The psychology of Selling

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING - Part 2

Part 2 of this material provides useful information to sales people and can be used in addition to any sales training courses attended or independently of any training received. This sales training material has been developed involving years of research into human psychology and considers how it can be implemented in sales situations.

The Spearhead Training psychology of selling free material should help anyone in sales understand what motivates their customers. Understanding the ten key psychological principles, which are the core of this material should help the professional salesperson to structure sell more effectively.

THE SIX LAW: THE SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY – THE POWER OF CONFIDENCE IN ONE’S OWN ABILITY

“If there is a faith that can move mountains, it is the faith in one’s own ability.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Aphorisms

It is an old saying that faith can move mountains. In the modern, enlightened world it is confidence in one’s own abilities more than anything else that can sometimes perform miracles. Social psychologists have examined the power of confidence in one’s own abilities.

TWO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS

“Random” experiment

Robert Rosenthal, professor of social psychology at Harvard, carried out intelligence tests in several primary school classes. They were not interested in the results. In every class they “randomly” chose 20% of those tested as very promising pupils. They explained to the teachers that particular progress was to be expected of these children in the near future.

Eight months later Rosenthal repeated the experiment with the children. They then compared the results of both tests and discovered that the children they had randomly chosen as “pupils with a future” had indeed made the most progress.

Rat experiment

Rosenthal carried out a second experiment. They gave students the task of training rats to find their way through a labyrinth. They told half of the students that their rats came from a particularly intelligent breed and that the rat’s forefathers had also been trained to perform the labyrinth test. This was not true.

After a few days Rosenthal observed that the apparently intelligent rats had attained greater skills than the apparently more stupid rats.

What is the basis of the success?

The teachers devoted more attention to the pupils who had been earmarked as particularly talented. These pupils were dealt with in a friendlier manner and corrected more often and more thoroughly. The teachers set these pupils more difficult and more interesting tasks and displayed more patience in solving the problems.

The same could be noted in the experiment with the rats: the rats that had been labelled more intelligent were picked up and pointed in the right direction more often than their “more stupid” counterparts.

In both groups, therefore, a belief in their difference produced a change in the desired direction.

THE EFFECT OF FAITH ON SUCCESS

The experiments carried out by Professor Rosenthal prove the power of confidence in one’s own abilities. The teachers believed in the intelligence of their pupils and behaved accordingly in such a way that the pupils did actually become more intelligent.

Psychologists call this procedure “the self-fulfilling prophecy”. This also plays a role in other areas. If someone feels he/she is inferior, they make no attempt to change the situation; he/she believes in their failure and as a result do indeed fail.

The social psychologist Argyle reports on an experiment in which experimental subjects were hypnotised. Some people were put in a worried frame of mind, others in a happy frame of mind and the others in an aggressive frame of mind. Afterwards they were all shown pictures, which allowed for a lot of imaginative comment. The experimental subjects were asked to give their interpretations of the pictures.

As expected their comments reflected the different moods of fear, happiness and aggression.

Personality

This experiment demonstrates how strong the perception of one’s own personality and its subjective frame of mind can be.

Furthermore, the psychological experiments prove how faith in one’s own ability and strength suppresses everything else and thus leads to success. Whoever sets about their tasks optimistically, reflects this in many ways in their environment through signals. They not only talk in a more confident manner, but they also act more decisively.

Investigations of human body language have shown that people attempting deception can apparently control their speech and facial expressions relatively well, but not their body. The non-verbal messages transmitted by the body are genuine. It is reported of Arabic traders that they watch their client’s pupils, in order to find out which goods they are particularly interested in.

IMPLEMENTATIONS IN SALES NEGOTIATIONS

Charisma

The power of confidence in one’s own abilities is enormously important when dealing with clients. The salesperson must believe in the product they are selling and in their sales success. In this way they appear competent to the client and thus trustworthy.

The client is also dealt with a completely different way then if the salesperson sent out signals of uncertainty and doubt. Belief in one’s own success results in the salesperson:

¨ Making a more careful study of the client’s needs.
¨ Advising and informing the client more thoroughly.
¨ Speaking in a more convincing and optimistic manner.
¨ Often making appropriate tailored offers.
¨ And seeking out opportunities more consistently.

Furthermore, the salesperson is more patient if the client reacts rather abruptly – because they know they are selling a good product.

SEVENTH LAW: THE PYGMALION EFFECT – THE POWER OF FRIENDLINESS

“In dealing with others everyone prefers those who are most similar to themselves.”

Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena.

