Brian Tracy was among the first authors who brought sales and psychology under the same title. His book Psychology of Selling sold thousands of copies worldwide and made him one of the finest sales influencers in the world.
Obviously, there’s a direct connection between sales and psychology because there’s a direct connection between buying and psychology. To simply put, sales psychology is the understanding of buyer behaviors and use them to increase your sales.
In this article, we’ll be talking about 5 solid techniques and a little bit about principles of persuasion.
5 Sales Psychology Techniques
Have you observed yourself when someone is selling something to you? It’s like you become a totally new person. You ask questions, you have authority, you also have a sense of ego hidden in the back of your head. Simply because you’re about to buy something and anything that you own gives you a sense of ego.
Don’t worry, it’s quite natural. But for sales peeps, it’s remarkable when we understand these tiny behaviors and use them to our advantage.
Here are 5 human behaviors or sales psychology techniques you can use to enhance your sales game:
1. Respond quickly!
Prospects demand customer service without being customers, and they totally deserve it!
When prospects signup on your product or drop an inquiry, one of the first things to do is respond as quickly as possible. The logic is quite simple – it shows that you care about them. It creates a great impact on conversion when you respond to new prospects in a couple of minutes.
According to Salesmate research conducted on 1000 inquiries, when a support team responds within three minutes, it drastically improves the conversion rate by 391%.
2. Drop a call on the right time
You have to agree, receiving a call at 2 AM is quite annoying. Now, I understand salespeople are very aware when they are calling. But such blunders happen when you’re dealing with overseas clients.
Statistically, Wednesday and Thursday are the two most effective days to make sales calls. But sales just can’t depend on two days. What you can do is observe the patterns of your calling and find the best time to close deals.
Once you find the best time to close sales, you can prioritize your calling.
3. Not all sales reps are taking follow-ups
According to research, 72% of sales calls are never answered, and it takes 8 attempts to reach to your future clients.
Sadly, more than 50% of all sales reps give up on the 5th attempt.
4. Use a familiar number
Trust is one of the biggest factors why a virtual phone system was created. People really don’t want to pick up a call from a totally unknown number. What I mean is, if your customer is in the USA, he’ll be more comfortable picking up a call starting from +1.
By picking the right virtual phone number for your business, you can drastically improve the conversion rate.
Here are some important benefits of adopting a virtual phone system:
- Collaborate with teams irrespective of their location.
- Call worldwide using virtual phone numbers at affordable rates.
- Project your business as local using local numbers. It also creates the impression that your business located in multiple locations.
- Collect calling data to identify your overall sales calling efforts.
- Record calls and uses them for support or training purposes.
- Enable your customers to record voicemails when your support team is not available.
5. Prospects don’t care about your sales targets
You must have heard this advice in different forms so many times
“Sales is not about selling your products, it is about providing the right solution.”
This is how much prospects care about your sales targets – ZERO.
They are not engaging with you so you can meet your monthly goals and get that promotion. They are facing a problem and they’re looking for a solution. And that’s what you should focus on.
So the most important thing you’ve got to do – which not many people are doing is – “listening”.
Listen closely to what they have to say, understand their problems, and then offer your solution.
6. Principles of Persuasion in Sales
Basically, you want your prospects to say yes to your solution and increase your sales. When we want to influence someone and encourage them to take action, we have to discuss Robert Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion.
These 6 principles are extremely important when you want the other persona to say YES:
- Reciprocity
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Consistency
- Liking
- Consensus
Let’s understand each one of them and how to use them in sales.
1. Reciprocity
When you give someone something, they’re obliged to give you back something. Businesses have started using this idea in the form of deals like;
Get Amazon Gift Card when you drop a review on our product.
Refer to your friend, and get a 10% discount on your next order.
The idea behind such deals is the same – You give me something and I’ll give back something to you in return.
In sales, you can help your prospects in solving some problems and they will naturally come back to you when they need a product like yours.
2. Scarcity
According to a study, when people find out that they’re Lactose Intolerant, they craved for milk products the most. The psychology is simple when you know you can’t have something, you want that thing the most.
In sales, you can use this behavior to attract new customers. Here’s a good example:
We’re closing the free 1-month trial period on 31st December. This would be your last chance!
3. Authority
When you have authority over someone, you can easily influence him to take a certain action. But in this case, authority is a broad term. The thing is, authority can be showcased by so many things – like a certificate that shows you’re an expert or your brand image that speaks for yourself.
Authority can be related with respect as well. When you really respect someone, it becomes easier to trust him/her and say yes to him.
When a salesperson develops a rapport with the prospect and builds an authority, it is easier to convert that client.
4. Consistency
We have already discussed that over 50% of the salespeople give up on the 5th attempt when they really need is 8-9 attempts.
The logic is simple: consistency shows your dedication. People will take a look at your product when you reach them. But due to lack of consistency, most of the leads are wasted.
5. Liking
There are three main reasons when someone like you – Either you both are similar, or you compliment them, or you both cooperate with each other for a common goal.
As a salesperson, it becomes a necessity that people like you, in general. If they like you, they might be interested in what you’re offering, and you might convert a prospect.
6. Consensus
When we don’t know what to do, we look at what others are doing. This is the basic psychology of human nature, and yes businesses are already using it to their advantage – reviews. When you show your prospect that his competitor has tried the product, he will try it for sure. Because subconsciously, we rely on other people for so many things.
Bottomline
Sales and Psychology have always been connected, and the interesting thing is, it will evolve as we evolve. The best practice is to constantly observe buying behavior and derive conclusions. It will eventually help you close more sales.
Cheers!