by Paul Barton
Using your web site to bring in prospects -- the kind you must later sell face-to-face? Well, I don't know anything at all about you, but I can make a pretty good guess at one thing.
If you are like most people, you may be lacking in one of the most important assets for selling: A real understanding of what it takes to persuade.
As a marketing consultant and sales seminar presenter, I have talked with hundreds of businesspeople, and at least 90% admit to knowing little about the techniques of persuasion. The other 10%? They both know and apply them -- and profit by the results.
People like:
The restaurant owner uses the "reciprocity" technique. People need social acceptance or "belonging," so we do what is "expected." If I do something for you, you do something for me. Experiments have shown how powerful this technique can be. In one test, a supermarket boosted sales of cheese from 50 pounds a day to 1,000 pounds, simply by putting out free samples along with the sign, "Please try this with our compliments." The result: Customers "reciprocated" by buying 20 times as much!
The owner of the restaurant, located near a toll highway exit, reasoned that, if he could persuade toll collectors to refer travelers to him, he could increase his business. Three or four times a year he takes them a piece of cake. In return, they send him about 500 travelers a year, for an extra $10,000 worth of meals.
The salesman who convinces people at a free opportunity meeting to invest $1,900 applies the "commitment/consistency" technique. Again, our need to be socially accepted causes us to act in a "consistent" manner.
University researchers showed this when they asked 100 homeowners to mount a large "Drive Carefully" sign in their front yards for two weeks. Every one turned them down. Then they asked people in a nearby neighborhood to place a small "Drive Carefully" sticker in their windows. Nearly all did. Later, they asked them to mount the big sign in their yards. Now, 60% consented. They had agreed to the "small" request and, to be consistent, they agreed to the second, larger commitment.
The salesman in the above example uses this technique by asking a series of questions that are easy to agree to. "Is financial independence important?" (Nods, yes) "Would you like to make $75,000 working from home?" (Nods) "If you could get in that business for just $40 a month, you could certainly afford that. Right?" (Nods) He then, invariably, signs up a lot of people for his $1,900 program getting small commitments leading to the much larger one. (Of course, he first does a complete presentation to establish value and create desire. The technique then overcomes buyer inertia and makes it easier to say yes.)
The realtor applies the "social proof" technique. He does business where homes sell in the $400,000-plus range, and he sells about 70, or more than $25 million worth, each year.
Researchers illustrated how "social proof" works in an experiment with pre-schoolers. They placed a dog in a playpen and asked the kids to climb in. The wouldn't; they were afraid. Then, they showed them a film of other kids playing with a dog in a playpen. After that, 70% climbed right in having seen social proof from peers that this was OK.
How does the realtor use social proof? He makes it widely known whenever he lists or sells a high-priced home. He calls owners of similar homes. He enlists former clients to let new sellers or buyers know he is "THE" realtor for such homes. And he impresses potential clients with a whole catalog of upscale homes he has helped clients sell or purchasers buy a demonstration of social proof by members of their peer group that this is the realtor they, too, should use.
Clearly, when you employ sales persuasion techniques, you are influencing people. But, that is the real job of anyone selling any product or service.
As long as you deal honestly with customers, offering products or services of real value at a fair price, persuasion techniques are WIN/WIN facilitators for both buyer and seller, making it easier for the buyer to buy and for the seller to sell.
They are used every day by some of the most successful companies large and small. Every business can profit from them.
Paul Barton is principal of W. Paul Barton Associates, a marketing and consulting firm in Baldwinsville, NY, and producer of "Effective Sales Persuasion A How-To Seminar In Print." Web site: http://www.salespersuasion.com. E-Mail: wpaulbarton@compuserve.com.
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