Understanding the buying psychology of customers can unlock the power that sales psychology has in maximizing your team’s success.
For example, you may be surprised to learn that when a buying decision is made, it is, on average, based on 80% emotion (personal feelings and experiences) and 20% logic. Studies have shown that positive emotions toward a company have a larger influence on customer loyalty than trust and other, more logic-based judgments do.
So, if you can tap into the emotions of your prospects and customers and understand how these influence their thinking, you and your team won’t have to do as much “selling”. Your customers will be more easily buying into your product or service naturally.
In this article, we’ve broken down some of the most effective sales psychology tactics you can use to optimize success, as well as some good sales psychology books that go into more depth about this valuable-to-know subject.
Effective Sales Psychology Methods to Utilize:
By using psychology, you can study the mental processes and behavior of your customers. Thus, enabling you to develop a sales plan that will help you and your team exceed sales quotas consistently. Here are some tactics based on the psychology of sales that you can employ to help close more deals, all of which touch on the emotional side of buying and selling:
Experiential Selling
One of the fastest ways to tap into emotion and enable a prospect to experience a complex product is by sharing a customer story. Studies have proven that stories activate the region of the brain that processes sights, sounds, movements, and tastes.
So, using customer stories/scenarios from current customers will target this dopamine system, taking advantage of the way the brain naturally learns from experience. For the prospect, when a salesperson shares a story, the transportation effect of the story can make it feel real and be the next best thing to them experiencing it live.
This psychology of sales tactic taps into human intuition and enables the prospect to discover for themselves the unique value of your product through relatable experience. In many cases, this method is much more effective than targeting the rational side of human thinking and dumping a multi-page product document on the prospect.
Invoking a Sense of Scarcity/Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency for your prospect can drive them to make decisions that they may not normally make. When products/services are presented as being “for a limited time only” or “in high demand, but low supply”, it causes 25% more customers to flock towards that item due to a fear of missing out on a great product.
This phenomenon is caused by the fact that humans put a much higher value on products that are scarce and a lower value on items that are in abundance. This appeal to scarcity can even be heightened when it is introduced that the deal could be lost to competition.
Along with a sense of urgency, your customers will also feel as though your product is desired by others which provides social proof of its quality. As a salesperson, you have the ability to frame how the consumer views the product you’re selling. Limitations on the duration of a deal or the supply of your product can drive excitement and sales to your company.
Selling to Their Pain Points
It is important to remember one simple truth: when people face challenges, they look for a solution, not a product. So, you have to understand that your prospects want to see how your offering can solve their problem (aka “pain point”). Regardless if your product or service has fantastic features, you have to show what it has to offer your prospect. Shift your focus to solving their specific pain points with your product or service rather than boasting about its attributes.
So, to utilize this sales psychology tactic and sell your solution, you first need to understand the specific pain point that your prospect is facing. Imagine yourself in their situation and visualize the problem in front of you. Only when you fully know the problem can you convey to your prospect how your offering will meet their needs.
Sales Psychology Books to Check Out
The field of sales psychology is expansive. And understanding humans can be even more difficult. But with continued practice, different sales methodologies, and resources, you can develop a deeper understanding of how to use it to your advantage. To help with that, here are a few good sales psychology books that will provide a more in-depth look at this subject:
“What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You: Unlocking Consumer Decisions with the Science of Behavioral Economics” – by Melina Palmer
The future of marketing research for businesses/brands is behavioral economics. This book by business owner, consultant, and behavioral economics expert Melina Palmer goes beyond just an academic understanding of behavioral economics and dives into practical applications. You’ll learn how real businesses and professionals can use science to grow their companies. This book explains how you can use the psychology of the consumer, truly impactful branding, and innovation to achieve real benefits to your bottom line.
“The Science of Selling: Proven Strategies to Make Your Pitch, Influence Decisions, and Close the Deal” – by David Hoffeld
This book by David Hoffeld blends cutting-edge research in social psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience. Thus showing you how to align the way you sell with how the human brain naturally forms buying decisions, dramatically increasing your ability to close more deals. You’ll learn a science-based approach to asking questions, resolving objections, securing commitments incrementally, reducing the influence of your competition, and more.
“The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible” – by Brian Tracy
In this book, Brian Tracy, a top professional speaker and sales trainer, breaks down his discovery that the “psychology of selling” is more important than the methods and techniques of selling. You’ll learn how to harness the power of using psychological principles in the sales process along with a good dose of personal motivation.
Using the Power of Sales Psychology Will Help Your Sales Team Maximize Success
As you can see, utilizing a more in-depth knowledge of sales psychology can help your team maximize effectiveness and close more deals. And in many cases, you can use more than one of the methods we covered above with the same prospect.
Though it is important to remember that using psychology to boost your sales is an intricate process because no two customers are the same. You have to alter your methods for each prospect or customer that you interact with in order to fit their unique behaviors. Taking the time to learn about your customer is a great way to know what their habits may be.
By using psychological tactics, like the ones above, you will be able to maximize sales effectiveness and see a noticeable boost in revenue. Start utilizing the power of sales psychology today!
