This is the
first in a series of articles about several powerful “brain friendly selling”
principles that you incorporate into the structure and content of your sales
pitch to make them more effective. The first principle is curiosity.
The very first thing you must do with your sales pitch is to capture the attention of your customer’s brain. And then you have to keep its attention.
If the brain
encounters anything new, novel or unusual it pays attention! When a person experiences anything that is
different or unexpected norepinephrine and dopamine levels in the brain
rise. This causes the person to focus
their attention and makes them alert and interested.
The best way
to capture the attention of the customer’s brain is to surprise it. Some of the methods that I have used when
selling various forms of consultancy, sales training, negotiation training and
management / leadership development include:
· Decorating the meeting room
the client was using to hold the sales pitch with materials we use when running
sales training programmes. I recreated
the stimulating, engaging learning environment I create for programme
participants with props like wall posters containing key learning points,
inspiring quotations, music playing, cards on the desk and floor that
participants use during exercises on the real programme.
I then invited the potential client to join
us in their meeting room to start the pitch.
The people who were sitting on the client’s decision-making panel were
very curious about how unusual the meeting room now looked! I didn’t make any reference to anything that
I had adorned the room with until much later in the pitch, thereby maintaining
the sense of curiosity and the client’s attention.
· Having an acronym or
mnemonic that contains the first letter of six key concepts I will discuss
displayed on a flip chart, and as the pitch progresses I complete the words
that match the first letter. I make sure
I leave at least one incomplete until really close to the end of the pitch as
the client’s brain is crying out to close the gap!
· Asking a provocative and /
or challenging question at the start. For example, “In your company how poor a
level of performance can you operate at and still keep your job?” or “According
to research at least 80 to 90% of employee’s behaviour is determined by the
behaviour of the company’s leaders. This
means that the behaviour I see your employees exhibiting tells me what sort of
leaders you are.”
· Using a prop or device. As much of my sales consultancy is orientated
around the application of neuroscience, one of my regular travelling companions
is a scale replica model of the human brain.
I will often have this sitting on the table or desk in front of me and
deliberately not make any reference to it until much later in the pitch. As it
is an unusual object it attracts the attention and curiosity of the client.
· Walking in with a giant full
colour graphical storyboard that provides a visual representation of a solution
I can provide. The entire pitch was
conducted using this and this alone. The
client’s logo and references to their customers and employees were contained on
the storyboard which showed that it had been prepared specifically for the
client. I left the storyboard with the
client at the end of the pitch at their request.
· Tell them early in the pitch
that I will reveal several pieces of information that are compelling and
interesting to them. I open what I call
a loop in their brain that they want to close.
I don’t close the loop until much later in the pitch, as a way of
building curiosity and keeping their attention. For example, “As we progress I am going to show you three tried and
tested and proven ways that we can deliver exactly the results you are looking
for and provide you with rock-solid evidence of our ability.” As I say “three tried and tested and proven
ways” I count off three times on my fingers.
As I move through the pitch and reveal each “tried and tested and proven
way” I mark each point verbally (“So the first way is….”) and non-verbally by
marking off each point on the relevant finger.
This reminds the client’s brain non-verbally that there is yet more to
be revealed. I will explain in a later article why I choose “three tried and tested and proven ways” and why I
specifically structure the phrase as “tried and tested and proven ways” rather
then “tried, tested and proven ways”. So
you will have to wait a short while to find out the specific and powerful
reason for that. Hopefully I now have
your attention and curiosity!
So please
give some thought to how you can capture your customer’s attention, and make
their brains curious to know more. If
you do this you will trigger the release of norepinephrine and dopamine in their brain which will focus
their attention and make them alert and interested.
You don’t
have to be wild and wacky to surprise the customer’s brain. You can do this in subtle ways which will
still be very effective. Mysteries,
puzzles, questions, unexplained things and incomplete patterns are all powerful
ways to grab and keep the attention of your customer’s brain.
Indeed,
please be aware that being too unusual and different can trigger a sense of
anxiety in the older parts of the brain, as too much novelty could mean a big
change, and change can be perceived as a threat to survival.
As
mentioned earlier the reptilian and limbic areas of your customer’s brain are
highly attuned to notice any changes in its environment, so moving during sales
pitches or doing something unexpected will grab its attention.
You
can use movement to make sure you don’t lose the customer’s attention. I would recommend doing something to attract
attention every few minutes or so. A few
examples, would be if you are using visual aids such as PowerPoint or Keynote,
then blanking the screen and walking across to the other side of the room,
alternating between standing up and sitting down, passing something to the
client to look at, moving closer to the audience to make a key point, asking a
question, illustrating a point on a flipchart or whiteboard, displaying a
visually impactful graphic or photograph before providing the reason for
showing it and so forth. When practising
your pitch, plan to insert attention-grabbers throughout it.
Get their brain curious and they will buy!
Good luck and good selling!
Simon Hazeldine
Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.
He is the bestselling author of five business books:
· Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
· Bare Knuckle Selling
· Bare Knuckle Negotiating
· Bare Knuckle Customer Service
· The Inner Winner
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