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AREN’T MAGICIANS,THE BEST SALESPEOPLE

CAN READ MINDSbut they

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t’s important for you and your team to show prospects all of the practical reasons they should buy your product or service. Customers are definitely searching for a reason to buy your product. But if you really want prospects to commit to your business, your team needs to play on their emotions. Aligning your marketing and sales strategy with the consumer mind is the secret to selling more and gaining customer commitment. Selling has less to do with what consumers think, and more to do with how they feel.

Salespeople know the importance of building relationships with prospects. But how far do most salespeople dive into actually understanding their prospects, rather than just creating surface-level banter? Selling should be less about persuading a prospect, and more about getting inside that prospect’s mind.

When your team knows how to get inside prospects’ heads to find out what they really want, they can start converting more leads today.

I

GIVE PROSPECTS THE

FREEDOM to CHOOSE

1 Neuroscience Marketing

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Your team should constantly remind prospects that they have the freedom to choose it they want to make a purchase from you. Too many salespeople attempt to close a deal by making prospects feel like they don’t have a choice. But the reality is that giving prospects a choice can make them more open to your product and your sales staff. It’s time to start adopting an “It’s up to you!” sales mentality.

This approach will remind customers that your team has their best interests at heart. As a result, they will trust your company and team’s advice more. Prospects will become more receptive to persuasion without realizing it.

When your staff reminds prospects that they have the power to make a decision, they feel like making a purchase isn’t a hassle. Your product and sales service become a privilege.

When your team tells customers,

they will see the decision as valuable rather than forced.

In fact, there’s proof that this works. A meta study of worldwide research conducted by Chris Carpenter of Western Illinois University tested this approach across 42 studies that involved 22,000 participants. The “It’s up to you!” approach doubled the success rate across this data set.1

FOR EXAMPLE

“Our software has helped more than 10,000 businesses boost ROI in the first year. We have a few different packages available, but it’s up to you to decide which package works best for your team!”

“It’s up to you!”

Other

42studies

22,000people

double!

SELL FLUENTLY

2 Forbes

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Your prospects want to buy what’s easy. If a prospect’s brain registers your product as time consuming, difficult or complicated, you won’t get very far with him or her.

However, your team can use small psychological cues to shift your prospects’ perception of how much effort buying and using your product or service will take. This percepted ease is called cognitive fluency.

Basically, anything that can be easily processed by the brain is considered fluent. To be considered fluent, your product and sales pitch should be associated with preference and familiarity. Things like names, brand names and product descriptions need to be short and simple to pronounce, because the brain will process them as familiar then translate it into, “this is easy!”2

A measurement of the ability to perform simple and complex tasks quickly and fluently.

cog•ni•tive flu•en•cy | n

SELL FLUENTLY

3 Product Psychology

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A simple way to do this on the phone is to spend time on rhymes. Think about how many days are in each month. Can you remember off the top of your head? Many people will default to this rhyme, and think, “Wow, I know this.”:

Avoid sounding like Dr. Seuss, but do play up the easiness of your product or service by describing it in an easy-to-remember rhyme on the phone. For example, “Our juicer is a proven health booster,” or, “We have loans in your price zone.” In addition to the brain translating rhymes into “easy,” research shows that rhymes can actually make statements more believable to prospects. This is because our brains also translate the ease of processing into “true” statements.3

Whenever your sales staff picks up the phone, remind them to think about how fluently they are selling your product or service. When your team is describing your product as easy-to-use, your prospects’ choice to buy will be simple.

30 days has September

April, June, and November

All the rest have 31

Except February alone

Which has but 28 days clear

And 29 in each leap year

SHOOT for SMALL WINS

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Gaining a small commitment, or “yes,” in the beginning from a customer means your sales team is more likely to get a larger commitment later on in the conversation. A salesperson will gain trust and start building a lasting relationship with a prospect when the two can agree on something. This means prospects will be more receptive when it comes to a larger decision or purchase down the road.