Everyone knows from their own experience that if someone shows friendliness towards us, we lose any possible reservations we may have had and believe in a more relaxed way towards them. We try to match their friendliness. It is then more difficult to refuse a request for a favour from someone we like.

TWO DIFFERENCE CASES

The power of one’s personal behaviour

In their book “Influence” Cialdini reports of the Tupperware parties as an example of the professional exploitation of the fact that people do not like refusing a request from a friend.

Friendliness

A housewife invites friends and acquaintances to a party at which a Tupperware representative will be present. The company gives the hostess a percentage of the sales and thus ensures that the products will not be sold by an anonymous sales representative but by a friend, the hostess of the party itself. This sales strategy is enormously successful.

Unfriendliness

The other case occurred in London . Sir Francis Galton, a natural scientist and cousin of Charles Darwin, became engrossed in the role of becoming the most hated person in England. When he walked through the streets of London total strangers swore at him and he was jostled, insulted and pestered. People treated Galton as he wanted them to.

The experiments clearly demonstrated the power of one’s own behaviour. Unfriendliness generates rejection from others, whereas friendliness generates a feeling of closeness and intimacy.

THE POWER OF ONE’S OWN BEHAVIOUR

The example of the Tupperware parties shows the importance of friendly relations for sales and the case of Sir Francis Galton proves how strongly one’s own mood finds expression in the behaviour of others.

The Pygmalion Effect

Psychologists call this the “Pygmalion Effect”. Since Pygmalion, King of Cyprus, could not find a wife who lived up to his expectations, he had a statue of his ideal wife built. He fell in love with the lifeless figure. The goddess Aphrodite took pity on Pygmalion and brought the statue to life.

Sympathy

Cialdini speaks of the power of the sympathy rule. There are several different causes of sympathy. Cialdini reports that in the Canadian federal elections, good-looking candidates received two and half times as many votes as their unattractive opponents.

A follow-up investigation showed above all that the voters were not aware of their prejudice, because the majority of them denied that their choice of candidate could have had anything to do with the outward appearance of the candidate.

Several investigations showed that people have a propensity to help others who are dressed similarly to them. On the campus of a Californian university experimental subjects dressed up either as hippies or as ordinary citizens and ask students for coins for the telephone.

If the experimental subjects and the students they asked were similarly dressed the request had a success rate of 66%. If they were dressed differently the request had a success rate of only 33%.

Similarity

Sympathy is generated if the other has a similar past or similar interests and hobbies. A researcher, who was analysing the sales documents of insurance firms observed that clients did business with a particular firm if the insurance agent was of a similar age, religion, political view or disposition.

This triggers the association – “Whoever thinks like I do can’t be bad.”

As a salesperson you should make use of the advantages offered by such chains of association when dealing with your clients. Even paying attention to trivial things, such as the client’s way of dressing and various idiosyncrasies, can bring advantages into the sales negotiations which you had never envisaged.

IMPLEMENTATIONS IN SALES NEGOTIATIONS

Friendliness

You can only face the client in a persuasively friendly manner if you yourself feel friendly towards them. Hidden resentment or secret contempt can impinge on your friendly relations.

Recommendations

Make use of the idea of the Tupperware party. Note down the names of friends and acquaintances of the clients who have a high regard for your products and visit them on the recommendation of the client.

Attractiveness

Use your knowledge of the power of physical attractiveness and devote more attention to your outward appearance. If the client dresses in a conservative fashion and stresses the values of fulfilment of duty and cleanliness, you should adapt to their way of dressing and systems of values the next time you meet.

Client interests

Many salespeople are trained to pick up certain clues which give away client’s particular interests. If, for example, a client has a football in his car, the salesperson will allude to the fact that he too is a great sports fan.

A salesperson may pick up from a casual remark that the client comes from a wine-producing region. They will then invite the client to meet them the next time at a wine bar, which serves wine produced in the area they are from.

EIGHTH LAW: THE PARADOXICAL APPEAL – THE ELIMINATION OF DISTRUST

“I am the spirit, which is always negative..... a part of every power, which always desires evil and always creates good.”

Goethe, Faust I

Distrust is an inherent trait of mankind – distrust of strangers, those of a different opinion, those who look different. There is also sometimes distrust between friends, parents and children. There are many sources of this, but we are all agreed that distrust should be eliminated.

DEALING WITH CHILDISH DISOBEDIENCE

A small girl is dancing on the table and is in danger of falling off. Her mother tries in vain to persuade the child to come down off the table. The child does not react to her request. The child’s older brother comes into the room and says spontaneously, “You can stay on the table all night as far as I’m concerned!” The child immediately gets down.

