Gladwell’s Coupling for the Self Employed

Does the concept of coupling discussed in Malcom Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers help Self Employed Indiepreneurs? Maybe.

While I’ve been reading Gladwell’s latest book, my mind has wandered past the information to the ever important “so what.” Gladwell ties his thoughts together in the end to an important point about police interaction, which is well researched and well concluded. But except for a few decision makers and at the ballot box, this end result isn’t something that most people have much control over.

So is there anything the rest of us can get from it? That led to my previous post about messaging. And now, with coupling–another one of his main points–I believe there’s more that we can learn.

The Concept of Coupling

A power coupling is a reference from the worst of the Star Wars movies. But that’s not important right now.

Gladwell’s meaning of coupling instead refers to the fact that individual’s actions are rarely done in isolation. They are coupled with something else. A place. An item. A method. If the coupled thing is removed, the action doesn’t occur.

This is both logical and counterintuitive.

Logical, because how often do you forget to do something if you’re missing the reminder. Think about how many things you just forgot to do during COVID-19 without your normal routine. Or maybe that’s just me.

Or even in normal times, my son’s medicine comes to mind. If his pill organizer is not sitting on the counter in the right place at the right time in the morning, I’ll often forget to give him a dose. Which, considering it’s for seizures, isn’t a good thing.

Fortunately, the evening pill is coupled with him actually falling asleep, so I have yet to miss one of those doses.

Coupling is counterintuitive because it leads to unexpected results, at least according to Gladwell. For example, he argues that suicides would decrease if we take away a method of the suicide. This, despite a common argument that people will just find another method to take their lives. Or that significant amounts of crime is committed in a few blocks in most big cities, and if we tamp down on those blocks, the crime will not migrate.

Actions do not happen in a vacuum. Which is really a revolutionary way to think of some of the concepts he presents.

Making a Business Effort

No conclusion I arrive at will be as important as Gladwell’s efforts to save lives. With that burden off my shoulder, let’s look at how it’s relevant to the Indiepreneur.

The main conclusion I came to is with marketing efforts. I’ve read about several studies that discuss the number of touch points needed before someone is willing to make a purpose. I’m sure there’s something to that, but what if the issue is the touch point coupled with the right set of circumstances.

For example, I hate buying stuff on my phone. I always feel like I’ve purchased the wrong thing or clicked the wrong button. When I buy stuff, I feel much more comfortable doing it on my laptop (Look, my own coupling doesn’t have to be logical, okay?).

I’ll read information on my phone, though. All day long…

So if an email campaign is going to work on me, it needs to get the informational emails to me while I’m on my phone, but the sales emails to me on my computer.

The business almost certainly won’t have some magical timing system to hit me while on on the right device. So instead they’ll have to send a lot of emails to me over time.

Or maybe I need a certain event to be happening for me to finally buy what you’re selling. But unless you catch me as I’m going into that event, you might not make a sale.

Which means more emails and more touch points.

You can’t just send out one marketing effort and hope the potential client will think of you when the coupled timing comes along.

If you’re like me, that’s a bit stressful. What if they don’t want emails? Fortunately, there’s an easy answer for that: they’ll unsubscribe.

Coupling Beyond Marketing

The ideas for using couplings to help your business run better can go on and on. Do you want to get into a new routine? Coupling that new habit with a reminder can help you get it right. Like with my son’s pills. I need to put them in the right place the night before (while I’m doing the part of the routine I always remember) and I’ll remember the next day.

Or maybe it’s used in your customer service. Allowing multiple ways for someone to contact you might be a hassle. Or maybe certain methods will better couple the service experience for the customer with positive feelings.

Where else does coupling come into play? Gladwell uses some unexpected examples: suicide, police efforts, drinking. Likely there’s all sorts of things in your business and your life that rely on coupling. What other examples can you think of?