PATTERN INTERRUPTS

A pattern interrupt is one of the most useful, most powerful, most entertaining techniques in hypnosis and psychology in general. It is used to disrupt automatic or habitual thought patterns, behaviors, or emotional states. A pattern interrupt creates a moment of surprise or confusion, which can then be leveraged to redirect attention, change the conversation, directly influence behavior or embed an idea.

I know this concept sounds incredibly simple but it is used everyday by law enforcement officers to de-escalate violent situations, intelligence officer and agents persuading sources, sales professionals, hypnotists and others. It has gotten me through customs and immigration, it’s gotten traffic violations waived or reduced, sold a ridiculous amount of financial product and salvaged meetings, sales and presentations.

How Pattern Interrupts Works

Habitual Patterns: People often operate on autopilot, following established routines or scripts in conversations, actions, and thoughts. Our brains are always anticipating what we will see or hear next and using that information, as if it were real or already happened.

Interrupting the Pattern: When something unexpected occurs, whether it’s a word, action, or gesture, it catches their attention, interrupting this automatic flow and causing a momentary pause as the brain plays catch up. It’s almost like the brain suddenly realizes its running the wrong program and pauses not knowing what to do.

Opportunity for Influence: This brief moment of awareness or confusion creates an opening where you can introduce new ideas, change the direction of a conversation, or alter the emotional tone. Because the program was interrupted and the brain is busy searching for its next instruction the critical faculty is reduced and the brain will more likely accept whatever instruction is given.

Why They Work

Pattern interrupts are effective because they force people to shift from automatic responses to conscious thought, making them more open to influence or change. When used skillfully, they can be a powerful tool in communication, persuasion, and problem-solving. (Sidenote: Immediately following a successful pattern interrupt there is a moment when the subjects critical faculty is heavily subdued and they will accept almost anything – this is the most common way for hypnotists to put someone into a trance).

Pattern Interrupts Typically Used by Financial Sales Professionals

There are many types of pattern interrupts but the most relevant here are questions or statements that are unexpected, a math problem or having to compare things on different scales (eg. ‘He was 4 feet tall and she weighed 60 kgs’).

Confuse Then Simplify Pattern Interrupt Technique

A study was conducted in 1999 by the University of Arkansas where students went door to door selling notecards for a charity. First, they would introduce themselves and say they were selling notecards for a local charity and ask the person answering the door if they would like to know the price. In the control group the student(s) would tell prospects who indicated they wished to know the price that the notepads cost $3. In another group when the persona at the door indicated that they wanted to know the price they would tell them that they cost:

“Three hundred pennies,” they would then pause briefly and continue, “That is $3 – you’re getting a bargain.”

Here’s the bottom line, after everything was accounted for – salesmen who used the pattern interrupt above had 40% to 55% more sales than those who didn’t. Don’t you think you should consider putting this into your repertoire?

Here’s an example of how you can use this when presenting prices. It is particularly useful for disability insurance policies. Let’s presume you have a policy that costs $100 per month and pays a monthly benefit of $2,500 per month. The client owns or works at a store that specializes in selling golfing goods. How would you present the numbers? What would you say them?

“… so this does everything you want and it only costs $3.28 per day for a $2,500 monthly benefit. That’s a benefit of up to $30,000 per year for just $100 per month. It’s a bargain and cost less than 2 packs of golf balls a week.”

Lets break this down because we’ve added a couple of twists here. It may seem weird and convoluted but forget a 50% increase in your sales, if you can just get 20%, isn’t it worth practicing?

“It only costs $3.28.”

“Only” makes the cost sound trivial and manageable.

“$3.28 per day for a $2,500 monthly benefit.”

$3.28 is an awkward number for mental arithmetic and it doesn’t easily divide into $2,500. On top of that one price is per day and the benefit is per month. Two things happen here:

The brain registers the delta, or difference, between $3.28 and $2,500 as being large and it’s being told a low price for a high benefit. Call it anchoring or priming or first impressions (actually its a combination of all 3 and they work to our benefit).
Because we are suddenly tasking the brain with performing a minimum of 2 mathematical operations at once neither particularly familiar the critical faculty decreases and voila – pattern interrupt!

“That’s a benefit of up to $30,000 per year for just $100 per month.”

Here we are giving the brain the answer so it doesn’t have to do complicated math. Again, though the benefit is high, the cost is low – because they are round numbers and follow a pattern interrupt the brain won’t balk, get confused or automatically try to do a calculation.

“It’s a bargain.”

The thought or idea is slipped under the radar along with the simpler to understand price.

“and cost less than 2 packs of golf balls a week”.

And this is the piece de resistance. You always want to relate numbers to something the subjects mind understands the value of intuitively. Here we reinforce the ‘low cost’ and have given the subconscious mind a strong anchor that this ‘only’ costs 2 packs of golf balls a week. See the next section for why we use golf balls.

Quantify in Terms the Prospect Understands

If you are talking to a restaurant owner you can use the average bill of a table.

This tax-deductible business overhead policy is less than 2 covers a week. Could you afford to give away 2 meals a week if it meant that when you’re sick or injured someone pays all of your bills?

If you’re talking to a waitress use their average tip.

If you’re talking to a car salesman use the commission on the average car.

“for less than 1 Buick every 2 months…”

Jeweler, baker, candle stick maker… always use the merchandise or products they handle daily and know the costs off.

You can also do this if someone is fanatical about a hobby.

“For less than the cost of a golf club,”

“For less than 2 hours flight time,”

“For less than you spend on clean hay for your horse”

Financial Planning Question Pattern Interrupt Samples

How far behind or below your goals can you be before you deem your current plan a failure?
When the time comes for long term care, which of your children do you want changing your diapers?
Imagine you go ahead with this right now – how badly would things have to go for you to regret this decision? (The moment they begin pondering say, “Exactly!” And continue your thought.)
Would you rather you make the right decision and lose or make the wrong decision and win? (Useful when making points about variance, statistics, behavioural economics, etc.)