In the first part we published a comprehensive article explaining 10 psychological techniques to sell more by exploiting customers’ mental processing errors (cognitive biases). This time we’ll continue along the same lines by adapting neuroscience to sales: applying what we know about people’s brains to use it to our advantage and make the sales process easier.
1. Fear sells more than anything else
Creating fear in the consumer’s brain is the most effective technique known so far in the world of advertising. People don’t buy life insurance first and foremost for the benefits their family would receive after their death. They buy it out of fear: “What will happen to my family if something happens to me?” We don’t buy a good toothpaste for the benefits it gives us, but out of fear of our teeth deteriorating or of suffering some oral disease.
You don’t buy a car you can’t afford in order to be happier, but out of fear of not being as happy as your neighbour, or as the guy in the car advert (with his smile and that model in the passenger seat).
“So-and-so worked for 40 years because he was a responsible father and husband, just like you. The other day I found out that he had died and that his family couldn’t even pay for the funeral, and they’re about to lose the house. If he’d had a life insurance policy like the one we’re talking about, we still couldn’t have spared that poor family the grief of losing him, but… (teary eyes) since we can’t prevent that misfortune, is it really fair to pile another one on that woman and those orphaned children, who already have enough to deal with?”
More than 60% of life insurance policies have been sold thanks to that paragraph. In sales we always talk about detecting customers’ needs or creating needs, but as soon as I identify your fears, you’re mine. Sounds cynical, doesn’t it?
2. If they see a salesperson, you’re lost
On Monday I “sold” seven bottles of hemp oil. And do you know the funniest part? I don’t sell hemp oil. I was simply telling three friends about an article I had read on the properties of hemp oil, a news story in which a man claimed to have cured more than 5,000 people of various illnesses.
Four other people in the café joined the conversation, and even though I was somewhat sceptical about some of the things I was saying, it all ended with: “And where could I buy it? If you find out where they sell it, bring me some and I’ll pay you for it.”
What would have happened if I had turned up at these people’s homes saying, “Good morning, I represent company X and we sell hemp oil, whose properties are…”? They would simply have told me, “I don’t have time right now,” or “That’s just a load of old tales.”
So a salesperson’s first job is never to look like a salesperson. And that brings us to the next point.
3. Swap the word “salesperson” for “adviser”
A salesperson sells and, in Spain at least, salespeople have a reputation for being smooth-talking hucksters. An adviser, on the other hand, advises, and sounds like an expert in a subject.
Nobody would seek out an investment fund salesman, but they would go to a wealth manager or a financial adviser.
An adviser is someone who offers solutions to certain problems and who “happens” to have the solution in a product or service they can sell you themselves.
Ultimately, a salesperson doesn’t sell you a product; they help you solve a problem, and the solution is a product or service that comes at a cost.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that excellent salespeople believe this message, whereas most bad salespeople talk to customers with a dollar sign stamped on their forehead. No customer wants to spend their money making you rich.
That’s why I always insist that you should sell a product you believe in and never deceive your customers. It’s bad salespeople who have tarnished this profession.
4. In sales, don’t focus on the product. Go further
Coca-Cola doesn’t sell a cola drink, or sugary water. It sells happiness (“la sonrisa de la vida”, the smile of life). You may not realise it, but your brain does.
Steve Jobs didn’t sell computers, but everything you could do with a computer.
Don’t sell chairs; sell solutions to back pain and greater performance and productivity.
Don’t sell business software; sell software that will make my company money because it won’t waste so much time.
And better still, sell me the benefits, but sell me even more the fear of everything I would lose, or everything that would happen, if I don’t buy what you’re offering.
5. Why you should address customers informally
Spanish has a formal way of saying “you” (usted) and an informal one (tú), and choosing between them is a constant decision when dealing with customers.
Addressing someone as usted shows that we are very polite people. It shows respect. And all that is fine. In fact, plenty of sales are closed every day while addressing customers formally. But using tú closes more sales, and whenever there’s an opportunity, we should do it.
The formal form creates distance. The informal form creates familiarity, and people are more willing to do business with people who feel familiar to them.
But be careful with this one: depending on the type of customer in front of us and the situation, there will be times when we should avoid addressing that particular person informally. This question alone could fill several articles.
Above all, as the world’s best car salesman explained, the secret lies in being likeable.
6. Buying is only 20% rational. The other 80% is emotional
We have shown on several occasions that we are not rational beings when we’re asked to choose between different products. That’s why we can manipulate anyone’s choice if we know how.
We can play with the customer’s brain by altering the purchase options and steering them towards the option we want, without them noticing anything at all. It happens every day in any supermarket and in any restaurant. We already explained some of these forms of manipulation in our previous article.
In fact, a scientific study showed that a “buy 3 for the price of 2” promotion was better received than “50% off”, demonstrating that people are willing to pay more for the sole reason that their brain has betrayed them. With 50% off, people see a price discount, whereas with 3-for-2 they see a free product. And we like gifts more than discounts, because we don’t perceive a discount as a gift.
Because our buying process is more emotional than rational, we get a well-known saying in advertising: “Happy people don’t consume.”
Put like that, it might sound as if happy people don’t spend money, when in fact they do; just not as much as unhappy people. If a woman is happy with her breasts, she won’t turn to surgery. An unhappy woman, on the other hand, thinks that having bigger breasts will make her happier.
If you’re happy with your physical appearance, you won’t buy any of the thousands of slimming products on the market. That’s why advertisers’ job is often to make you feel miserable, ugly, fat and so on.
If you’re happy with your life, you most likely don’t feel the need to impress anyone, and that makes you a terrible consumer. Unhappy people think that earning more money to spend will make them happier.
Further reading
Featured image: Stephen Hampshire, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
