less successful than giving a good reason, right? 93% to 94% between I need to make copies and I need to make copies because I'm in a hurry.
So the conclusion is that people like being given a reason to do things even if that reason isn't so strong. We're going to talk about that second point in a minute because the takeaway that I don't want you to have from this episode is that you can give people nonsense reasons and they will still do things. We don't want that takeaway.
But the takeaway we do want is that giving people a reason, I call this a because statement, is really effective in helping move people along. And not just move people along because you want them to move along because you want to make a sale, but in actually helping people's brain comprehend what you're saying. If you just say a statement, right, may I cut in line, people are kind of waiting for that because they're listening for the reason and that helps their brain process things.
And so we want to take that reminder with us when we start applying it to, hey, what can I use from the psychology study to understand how I can influence behavior? Not in a negative way. I don't want you to influence people to do things that they shouldn't otherwise do. But instead, when you're running into challenges with your business, how can you learn how you might be able to help people understand a little bit better by using the learnings from this study and by incorporating because statements? By which I mean by incorporating reasons for people to do things. So let's start applying this to those questions I posed at the beginning.
Let's say you're trying to connect with someone. You want to make a new connection. You've maybe taken my networking that pays course. You've identified your ideal connection avatars, and you're trying to figure out how to reach out to somebody so that you can meet them. You can add them to your network. Well, a lot of times this is where we immediately get stuck because you don't know why you're reaching out to anyone. And I talk about this so much in the art of connection. I talk about specific thank you formulas that some of you may have heard. And what is behind all of those is building in a reason and building in a because statement. Because when you reach out to someone, you don't want to say, hi, you know, this is Michelle. It's great to hear from you. I would love to chat sometime.
That's not going to be successful, right? You're giving no reason. You're just reaching out to somebody and saying you would like to connect. And I know that might sound silly when we're talking about it here, but it happens way more often than you would think. And so instead, what you can do is you can think about the because. Why are you reaching out to them? How can you provide them some context as to what you're doing? And you probably don't want to jump right away to something that's transactional, right? And something that you need from them. But you do want to say, because I saw you write this, and it really stuck with me and has influenced my thinking, I wanted to reach out and say hello. You're giving them a reason and you're giving them a nice, authentic reason, right? You're not giving them a nonsense reason. You're saying, hey, I saw you write this, and because of that, I'm reaching out to say hello. I wanted to connect. That is going to get a much higher response.
I've never actually recorded or scientifically studied my students in terms of their success rate. But I can tell you anecdotally, that is going to get a sky high, higher response rate than somebody who is just reaching out and saying, hi, I was hoping to connect with you. And honestly, you can think about circumstances from your own life, examples from your own life where this is true. Let's think about LinkedIn experiences. If somebody just sends you a connection request, you might accept it, you might not. That's not really the point. But if they don't send that with any kind of context or a because statement of why they're connecting with you, whether you accept it or not, you're not going to remember who that person is. And so even if you accept it because you just kind of accept most requests that come your way, I'm guilty of that.
I am not going to remember anybody who just sent me a connection request without any kind of context around it. But if you send me a note at the same time that we're connecting and you say, hey, because I heard you speak here or because I heard this interview or because whatever, I'm going to actually remember you. That sticks with me because we have because statements and it makes me want to respond to you. Right. I have a reason. Oh, this person connected via this interview that landed for them. Great. I would love to talk to them a little bit more. I now have a reason and conveniently have a really good reason too. Because honestly, and this is what we don't want to do if we don't have to do it. But those kind of nonsense reasons work in this way too. And I can point right at myself.
