To sell your products or services, you need to consider the psyche of your target market. Sales psychology is defined as, “a process that involves considering the psyche of your target market. Your goal is to market to the needs and wants of your customers, not convince them that your product or service is necessary. People buy products in different ways.”
There is a crucial difference between an effective and an excellent salesperson. Both have excellent selling skills, but one key difference separates them.
A good salesperson uses a customer-centric approach and is more concerned about the why, who, when, where, and how of the customer's experience.
It is important to understand your customers' minds and view the sales process from their perspective, which is the purpose of sales psychology. You can create a customer-centric experience by answering these questions. What kinds of experiences will they enjoy? What problems will they face?
In order to increase sales, create lasting relationships, and empower customers to make informed purchases, sales representatives can adopt a customer-centric mindset.
By focusing on the customer, you will be able to influence how you talk, listen, and communicate with them, and this will have a lasting impact on their experience of the company. To understand what motivates your customers to spend money on your product or service, you have to think like them.
In order to purchase your product, customers want one of two things: to relieve pain or to increase satisfaction (source). Customers are driven by desire, which is often sparked by negative experiences.
Qualifying is a critical part of the sales process. It's the perfect time to engage prospects with open-ended questions to understand their emotional reasons for wanting your product. In order to demonstrate how your product or service can solve their problems, you should use the reason they have identified as your North Star.
While the primary goal of the sales process is to drive more revenue, it is important to remember that you are interacting with a living person who has emotions.
When you are a sales representative, your job is to communicate the value of a product or service to a customer. However, the way you do it matters. In order to cultivate trust with your customers, you need to understand their unique experiences and perspective emotionally (source).
Using empathy as the foundation of your sales approach will enable you to achieve enhanced success since 53% of customer loyalty is influenced by the sales experience (source).
When done correctly, mirroring can lead to successful sales. When you mirror your customer, you adopt their gestures, speech patterns, or behaviors so that they can see themselves in you. Over time, mirroring leads to a friendly harmonious relationship as well as feelings of similarity.
Engaging with customers in their language is the most effective way to practice mirroring. If you repeat what you've been told, explain the product, and particularly ask questions using the same jargon as them, the customer will be more likely to feel heard and seen. The customer always comes first, even if it is subtle.
While the sales process involves a lot of talking, it is just as - if not more - important to ask the right questions. When negotiating or conversing with a customer, you should focus on what they say about who they are and what they want.
Customers have a story to tell, so it's important to listen more than you speak. Ask strategic questions that reveal more about the customer's why, even if you know they need a new product/software. Open-ended questions will inspire customers to share their stories.
Customers are more likely to divulge meaningful and lengthy responses when you ask them the five W's: 'who', 'why', 'what', 'where', 'when', and 'how' questions. When prompted, customers are more likely to share their frustrations, likes, and dislikes.
A sales rep's definition of success may differ from the customer's. B2B sales are typically lengthy and involve different stakeholders at different levels who may have varying levels of involvement (source).
A sales rep who takes the time to develop an intentional sales approach that addresses each specific customer's needs can greatly influence the buyer's decision. It is important to create unique materials and assets that help your customers sell your product to their internal teams in order to have their best interests at heart.
You can ensure that the product meets the emotional and functional needs of your customers by understanding what success looks like for their role as well as their entire organization.
The power of suggestions during negotiation can help close the deal. Psychologically, suggestions can be a powerful tool for guiding another person's thoughts, feelings, or actions. These few examples will definitely boost your sales efforts.
Testimonials from clients
Prospects are more likely to purchase your product or service if there are client testimonials. Customers tend to look up customer success stories, social media, or anyone who has purchased your product in order to decide if it is worth buying. In fact, 92% of customers will purchase after reading a reputable review or opinion on it (source).
FOMO can be created, can it not?
There is something natural about being around people who share similar interests and values. It creates a sense of belonging, togetherness, and self-confidence. The problem is when those feelings aren't aligned, it can reinforce feelings of social exclusion.
In the sales world, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is seen as an opportunity to capitalize on loss aversion. While it can be negative about social gatherings, it is seen as an opportunity to capitalize on loss aversion. When used correctly, it can be a very strategic move to close a sale, because if your customer misses out on the promotion or free upgrade when you offer it to them.
Think about the Buyer Experience
Your prospects will have questions about your product's use, compatibility, and user experience during the prospecting phase. It's normal for customers to test drive the product before committing, but it's better to encourage a customer to do so beforehand.
In research on buyer experience, it has been found that the quality of your customer experience has the greatest impact on your conversion rate.
The reason that only 14% of B2B companies are customer-centric is that they don't attempt to understand the buyer's perspective." (source).
In the sales process, customers want a very human experience, especially because they are people. You will greatly increase your chances of building rapport and closing more deals if you teach your sales reps to think like the customer and customize each customer experience to address their problems.
Your chances of closing quality sales and establishing long-term relationships will increase if you implement practices that prioritize a customer-centric focus and emotional engagement.
