A big part of our research and subsequent workshops revolves around the premise that people can be incented to make choices and change behavior by the emotional payoff of the decision.
As salespeople, a big part of our job is to establish that payoff, in the form of differentiating our products/services, ourselves and the overall experience people have when they engage with us.
Put another way, people will alter their behavior if they anticipate that they will feel good by doing so, and the management of our customers’ feelings is an art that the greatest salespeople I know have mastered.
Please take a moment to view the short video below. You may have seen it before, but this time, I want you to look at it from a sales perspective . . .
The escalator in the video is your toughest competitor and you are trying to “sell” the stairs.
Think about the psychology of what you see . . . how a new “presentation” and “experience” completely changes the behavior of this audience, even though the alternative you are offering requires more time and energy.
This is precisely how we should be thinking about our own products/services, that is, how we can present them in creative new ways that stand out from the norm and change both perception and behavior.