The SAY/DO Principle and How It Can Help You Win

Picture a cramped hallway in Harvard's psychology building in 1978.

The only photocopier on the floor is grinding through stacks of term papers. A line of students, coffee cups in hand, deadlines looming, shuffles forward one slow step at a time.

Suddenly a young researcher slips to the front and asks the next person in line:

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?"

A few students grumble, but 62% let her cut the line.

Then she tries again, same copier, new crowd, but tweaks the request:

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?"

This time 94% step aside.

Finally, she runs a third version:

"Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I need to make some copies?"

Nothing urgent, no real hardship… yet the agreement still hits 93%.

That research by psychologist Ellen Langer was popularised in the book 'The Psychology Of Influence' by Robert Cialdini. The clear finding: people need to hear and understand a clear "why" behind any offer or request.

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My "Because"

Over the last 6 months I poured an uncomfortable amount of my own time and savings into an AI CRM platform that builds business development strategy, tactical campaigns and also coaches you on how to apply these in the real world.

I've coached consultants for a long time now. To be quite honest, I've had amazing success with some and not so great success with others.

This has always bothered me. It's the age old question — why can one person create different results with the same systems and process?

The Power of Clarity

One of the very first things we built into the CRM was not a deal pipeline but implementation clarity following the SAY/DO principle of human consistency and reinforcement:

Why This Matters

A Simple 1-page action plan that you commit to

The ability to change your activities instantly based on your workload — Hunt/Capacity

The ability to time block those activities in your calendar so they get done

The ability to share your commitments with anyone (your coach/peer group maybe?)

A historical, searchable, record of all your weeks progress, commitments and say/do score

The Say/Do Score

The Say/Do principle is grounded in decades of behavioural science showing that people are significantly more likely to follow through on commitments when they are stated clearly, tracked visibly, and supported by reminders.

When you consistently do this with clients you win more work by proving you are consistently reliable. When every promise is turned into a visible, trackable commitment, nothing slips, follow-through becomes effortless, and clients quickly learn they can trust you.

We allow you to create and track your high value commitments separately from run of the mill tasks. These are the ones that you absolutely must do.

This principle connects directly to proactive business development — when you combine a structured approach to outreach with accountability tracking, the results compound. If you're looking for support implementing this, get in touch about our coaching programs.