Brain Friendly Selling Tips #1: Curiosity

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

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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www.neuro-sell.com

Do Salespeople Make Good Negotiators?

Do you think that your sales team you are as effective at negotiating as the procurement professionals they are facing across the buying table? 

I’ve got some bad news for you.  In the course of my work as a consultant and corporate trainer in the areas of sales and negotiation I have spent increasing amounts of time working the “other side” of the buying table.  Over the last few years I have trained both sales professionals and procurement professionals in approximately equal numbers to negotiate. 

And I have come to a disturbing conclusion - in the majority of cases salespeople just aren’t as good at negotiating as they need to be.  As this concerning reality became increasingly apparent I spent much time and thought working out why this is the case and what can be done about it. My conclusions are as follows:

At an early stage in their career sales people are usually told to “keep the customer happy”.  They have been taught that happy customers are good customers and go out of their way to placate unhappy customers.   Professional buyers know this and will deliberately make salespeople uncomfortable by appearing to be “unhappy” as a way of tipping the power balance in their favour. 

In addition selling and negotiating are two distinct skill sets.  Although selling and negotiating are inextricably linked there are distinct differences:

In selling we are attempting to persuade, convince, enthuse, justify and explain.  

By contrast in negotiation we are stating our position, considering, making and weighing proposals and making demands for what we want.

In the majority of cases sales people are far less comfortable with negotiating than buyers are.   If salespeople receive sales training the majority of the time will be spent on the process of selling and very much less time (if any at all) will be spent on the process of negotiating.  Buyers on the other hand will usually only receive training in negotiation.  Therefore when it comes to the negotiation stage of the sales process - buyers have the advantage. 

Buyers will attempt to short cut the sales stage and pull the salesperson out of their selling comfort zone and into their negotiating discomfort zone.  The experienced buyer will increase the levels of discomfort as much as possible using psychological ploys and tactics.  The uncomfortable salesperson will often pay their way out of discomfort in the form of (at best) some form of financial concession or (at worst) a non-reciprocated “give away”.  They will literally pay their way out of discomfort with their employer’s profit margin.  For salespeople to become more effective negotiators they need to recognise this and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Having spent countless hours running realistic negotiation training simulations, I have often seen the salesperson’s selling comfort zone once again rearing its ugly head in terms of negotiation behaviour.  Salespeople will tend to do far too much information giving in the negotiation– driven by their predilection for persuading and selling.  In doing so, they miss out on gathering the necessary information that would enable them to make effective negotiation proposals.  They spend far too much time “in their own head” thinking about things from their perspective and not enough time where their focus should be – inside the buyer’s head, understanding things from their perspective.  Professional buyers will tend to exhibit higher levels of information gathering, giving them far more knowledge and information that they can the use to their advantage.  In negotiation knowledge is power.

If this situation continues sales professionals are going to continue to be taken advantage of by the procurement professionals they encounter.  The sales profession must put more far more emphasis than it currently does on equipping sales people to be more confident and capable negotiators.

Good luck and good negotiating!

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:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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www.neuro-sell.com

How Thinking Like a Buyer Will Help You To Sell More Successfully

There is a process involved in selling successfully.  Indeed selling is a process.  Some companies have a structured sales process that their sales leadership encourage and train their salespeople to use – far too many do not.

In this case their salespeople do the best that they can and to some degree they “make it up as they go along”.  They will have some approach that they follow, but it is likely to be largely unconscious and based upon historical trial and error.  Although there will be successful salespeople within companies that have not adopted a structured sales process, their success will be more as a result of accident rather than design.  In general, an under performing sales force is usually the result, with all categories of salespeople from under performers to those at the top of the sales league table never fulfilling their true sales potential.

The degree of success that salespeople experience is often directly related to their ability to follow a tried and tested and proven sales process.  When a proven sales process is followed correctly the result is increased sales.

Even with companies who do have a structured sales process very few consider the customer’s buying process and how to align their sales process to it.

If we pause for a moment to consider then this becomes a concerning situation.  The salespeople will be orientating their sales process (if indeed they have a conscious process) to their own aims and agenda.  They will be largely viewing the sales process from their perspective.  It is a sales process that they, in some way, take the customer through.  The focus is largely on the result that the salesperson wants to achieve.

This is concerning because the customer is the most important person in the sales interaction.  It is the customer who will make the final decision whether to buy from you or not, and they will only do so if they believe that the purchase will benefit them in achieving their aims and objectives.  It would therefore make sense to consider things from their perspective, wouldn't it?

If you don’t do so already, I am going to invite you to consider the sales process in terms of the customer’s buying process.  Let us assume the customer’s perspective, identify the process that they will be going through as they move towards a purchase decision and then align our selling process to match their buying process. In doing this we will be providing the customer with whatever it is they need to move through their buying process to a successful conclusion.  When this is done well the successful conclusion will usually involve making the decision to purchase from you.