I went to the University of Illinois for undergrad. It's a huge Big Ten school. Lots and lots of students there. And I have now graduated many, many years ago. But if somebody reaches out to me and says, hey, because I'm an Illinois alum and I noticed we were both alums, I thought I'd reach out and say, hello, you know, would you mind if I asked you this question? And honestly, I still fall into the trap. I say, yeah. Oh, my gosh. We both went to Illinois. How cool is that? What is that all about? Why do I react that way? It's because there was a because statement, but it's nonsensical. I shouldn't react that way. There are hundreds of thousands of Illinois alums. There's no good reason for us to be connected other than that person used a because statement. They gave me a reason. Because we're both Illinois alums, I thought I would ask you a question. And I respond in the positive. I don't answer a lot of people's questions if they don't give me a because statement.
So you just want to think about call yourself out for a few of those. You probably have examples in your own life where somebody connected with you or reached out to you and gave you a little bit of a nonsense because statement and you still responded.
So that just shows us that, again, just proves out this theory that we have this 33 to 34 point increase from giving no reason to giving any reason at all. And so if you are trying to reach out to someone and you don't feel like you have this absolute slam dunk reason, that's OK. And that's what I want you to take from this. What I don't want you to take from this is that I can just make up some sort of nonsense and reach out to people with any kind of because statement. And because of that, they'll respond to me. No, we want it to be a good reason. But I also see people who really paralyze themselves and don't take any action because they're worried that their reason isn't perfect. And this is my message to you. It doesn't have to be perfect.
As long as you insert that because statement and it comes from a good, solid place and you really want to connect with them, that's going to work. It's going to work, research tells us, at a 93 percent clip. I don't know if you'll get exactly that, but you're going to put yourself in a much better position if you're thinking about inserting some sort of reason, some sort of because statement as to why you are moving forward and as to why you are reaching out.
And this also applies once you get people in your world and you are realizing that they're not moving forward in the way that you want them to move forward. Right. So a lot of times I will hear, oh, you know, somebody was really interested in my information. Maybe they came to a live event that I did or they signed up for a discovery call, but I'm really having trouble moving people forward into a sales process. And this comes back to a lot, you know, I would call this the engagement stage of marketing, right? We have awareness, engagement, sales, so you're in that middle stage of marketing. You're trying to move people from meeting you into a sales environment.
And this is why I advocate not spending time during that engagement stage giving people more information. A lot of times we just want to keep teaching them, keep giving them information, keep giving them information.
Instead, I want you to pause and think about this study and giving people reasons and giving people because statements. And this is why I talk a lot in engagement that your job is not to give people more information, but instead to help them kind of map their reality, understand where they are in your process, diagnose themselves in some way, you know, assess themselves in some way. Because what you're doing there, if you're helping people understand that they're on step three of a 10 step process or in a lot of my material, help them understand, are you relationship marketing or are you traffic marketing?
What we're doing there is we're giving people a reason to move forward with you, right? We're giving them something to hold on to and to understand instead of saying, I want you to sign up for my consulting package, you know, because, and you start giving them more information. That's not what we're looking for. What we want to say is because I see this in you or because you can understand this is where you're at. T
hose are the reasons we want to give people that goes from no reason of sign up for my consulting package, you know, I was interesting into a sign up for my consulting package because when you and I sat down, we could look at this reason why it made sense for you and you're trying to give them a reason. So think about your marketing. If people are getting stuck in that middle, are you not giving them a strong enough reason? Are you not helping them understand what the because is? Why should they be doing this? And it's not just because you are continue to put information on their plate.
And this is the same idea about a sales process. A lot of times, especially if I'm talking to B2B consultants, they're getting into once they get people into a sales process, they start getting into different types of proposals and just presenting people with things. And those things are presented without context. It's just a proposal. I need three months and it's going to cost this and this is who I need access to blah, blah, blah.
Well, again, start thinking about your reason and how can you explain your reasoning? How can you explain your because statements? How can you build those into your proposals? Because your company is at this stage, you qualify for this package. This makes the most sense for you. Because you are doing this, we are going to solve it this way, right? And you're thinking about giving people a reason to understand the solution that you are providing. So instead of just saying, oh, you're a fit for my three month coaching package, you want to say, because I saw X, Y, and Z as we talked, you slot into this package. It gives people a reason.
