The spotlight is on you, it hurts the eyes and you can’t see a damn thing.
From the dark, a voice…
“Let’s start from the beginning”.
You’re under interrogation. And you know you’re guilty.
Would you be able to lie convincingly?
If you’re familiar with the work of a copywriter, you know it’s a lot like being a detective.
But sometimes it’s useful to try and wear the shoes of the “accused”.
It’s a great frame to help you make your copy rock solid.
What if your prospect was an investigator asking the questions?
Now, I’m not saying you have to lie in your copy, quite the opposite. But think of it in terms of your life being at stake. It’s either a convincing story, or a life sentence.
Recent studies pointed out that rather than using body language hints as cues for identifying liars, it’s more effective to be proactive about it.
For example, by asking the person to re-tell their story in reverse. Truth tellers are able to do it, even adding in more details. Liars struggle.
You’re increasing their cognitive load.
From an article I read, “liars often provide fewer details about time, location and things they heard. They also speak more slowly, with more hesitations and grammatical errors.”
The busier their brains, the harder to fill in stories with details.
Other ways to be active in detecting lies is to encourage people to dig deeper, say more about their story, or to ask unexpected questions. Liars inevitably have a hard time as they work with premade material.
What are the lessons here? As the accused you have a story to tell and an argument to build.
You’re pressured into failing. You only have so much time and so much space.
Always think in terms of reducing cognitive load and be prepared to be flexible with your story. To jump from one point to the other, based on what type of listener/reader you encounter (are they fast, slow, emotional or logical?).
And you have to know each and every single question your prospects might have for you.
Do your own research.
Or even better, let me do it for you.