So they key question is - what does the customer’s buying process look like?

What follows is a typical buying process that your customer may follow:

1. Identify need / problem or become aware that a need / problem exists
2. Identify possible solution characteristics
3. Search for possible suppliers /solution
4. Request solution proposals from one or more suppliers
5. Analyse solution proposals
6. Evaluate solution proposals to determine preferred supplier
7. Negotiate terms with chosen supplier
8. Award contract
9. Integrate and induct supplier
10. Review supplier performance.

If the customer has an identified and structured buying process then they will usually share this with you if asked.  Your task is then to align your sales process to the customer’s buying process.   An awareness of their buying process allows you to get ahead of the game and be well prepared as each stage presents itself.

If, as is often the case, the customer does not have a formal or conscious buying process then it is important to elicit the process they will go through.

Asking questions to elicit their (largely) unconscious process will be useful.

Examples include:

“What process will you follow to make your decision?”

“How will you be making your decision about what is right for you?”

“How will you go about selecting the right solution / supplier?”

In helping the customer to get clarity about how they will make their purchasing decision will add value to the customer and help to position you as a credible, helpful and useful supplier.

Become involved in the buying process as early as possible.  If you can get involved in the first stages of need / problem identification (or are the catalyst that causes the buying process to start in the first place) and identification of possible solution characteristics then you will be best placed to influence and shape their understanding of what they need.

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:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

Are You Failing to Persuade People Successfully Because of Your ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach?

In the past, salespeople were often trained to follow a very standard “one size fits all” sales presentation or sales script.  The idea being that the standard presentation or script contained tried and tested selling techniques that would persuade the prospective customer to say ‘yes’.

This approach was symptomatic of the more traditional, transactional “push” style of selling that was prevalent in the past.  It is sometimes referred to as “spray and pray” or “show up and throw up”.  That is you deliver your standard sales message to every prospective customer and hope that sometimes it will get you a positive result.

As the world of selling evolved, perhaps in response to customers becoming more educated and resistant to the standard and all too common “push” approach, a shift towards a more consultative and tailored approach to sales became more common.

The salesperson spent more time understanding the customer’s context, circumstances and challenges so that a more customised solution could be devised that would more accurately reflect the customer’s unique needs.  This is sometimes referred to a “pull” approach, as the information the salesperson requires and, to varying degrees, the structure of the solution is “pulled” or elicited from the customer.

More and more salespeople began to be trained in consultative selling techniques and on the whole these have proved to be more effective than the traditional “push” approach.  In addition, more and more customers have experienced the consultative approach and have come to expect it and prefer it.

Criticism has sometimes been levelled at the more consultative approach that it is a lengthier and more time consuming approach.  Salespeople using a consultative approach have been criticised for being too customer-orientated and lacking the ability to challenge their customers and drive the sale to a conclusion.

So it would appear that broadly speaking we have two approaches to selling.  In my opinion debating the validity of the two approaches is short sighted.  What we appear to have is a continuum of selling styles and approaches ranging from at one extreme, a “push” or “hardball” approach and at the other extreme a highly consultative “pull” approach.

To debate the superiority of these two extremes adopting an either / or approach is to my mind a very narrow and unproductive exercise. 

What will be more productive and useful is to explore an approach to selling that is practical, flexible in approach (avoiding either a one size fits all or either / or approach and indeed incorporating the best of each approach as required), and most importantly is proven to improve sales performance.  Allow me to introduce you to – adaptive selling!

When using adaptive selling, the salesperson flexes, alters and varies their selling approach depending upon:

1.     The nature of the selling situation

2.     The stage of the buying process that the customer is currently in

3.     The specific interests and needs that the customer has in relation to the product / service in question

4.     The personality and buying style of the customer. The adaptive salesperson will tailor their questioning, probing, sales presentation and closing methodology based on the customer’s behavioural preference.  They will also respond to feedback (both verbal and non-verbal) that they receive from the individual and adapt accordingly.

Adaptive selling is a practical and powerful approach to selling.   Indeed research has demonstrated that the practice of adaptive selling is welcomed by salespeople and research has been shown that it increases their sales performance.

So are you adopting a “one size fits all” approach to your selling or are you adapting your approach according to the four areas outlined above?

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:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

To subscribe to Simon's "Neuro-Sell" newsletter please visit:
www.neuro-sell.com

How To Sell Effectively in the New Commercial Reality

We have discovered more about how the human brain works in the last five to ten years than in the whole of human history.  For example, we now understand more about how it functions when it makes decision, including decisions to buy or not to buy from salespeople.

