Salespeople are often only focused on closing the deal. In other words, gaining the buyer's final commitment. But, buyers persuade themselves to make a big commitment by making smaller commitments in the process. Understanding the psychology behind how buyers close can help with selling and persuasion.

In today's episode, you'll learn how to give buyers the opportunity to say "yes" in the course of your discussion, which is a positive step in moving the buyer to the final "yes."

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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.
 
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[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.
 
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[00:30]  Chris Croner: Welcome to Sales Psyched!, the only sales enhancement program delivered by a psychologist. I'm Dr. Chris Croner here today to talk to you about how buyers psychologically commit to a purchase.

[00:43]  As salespeople we're naturally interested in closing the deal. In other words, gaining the buyer's final commitment and signing on the dotted line. But, that's not how the buyer's mind operates. And understanding how he moves toward closure can inform how we should be thinking about selling and persuasion.
 
[01:05]  Buyers persuade themselves to make a big commitment by making smaller commitments in the process. In psychology we call this the "Foot in the Door" technique. Let me give you an example of how this process works.

[01:22]  There was a study conducted in which the students were asked to approach a series of homeowners on the same block to put signs about a popular local issue, something that most of the homeowners completely agreed with, in their yards. So, that wasn't a problem. The problem was that many people don't like to put signs in their yards, particularly big signs. So, the students were broken into two groups. The researchers wanted to see which ones could place more large signs in the neighborhood.

[01:57]  One group jumped right to asking if they could place the large signs. And, for the most part, people said no. The other group asked if they could place smaller signs and they received many more answers of yes.

[02:12]  Now, here's the kicker. A little later the second group came back around and asked if they could replace the small signs with larger ones. Most of the homeowners who had committed to the smaller sign, that is the smaller yes, agreed to the placement of the bigger signs. In other words, once they had said yes once, it was much easier for them to say it again because their mind had become comfortable with its commitment to the concept.

[02:46]  As you prepare your own sales discussions, be sure to give your buyers the opportunity to say yes in the course of your discussion. And if the meeting isn't going to result in a final close just yet, try to get a smaller yes toward the end to set up the next call. Something like "is it okay if I send along some information on that question you asked me?" The answer will be yes.

[03:11]  And while you can't see it, you have just taken a positive step in the buyer's mind in moving to the big yes at the end of the sales process.

[03:22]  See you next time.

 

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[03:25]  Chris Croner: 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.
 
[03:42]  Until next time, take care!