This is the third in a
series of articles about several powerful “brain friendly selling” principles
that you can incorporate into the structure and content of your sales pitch to make
them more effective.
The third principle is
the concept of "clarity".
It is important to
provide your customer’s brain with clarity.
To help them make a decision we need to provide clarity throughout the
sales process and particularly during the sales pitch. The greater the clarity we can
provide the easier it is for their brains to draw conclusions.
When we provide the brain with
clarity, rather than clutter and confusion, it is far easier for it to process
the information it is presented with and make a good decision.
Conscious
thinking is a complex interaction that includes billions of neurons, and as a
result the brain uses a lot of energy when doing it. As a result of it evolving at a time when
food could be a scarce commodity, it has evolved to be as efficient as possible
and to minimise energy usage where possible.
When making
decisions, and solving problems, the brain makes heavy use of the pre-frontal
cortex. The pre-frontal cortex can
become overwhelmed when faced with confusing decisions to make. When faced with such a scenario the brain may avoid making the energy sapping decision or to make an automatic or
unconscious choice. This is quicker, easier and uses less energy.
The danger
is that the automatic or unconscious choice could be to just keep things as
they are, to stick with the existing supplier or to procrastinate on making the
decision. If you can minimize the energy
usage by the pre-frontal cortex you will maximize the energy resources that the
customer’s brain has available to make a good decision that will serve them
well.
Sales people
who understand their product or service very well can sometimes, due to their
higher level of insight and years of experience, explain things at a more
advanced and abstract level than suits a person with less knowledge and
experience. When this happens the
customer can become confused and feel somewhat bamboozled. Their brain is finding things too complicated
and confusing and as a result decision paralysis can result.
The variable factors that the customer’s brain has to hold in mind to be able to
make a decision need to be limited as much as possible. The “Neuro-Sell” mantra is: Less is more!
The
customer’s capacity to make a wide decision is limited by the resources
available to the pre-frontal cortex.
The aim of the “Neuro-Sell” approach is to help the customer by making
the buying process as brain-friendly as possible. We can achieve this by providing clutter free
clarity to the customer!
A good way
to provide clarity is to start with where the customer is now. It is a good idea to recognise where the
customer is now with their thinking about the topic in question, what they
believe and the opinions they have.
It is
important to make sure that we are “on the same page” as our customer. Showing that we understand their situation
and beliefs helps us to build rapport with them. It is good to summarise your understanding
and check it is correct with the customer.
Getting them into an agreeable frame of mind by agreeing with your
explanation of their current context primes their brain to being more receptive
to agreeing with your sales proposal.
We can then
use this current situation or context to demonstrate how we can move the
customer from where they are now towards a more beneficial situation. The brain works by connecting new incoming
information into existing mental frameworks or maps, so linking your ideas or
proposal to the customer’s existing reality will make it easier for them to
understand and accept.
When people
face a problem or challenge they usually attempt to apply strategies that have
worked for them in similar situations previously. The customer will be projecting their
experience from the past onto the current or future problem / challenge as a
way of dealing with it.
Their belief
about what might work could be a barrier to your proposal being properly
considered and accepted. It is usually
more effective to meet them where they are currently in their thinking and then
build upon this and gracefully move them towards a new positive solution.
The first
step in making sure the customer has clarity is to be certain you have clarity
yourself. That is, that you are able to
articulate your proposal in a short, sharp, brain-friendly manner communicating
the most important points with impact.
A useful framework is to
use a technique I was told about by a communications consultant who trained
company executives how to make a positive impression when being interviewed by
the media. He told me that it was
important that they were very clear about the main messages they wanted to get
across, and I have found his framework to be very valuable for sales
professionals to consider the key messages in selling situations – both in
formal pitches and in more informal occasions.
You can adapt this to use
earlier in the sales process as part of your pitch, and you can also use this
to summarise the key benefits or to provide your suggested options.
He told me that he uses
the metaphor of a house – what he called “the message house”.
The “roof” of the message
house, contains your most important point.
This is a point that you make reference to several times, for example at
the beginning, middle and end of your presentation. When building your sales presentation you
need to give careful consideration to this message.
This message is going to
be the number one thing that you want your customer to remember from your
presentation.
Make your main message
orientated around something that provides a strong benefit to the customer. For example, I often use the fact that I have
a practical results orientated approach, agree success measures in advance of
doing any work for a customer and guarantee to deliver the agreed results.
In a nutshell my main message is: “You want
improved sales results - I guarantee to deliver them!” As simple as this may sound this frequently
provides a point of contrast to my competitors who appear to spend more time
talking about the service they provide rather than the results the customer
desires.
Your main message is then
supported by your three key points. These can be, for example, the main three
benefits that you can provide. These
should link up to and meet the customer’s three most important criteria that
you should have identified earlier in the sales process.
Due to the limitations
about the number of items or chunks of information that can be held consciously
at any one time, one main message and three key points is a good number to
provide. This number can be processed,
understood and decided upon by the customer’s brain.
You then need to prepare
your “Fact Foundation”. These are facts
and proof points that you have ready to prove the validity of your Main Message
and 3 Key Points. Although we know that
emotion plays a significant role in buying decisions, we still need to have
rock-solid proof of the capability of our products and services.
Please remember that
certain types of customers will need more facts and data as part of their
decision making process and there is also a strong emotional benefit to
providing this proof as it provides a sense of certainty, reliability and
comfort that the brain wants to move towards.
Provide your customer’s
brain with clarity and it 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
To learn more about
Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:
