• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Sustainable Results Lab

Sustainable Results Lab

We help environmental businesses grow. Sustainably.

  • About
  • Blog
  • Team
  • Services
  • Workshops
  • Contact
Empty chairs

Are you finding it hard to win customers?

Behavioural insights, Data, Research

How removing the hassle factor can dramatically improve take-up

Even when you’re selling an innovative, low carbon product, sourcing new leads and converting them into sales can feel tough.

At the Sustainable Results Lab, we use research from the behavioural sciences to inform how we approach this challenge. 

This experiment by the UK Government’s Behavioural Insights Team has some useful insights.

Behavioural research: how to increase take-up 

It shows how removing the hassle for customers can dramatically improve take-up.

The environment department was grappling with a dilemma. How do you encourage more people to insulate their attics?

Professor David Halpern, the psychologist who heads the Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team, had a theory.

In Inside the Nudge Unit: how small changes can make a big difference, he writes:

The problem was less about money and more about hassle. Specifically, people couldn’t bear the thought of having to clear out the contents of their lofts.

To test this theory, the unit ran a leaflet trial in London promoting different services:

  • The cheap option: low-cost home insulation
  • The expensive option: low-cost home insulation combined with a loft clearance service

Take-up of the most expensive option was three times higher, despite an extra cost of several hundred pounds.

By thinking through the barriers to sale, and understanding human motivations, the team had shown they could triple take up.

What are your barriers to sale?

While you might not sell an energy efficiency product, the learning is useful.

What are the barriers to sale for your customers? What can you do to remove the hassle for them?

It might only be something small, but the research shows that if you can get this right, you can sell more and charge more, enabling your business to make more of a difference.

More science-based insights

How making it easy for customers can more than double engagement

The most common mistakes environmental businesses make

Picture credit: photo by Photo by Nacho Capelo on Unsplash

How to reduce your digital carbon footprint and boost business growth

Find out how to join the movement to green the web and make your marketing spend go further.

To save carbon we only send high value emails that support your work to build a zero carbon economy. You can read more about our data privacy policy here.

Latest resources

Darren Evans blog header

Achieving net zero in construction: a purpose-driven brand transformation

The opportunity Achieving net zero in construction requires an unprecedented change in the building industry. Darren Evans wanted to use the pandemic as a […]

Read
Neuroscience and marketing - brain icon

How neuroscience can help low carbon businesses reach more customers

Use the science of decision making to boost your business growth

Read
Cambridge Cleantech Venture Day

Your chance to win investment at Cambridge Cleantech Venture Day

Sylvie Russell, Head of Operations at Cambridge Cleantech, on what makes a good investment pitch

Read
SRL logo

We help environmental businesses grow. Sustainably

Footer

  • Contact
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • T&Cs
  • Privacy

I want to green the web

Carbon Footprint

Please fill in your details below and we’ll send you joining details for our digital carbon footprints workshop.

We look forward to chatting more online.

Ruth and Ed

Workshop application

Thank you for your interest in using neuroscience to boost your business growth, sustainably. Please fill out your details below and we’ll get back to you asap.

Together we can build a low carbon future one customer at a time. We look forward to chatting more,

Ruth, Ed and Hannah

Register your interest

Workshop application

Thank you for your interest in using neuroscience to boost your business growth, sustainably. Please fill out your details below and we’ll get back to you asap.

Together we can build a low carbon future one customer at a time. We look forward to chatting more,

Ruth, Ed and Davina.

Workshop application

Thank you for your interest in using neuroscience to boost your business growth, sustainably. Please fill out your details below and we’ll get back to you asap.

Together we can build a low carbon future one customer at a time. We look forward to chatting more,

Ruth, Ed and Davina.