06 October 2010

The Secrets Of Sales Psychology

Sales is all about influencing and persuading. The person you are approaching may not even be interested in your product. What you need to achieve is to change his/her mind. This game of causing another person to change his/her mind requires a keen understanding of sales psychology.

The Secrets of Sales Psychology
How to do get a person to change a "maybe" or even a "no" into a "yes"? Psychology forms the basics of communication. If you could understand how people think, you would be able to connect with them and eventually influence them. Here are the five secrets of sales psychology:

People Like to Feel Good about Themselves:
Research your customer thoroughly before your meeting. People like to feel important and the best way to achieve this is by knowing enough about the client. This will also help you ask the right questions and align your offering with the needs of the client.

People Like to Imitate:
Have you ever noticed that it could take a long time for the first person at a party to hit the dance floor, but once he/she has, the floor gets crowded rather fast. People like to follow others. This is especially true when they consider the people as being like themselves. A shop with a signboard of just "discount of up to 40%" does not work as well as if it is accompanied by "stocks depleting fast." You need to make the client aware of the customers with similar backgrounds and social status who have purchased your product.

People Like Reasons:
Remember the 'Tell me why' series of books? Customers are like that. They respond better when there is a reason attached to the message. When telling them about the benefits of your product, also tell them why your product will be good for them. If you are mentioning that your product is much cheaper than what your competitors are selling it for, tell the customer why it is much cheaper.

People Believe Specificity and Comparisons:
If you tell people that a cigarette lighter lights 100% of the times, they may not believe you. However, if you tell them that it lights 98.4% of the times, they are more likely to take you seriously. Similarly, if you tell your prospective customer that a cell phone battery lasts for 48 hours, they are unlikely to be as impressed as they are when you tell them that the battery lasts 1.5 times as much as others in the market.

People Value Honesty:
Be truthful about your product and company. Address the concerns before the prospective customer has the chance to come up with them. For instance, if your company is new, you can talk about the apprehension that people have in giving a chance to companies that have not built a strong brand. You can then talk about how your company has advantages over your most established competitors.

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