Paradoxical appeal

The psychologist Alfred Adler termed the “feeling of being grown up” to explain the success of this brotherly educational measure i.e. the child experiences the feeling of being grown up and independent if it can do the exact opposite of what it is told. Schulz von Thun speaks of a “paradoxical appeal”.

Self respect

A person striving for self respect may refuse to comply with an appeal under certain circumstances, not because it is wrong, but because they feel compliance would be a personal defeat.

THE RELAXATION OF INNER TENSIONS

Tension

Schulz von Thun recalls that people with sleeping difficulties often desperately try (in vain) to bring about sleep “forcibly”, but sleep cannot be induced simply by an act of will – it has to “overcome” us.

Relaxation

To induce this state of relaxation, therapists advise insomniacs to try and stay awake as long as possible. The paradoxical appeal prevents tension in the person seeking rest.

Paradoxical appeals can also fulfil a useful function in sales, in that they give a new turn and impetus to negotiations that have become “bogged down”.

IMPLEMENTATION IN SALES NEGOTIATIONS

As any good sales training will emphasise, the importance of trust is essential to successful outcomes. At the beginning of sales negotiations the client is often full of reservations, doubts and objections.

Reduction of tension through paradoxical appeals

The client’s anxiety is often intensified if the sales representative overwhelms them with figures, examples and arguments. The flood of facts and the constant appeal to buy the product place enormous pressure on the client. As a result the situation becomes tense.

In cases like this paradoxical appeals can defuse the situation.

A seller of foodstuffs throws the following into the discussion “I’m not sure whether our new high price article is suitable for your customers.....”

An estate agent says, “The property costs £250,000. I’m not sure whether you want to invest this amount.....”

Elimination of distrust

A seller of word processors says, “I don’t want to state prematurely that my word processing facilities will solve all your problems. Let’s test it out.........”

A pharmaceutical consultant says, “Of course there are other effective preparations – undoubtedly. We don’t have a monopoly, but....”

Paradoxical appeals eliminate mistrust and make the client receptive to your arguments.

NINTH LAW: THE DOMINANCE OF EMOTIONS – THE POWER OF IMAGES

“He’s lov’d of the distracted multitude, who like not in their judgement but their eyes.”

Shakespeare, Hamlet IV, 3

The role of feelings

In the society in which we live today we often deny our feelings. Who would like it to be said of them that they behaved emotionally? What counts is the capacity to think. However, advertising appeals to the emotions in a very skilful way. Politics too does not only work with factual arguments.

A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT

The power of images

The easier it is to picture an event, the easier it is to believe in the reality of the event. In order to examine this theory, Cialdini carried out an experiment:

Potential clients were enlisted for satellite television. One group of clients were advised to picture the advantages of satellite television extensively and in graphic detail. The other group were informed about the advantages in a factual manner. The first method proved to be more successful and consequently more clients in the first group wanted satellite television after the meeting.

IT IS EASIER TO PICTURE SOMETHING IN ONE’S MIND

The subconscious

Things that are easy to imagine shape our decisions. Psychoanalysts know that images do not always have to appear before our spiritual eye, but that they can be rooted somewhere in our subconscious. Whoever appeals to emotions with vivid language, is circumlocuting analytical thought. There are enough samples from the world of advertising:

A packet of rice was displayed with a see-through cover because it was thought that “The product speaks for itself.” A new package depicted the rice in the pan, surrounded by tomatoes, cheese and onions. The new packaging increased rice sales by 60% (The packets of rice were sold at the same price and were situated at the same place on the shelf.)

Werner Kroeber-Riel, the director of the Institute of Consumer and Behavioural Research a the Saar University, attributes the emotional effect of pictures to their greater directness in comparison to linguistic appeal.

Pictures automatically, and without any further thought control, trigger emotional experiences.

Research into imagery

Research into imagery is becoming increasingly important. This deals with the effect of pictures or “images” on human behaviour. Images are absorbed and processed particularly quickly and are understood automatically, without the aid of long descriptions. The human memory also has vast storage space for images.

IMPLEMENTATION IN SALES NEGOTIATIONS

Vividness

Many sales representatives tend to overwhelm the client with facts, names and statistics. Try and speak in more vivid terms. Use images and illustrations to show your client the advantage of your offer.

Observation

Feelings dominate even if your client does not show their emotions. Observe their gestures and facial expressions. Appeal to their emotions and show them yours:

Emotions

· “I can see you like the product. Trust your intuition.”
· “Our new invention has several clear-cut advantages. Even I cannot stop feeling enthusiastic about it.”