Small commitments will also make your prospects think they have already agreed when your sales staff asks for a bigger commitment down the road.

Let’s say one of your staff members picks up the phone to talk to a prospect who visited your site for the first time. That prospect tells your salesperson that he is interested in learning more. Your

staff member goes through a list of product options, asks him to schedule a 30-minute demo, and then asks which product he is looking at buying.

Your prospect is now overwhelmed by

commitment. He barely knows your staff, your company or your product. To top it off, he’s just like most buyers - indecisive. He is not ready to commit to a purchase or to your company. The lesson here? Don’t ask someone to make a big purchase immediately. Shoot for agreements like a 10-minute consultation call with a product specialist, signing up for an email newsletter or a product trial run.

FOR EXAMPLE

10minutes

4 Forrester5 Edelman

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Why do prospects scour the internet for product reviews? They trust their neighbor’s opinion. The multiple people who bought and care about your product or service validates its credibility for prospects. 90% of consumers trust recommendations from others.4 Your prospects will do what their neighbors are doing, just because they are doing it.

Use the power of people to sell on the phone. Your sales staff should share client testimonials and case studies on the phone. Have them reference the number of clients using your product or service. Ask them to talk about the story of a customer who used your product or service in a way that changed his or her day to day. 52% of survey respondents from developed nations said they find “a person like yourself” to provide the most credible information.5 Your team should share that customer’s reason for needing your product or service, so your prospects can relate.

WITH a CROWD

“a person like yourself”

Bottom line: Your prospects will do what their neighbors are doing, so make sure they know that their neighbors have bought in.

DRAW A CROWD

6 Conversioner

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Negatives resonate more with prospects than positives when it comes to selling. Research shows that the feeling of losing and gaining the same amount are vastly different. Your prospects would rather choose not to lose something over gaining the same thing or something new. We naturally feel a stronger reaction to losing something than to gaining something. This is called loss aversion. Our brains are wired to feel a much stronger reaction to loss than to gain.6 Make this work for your team on the phone. Drawing attention to what customers could lose from not using or buying your product will have a greater effect on their decision than harping on what they will gain.

Pointing out what a prospect will gain, or how his or her life will benefit from a product, is tough to imagine for a customer. But when you talk about something the customer already has, it’s easier for customers to imagine and feel what it would be like to lose it. Drawing attention to a loss creates a small sense of panic in customers that drives their urgency to buy your product.

Want to enhance this effect? Have your staff play up something that the customer is losing out on right now. For example, “You’re spending $30 a month too much with your current energy provider. Our plan will save you that money each month.” It’s important to remind prospects that you can take away the pain they are currently experiencing from a loss. It becomes your opportunity to remedy their situation with your product. This creates the “get it while it’s hot” mentality that will make your prospects want what you’re selling now.

LOSS AVERSIONSELL USING

There is a reason selling is more complicated than most realize - it’s all about building a relationship. But when you can start to understand how buyers think, you can sell specifically to their needs and to the consumer mind. When it comes to using psychology to sell over the phone, small tools make a big impact on the end result.

Phone Skills Training

Your sales agents need to get better on the phone, but proper phone skills training is time consuming. Let us do it for you.

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GET A DEMO

Train agents to Own the PhoneWe want to help your agents build a strong foundation on the phone. Our live human reviewers will break down each sales call to identify the phone techniques that led to booked appointments.

1

Track individual agent phone performanceWe’ll address individual training needs for each staff member. When we notice one of your agents needs to improve in a specific area, we will sent him/her targeted training content and quizzes to ensure training completion. Our reports will show your staff’s progress.

2

Provide continual feedback for improvementAt any time, agents can check out the learning section to stay sharp on other phone skills areas. We will continually provide your agents with feedback when they need a lift on the phone.

3

Our Phone Skills Training tools take the burden of training off of the manager and develop staff members who confidently Own the Phone.