Positive and enthusiastic attitudes are magnets in sales. In episode 43, Dr. Croner focused on the psychological term, 'emotional contagion' where people literally become "infected" by someone else's positive emotions. In today's episode, emotional contagion and attitude go hand-in-hand. As your listening, think about a time when somebody's attitude, whether it was positive or negative, may have affected your purchasing decision.

Don't Miss an Episode - Subscribe for Free Now!

Subscribe to this podcast today and stay up to date on the latest in sales psychology.
 

Additional Resources

For more sales strategies, check out:

At SalesDrive, LLC, we help companies perfect the salesperson hiring process by offering a variety of tools, like a sales assessment and psychologically-based interview guides, that aid companies in never hiring a bad salesperson again. SalesDrive was founded in 2005 based on the single biggest frustration many companies face, selecting sales candidates who interviewed well, only to flame out when placed on the line. Dr. Croner reviewed more than 90 years of academic research as well as his own work in conducting intensive behavioral interviews and discovered that high-performance salespeople shared three innate personality traits. After identifying a gap in the marketplace, he went on to develop The DriveTest® sales assessment. The only sales assessment to measure the three non-teachable traits necessary for new business acquisition.
 
If you are hiring salespeople, request a free DriveTest® assessment today: https://salesdrive.info/free-trial-request

--

[soft melody theme music]
 
[00:00]  Katherine Abraham: Hello and Welcome to the Sales Psyched podcast, where we discuss strategies for leveraging psychology within the world of sales. Each episode is hosted by Dr. Chris Croner, who has a PhD in clinical psychology and has spent his career helping companies around the world build stellar sales teams.

[00:20]  Let's get started.
 
[deep drum, marching intro music]

[00:30]  Chris Croner: Dr. Chris Croner here. In today's episode, we're going to talk about a real story from one of our clients who was actually on the buy side of a sale but learned a valuable lesson about the power of humility from a master.

[00:45] Our friend was trying to buy a new Lexus. Lexus is well known for its quality across the board, including its vehicles, its service, and even the buying experience itself, but unfortunately he ran into a dealership, and a salesperson, who must not have gotten the memo because the salesperson, instead of being respectful, came across as super casual and borderline flippant. And to top it off, when our buyer asked a question he couldn't answer, he would say he needed to speak to his manager and would disappear for up to 10 minutes leaving our client sitting at his desk.

[01:25]  Our client finally left in frustration but then called a golfing buddy who was very close friends with the general manager of a Lexus dealer across town. His buddy made the connection and the manager called him and said, "I would be happy to help you sir," and they started talking.

[01:46]  The change in attitude was startling. Not only much more immediate and upbeat, but our client noticed that the GM constantly used the word "sir" and also used our clients formal name when conversing.

[02:02] When our client went over to the dealer, he was greeted outside by the GM who continued to constantly use the word "sir." Of course, our client figured he'd be turned over to a salesperson, but the GM personally closed the deal and then walked him over to the administrator for paperwork, but he never left him alone for long.

[02:24]  Here's where this comes home. In talking to the administrator, our client learned that this particular general manager not only ran this huge dealership, the largest in the region, but was also running a second major dealership Lexus had asked him to step into to elevate.

[02:43]  According to the admin, the GM was one of the busiest, most highly paid and well respected managers in the country and yet, he took the time to handle a personal reference himself and despite his esteemed status and accomplishments, showed remarkable humility in dealing with our client throughout the process.

[03:05] Constantly elevating his self esteem with the simple courtesy of "sir" as well as using our client's formal name.

[03:15]  You see, humility when combined with confidence and expertise, can create incredibly powerful and appealing chemistry in the buyer seller relationship. RGM obviously lives by this credo, which is one of the reasons he's become a superstar in the automotive world. See you next time.

[soft melody theme music]

[03:39] Thank you for listening to the sales psyched podcast. If you haven't already, please be sure to click the subscribe button and leave us a five star review. If you found this information helpful, please consider sharing it. We'd love your help in spreading the word. Until next time. Take care.