Enthusiasm

· “New technology sometimes even worries me. The world we live in seems cold and inhumane. But there are also enough positive aspects which are useful to us all.”

· “I have a series of pictures here, in which you can see our new personal computer in various different office set ups. It fits in well, doesn’t it?”

TENTH LAW: THE SOCIAL PROOF – THE POWER OF OTHERS

“The coquetry of public opinion, which has her caprices, and must have her way”

Edmund Burke

We pay a great deal of attention to the attitude prevailing in our environment for many things – the way we dress, the way we behave, the way we speak and what we sell. We take the prevalent opinion beforehand and try to follow this scrupulously.

Standards of Behaviour

If we are confronted by new situations, we are often at a loss as to what decision is best. The standards that have been tried and tested are not applicable to the new situation. In a case like this, other people and the way they behave can be a valuable help. We think, if lots of people behave like this, it must be right. Cialdini calls this type of behaviour “socially reliable.”

EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL RELIABILITY

Changes in attitude

Bandura and his research team looked for children in a nursery school who were afraid of dogs. For 20 minutes every day these children had to watch a boy fearlessly and with much devotion play with a dog. This experience brought about a change of attitude in the frightened children – after four days more than half of them were prepared to play with the dog too.

The researchers tested the children again after a month had elapsed and observed that the new, fearless behaviour had lasted.

A second experiment revealed that the fearful children need not even have watched someone playing with a dog to overcome their fear. It was enough to show them clips from films. The most effective film clips were those showing several children playing with dogs.

The psychologist O’Connor studied the behaviour of introvert children of pre-school age. They isolated themselves, stood apart from other children and hardly spoke, whilst their friends of the same age were playing together. Since there was the danger of this behaviour remaining and causing difficulties later on in integrating into adult life., O’Connor developed a plan to alter the behavioural patterns of these children.

He showed the shy children a film with 11 different scenes with children in them. Each clip showed a solitary child observing other children at play and who joined in with the others after a while. The introvert children who were shown the film began shortly afterwards to come together and play.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MAJORITY

Imitating

Cialdini says that, “In order to find out what is right for us others help us to make a decision.” We observe the behaviour of others and learn from it. It is particularly valuable to look at others when we are uncertain about something.

Learning from role models

Children learn by copying those around them. The psychologist Bandura calls this learning from role models. Copying is also still a popular form for adults to learn. Only the “role” models” we choose to use are different. They have model characters and shape our behaviour.

The following experiment comes from the social psychologist Sherif: Experimental subjects in a dark room were exposed to a light beam. Every time the light beam moved the experimental subjects were supposed to judge the extent of the movement. In reality the light beam did not move, but all of the experimental subjects “saw” it move. They were tested individually and in groups.

There were great difficulties in the judgement of how far the light beam had moved between those experimental subjects who were tested on their own. After a while in the group testing this range of difference disappeared.

Social norm

The members of the group tacitly came to the agreement that the judgements should correlate. Sherif called this behavioural regulation brought about by the presence of others a “social norm”.

Group influence

The majority of those participating in the experiment did not appear to be aware of how their judgement was influenced by the others.

In the course of their everyday lives people are confronted with a host of attractions which make them unsure of themselves. The behaviour of others then offers a welcome guide.

IMPLEMENTATION IN SALES NEGOTIATIONS

Social reliability

Indications that a product is “increasingly popular” or “most bought” are arguments of social reliability. The evidential value is increased if important people value and buy the product.

Show the client that lots of other people buy your product and they are satisfied with it. In this way you can also base your argument on tradition – you remind the client that many people have valued and bought your product in the past.

· Our security systems are sold all over the world.
· Most people now know no other form of machine operation.
· Many experts have praised our product in technical journals.

The role of the majority

You mobilise in your client the need to follow majority consensus in a situation in which they feel unsure. It is important to find out whether the client feels uncertain about the sales situation and which majority is definitive for them.

Some clients tend to value the judgement of experts, whereas others rely on tradition. Some others rely on the number of product users.

Outsiders

Bear in mind, however, that some clients are very aware of status. For them the opinion of the majority is no guideline – quite the opposite. In fact, they feel the need to steer clear of mass taste and are proud of their role as an outsider. You could deal with such clients in the following manner:

“Nowadays absolutely everyone uses a detergent that cleans skin-deep. Only a few thinking people, such as yourself, go beyond this.”

If you are interested in developing your sales skills further please view our range sales training courses on our website.

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