Sales is all about the art of persuasion, and for many years’ experts have been writing about the six pillars of influence. Here we relate them to the sales process in order to get customer to buy more.

Pillar 1 – Reciprocation

If you get invited out to dinner at your friend’s house, there’s a strong likelihood that you’ll invite them back to yours next time. This is reciprocation and the same thing works in sales. Spending time helping a prospect is time well spent, even if you can’t see any immediate benefit for you. You might offer a free consultation or report, as long as it offers real value there is a strong chance that the prospect will enquire about your product or service.

In 2005 social scientist Randy Garner published a report on the effects of using a personalised approach versus a non- personalised approach to encourage customers to respond to a marketing survey. He sent out one third of the surveys with a hand-written note, one third with a blank compliments note and one third with no note at all. The results undeniably demonstrate that people are more likely to do something for you if it is personalised. Here’s the results:

• Hand-written note: 69% response rate
• Blank sticky note: 43% response rate
• No sticky note: 34% response rate

Pillar 2 – Commitment

People, generally, do not like to back out of agreements. If they have committed verbally or in writing to do something, then the vast majority will try hard to honour their commitments. People value consistency and integrity. That said, let’s now be realistic. Situations change, people get busy and through often no fault of their own, they become unable to honour their commitment.

What does this mean for sales people?

We have to be clever how we ask for commitment and we have to work hard to ensure that we get it. Let’s give you an example.

A trainee complains that some of his customers fail to show for their site inspections, despite confirming the appointment verbally and in writing. Let’s now look at the language used on the confirmation email:

“Please let me know if you can’t make it.” With this example there is no request for a commitment from the customer, it is simply a statement. If we subtly change it to “Will you please let me know if you can’t make it by Tuesday 11th June latest so that I can notify the venue..” This requires commitment as it asks a question and offers a deadline.

Work hard

Sending one email isn’t enough. Try sending a hand-written note or postcard a couple of days before as a friendly reminder. Make a short video saying how much you’re looking forward to meeting the customer, pick up the phone the day before and double check everything is still OK for the site inspection. You have to work hard for commitment so that people feel emotionally connected to the situation.

Pillar 3 – Social Proofing

When people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look to those around them to guide their actions. That’s why companies use testimonials on their websites and that’s why when on eBay or Amazon you check other reviewes before you buy. TripAdvisor, like it or loathe it, is undeniably powerful but whilst we’re surrounded by examples of the persuasiveness of social proofing, few sales professionals use it.

Use testimonials in your proposals and pitches. Harvest recommendations from your LinkedIn page and ask your customers to record a short testimonial video on your smart phone.

Pillar 4 – Liking

People prefer to say “yes” to those that they know and like. In a survey mailed out to strangers the response rate was 26% higher when the survey request was sent out by someone with a similar sounding name as the recipient e.g. Recipient name is Mark Gallen, the requestor’s name is Marcus Allen.

What does this mean for sales people? It doesn’t mean that you’ve got to rush off and dream up thousands of new IDs. Instead try talking about the range of customers you deal with who have similar challenges or situations as your prospect, and correlations in your background/education/experience as your prospect and research their preferences so that you can demonstrate insight into their world.

Pillar 5 – Authority

People respect authority. Experts and leaders in a given field are impressive and offer credibility. For sales people this means aligning your product, approach or ideas to leading bodies or organisations that lend credibility to what you do. Awards and accreditations are helpful and should be used blatantly in sales pitches, proposals and literature.

Pillar 6 – Scarcity

The tendency to be more sensitive to possible losses than to possible gains is one of the best-supported findings in social science. Think about this. If you were to find £20 I expect you’d be pretty pleased. But what if you were to lose £20? I’d bet that you’d be more upset about the loss of £20 than you would be pleased about the find. That’s why marketers are better telling people about the potential loss of not having their product rather than the benefits.

The scarcity theory is basic economics in action. The less there is of something, the more people want it. That’s why marketers frequently use statements like “Don’t miss this chance” or “Only available until Monday.”

Sales and marketing are increasingly aligned and smart sales people will work out how to utilise the proven persuasion theories that marketers have been using for decades.