And again, I don't want you to make this up. I do not want this to be nonsense, but I do see this step missing for a lot of folks. You're so caught up in your own process and in giving people information and in moving them forward that you forget to pause and make sure that they're understanding at the same rate you are. And so you want to stop and remind them, hey, because you told me this, we should do this to solve it. Because you said your company operates this way, that's why I'm recommending this in the proposal.
Build those bridges for folks. Help people understand by remembering to always provide a reason for what you're doing. When you don't provide the reason, they just have an option in front of them. And that option may look like the first option we talked about in the copy machine study of just, hey, may I cut in line? Okay, there's no context around that, right? You're just saying, hey, I want to work with you for three months. And I know I'm being a little dramatic, but that's what it can sound like to the customer.
You want to bump this up and get this into that 93, 94% success rate where you're saying, hey, because you said this, or hey, because we noticed this, I want to work with you for three months. And thinking about it, just taking that pause and making sure you are providing reasons every step of the way is going to take you far, probably shockingly far, especially if you're not thinking about doing that proactively right now. We want to be thinking about what is the because statement? What is the reason that you are giving people to do what you want them to do? And that is going to help you all the way through your marketing process. It's also going to help you everywhere in your business.
We could get into how this helps with product mix and a bunch of other things. But when we're thinking about the marketing process and kind of these stages we have to get through of, you know, networking to meet the right people and then getting people moved from kind of that meeting moment to the sales moment and then getting a sale across the board, you can always be adding reasons to that. And when you do, it's going to be the same as going from a no reason situation in the copy machine study that's successful 60 percent of the time, all the way to giving a reason, which is, again, going to be successful 93 to 94 percent of the time. I know which odds I would like to go for.
And so as you're thinking again and as you're designing your marketing, if you're seeing something that's not working, think, hey, where could I fit in some reasoning? Where can I fit in a because statement? Not to give them nonsense, but to help them understand more fully why I am making the recommendations that I'm making.
So, my friends, that's what I want you to take from this episode, is that giving people a reason why you are doing something that matters. It is so easy to skip over this stage because we're so caught up in everything else. We forget to pause. But giving people a reason matters a lot. If you're trying to connect with them, tell them why, preferably in a specific way. Don't just go introduce yourself. Tell them specifically why you were introducing yourself and make it about them. Right? Don't make it about you. Don't make that a selfish thing. Don't say, hi, I wanted to meet you because I know that you can help me with X, Y and Z. Make it about something that's flattering to them.
If you're trying to help them understand why they need your help, stop talking at them and lecturing them and instead draw them a reason. Tell them because. Draw them a map, right? Because you have this, that means this is a solution. And if you're trying to get them to understand a process or why you've made a recommendation in a proposal, don't describe the process to them. We love to describe processes to people and then wonder why they're not getting around to closing something.
Instead, say, because we're trying to solve this, that's why this process matches or because you told me this, that's why we're going to do it this way. And that is going to go much, much further for you.
So allow yourself to default to including a because statement in most every interaction you have. And when you do that, you will see your ability to connect to people and to make things happen really shoot up. And so use this for good. Use this as a little tool in your toolbox to remember, hey, when I am trying to get people to move into something that makes sense for them, that is a win-win, how can I help that process along by including because statements? And if you do that, I promise you are going to see some progress. And you, too, will become a huge fan of this 1978 copy machine study when you see just how broad reaching it is and how applicable it is to just being a good human out in the world and connecting with people.
So as always, thank you for being here today. If this episode helped you in any way, I'd be so grateful if you shared it with someone else, it might help. Or if you left a review when you leave those reviews, it really helps the algorithms and it helps other people find this material that can help them in the same way that it helped you.
So thank you again. And I will see you back here in a couple of weeks for our next episode.