How the human brain works is of great importance to salespeople. Due to advances in neuroscience we can now look into the human brain and discover what it likes and dislikes.  We can understand why it rejects certain things, such as some salespeople and some sales proposals!

However, a considerable number of selling techniques and selling systems that are used today are based largely upon a book that was published in 1922.  A very progressive gentleman called Edward K Strong wrote “The Psychology of Selling” and introduced salespeople to concepts such as open and closed questions, features and benefits, overcoming objections and closing techniques.

He was without doubt a man ahead of his time, and his work was so influential that its key principles survive to this day and indeed form the core content of most company’s sales training programmes.

As useful as Edward K Strong’s principles are, it is important to consider that the commercial world that existed in 1922 was very different to the world of 2014.  In the 92 years that has passed since the publication of Strong’s book huge advances in technology and society have taken place. These powerful changes have disrupted and changed the commercial reality that salespeople face almost beyond recognition.

In the new commercial reality customers are better informed and educated than ever before, they conduct on-line research to gain an advantage over salespeople, and profit margins are under pressure as they continually demand more for less. The relentless process of increasing competition and creative destruction accelerates on a daily basis, creating a highly competitive and cut-throat commercial environment that would have been unthinkable back in 1922!

In order to survive your business has upgraded its technology, its systems, its processes, and its business model.  However the vital question is: Have you upgraded your sales technology, systems and processes? Has your sales approach kept pace with the new reality, or are you in danger of being left behind?

The future of your sales success will increasingly lie in your ability to understand and connect with the brain that resides in the head of your customer.

Cutting edge neuroscience research, if understood and applied, will give you an unfair advantage that your competitors will hate. For example, neuroscience now shows us that only 5% of human decision-making (including the decision to buy from you) occurs in the conscious / rational area of the human brain known as the cortex. A massive 95% of decision-making occurs in the more primitive and largely unconscious regions – namely the reptilian complex and the limbic system.  I refer to this area of the brain as “the missing 95%”.

Although human beings have evolved our brains have not changed significantly in 100,000 years, leaving us with a largely primitive brain that has to operate in the new reality of our modern world. Due to our evolutionary history the more primitive areas of our brain exert more control and influence over the rational part of our brain than the other way around, allowing primitive unconscious mental processes and emotional arousal to heavily influence decision making and, at times, to dominate it.

The modern salesperson needs to understand how to connect with “the missing 95%”of their customer’s brain and help it to feel comfortable with them so that it is receptive to their sales messages.  Irritate or threaten it and the message receptors in the brain begin to shut down with the result that you and your sales pitch are rejected.  To succeed in the new reality salespeople need to master the art of “brain friendly selling”.

For example, you need to understand that hard-wired into the brain are the two most powerful motivating human drives - the instinctive desire to “stay away” from discomfort and to move “towards reward”. Stay away from problems / discomfort and move towards comfort / pleasure is the fundamental operating system of the human brain. These powerful forces are the triggers that cause your customers to buy.

To succeed in the new reality you need to be able to build these powerful motivating drives into your sales process, and motivate the customer to take action by showing how your product or service moves the customer away from the problems they are experiencing and towards the more comfortable future they desire.

If you can do this then you will succeed in the new reality. If you don’t then you are in danger of being left behind by competitors who have upgraded their sales approach to meet the increasing demands of the new reality.  If you harness the very latest powerful discoveries from neuroscience and incorporate these into your sales training, sales process and sales methodology your customers will become increasingly comfortable with you and will buy from you time and time again.

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:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

Are You Providing Enough Contrast?

In our modern, busy world the brains of people that you want to persuade and influence are being bombarded with sales and marketing messages every hour of every day. For your sales message to get through this cacophony you must provide their brains with a clear contrast.

Your customer’s and potential customer's brains (including the all important more primitive reptilian and emotional brains) responds positively to clear contrast.  To help it make the right decision to buy what you have to offer you must provide it with a very clear contrast.

For example:

Provide a very clear contrast between what the customer’s current situation is now and how much better the situation will be once they have chosen to purchase your product or solution.   Show them how their future (if they make the right decision to buy from you) will be an improvement on their present circumstances.

Your contrast needs to provide a   summary of their current state or situation, the problems they are experiencing and the costs / impact associated with these problems.  This provides the "Stay Away From Pain" motivation for their brain to want to move away from. This "Stay Away" response is hard-wired into our brains and is a powerful motivating force.

Then provide them with summary of their desired future state situation that shows the rewards and benefits that they will experience once their problems have been solved by the purchase and implementation of your product or service.  This provides the "Toward Reward" motivation (which is also hard-wired into the brain) for their brain to want to move towards.

Then show your product, service or proposal as the enabler that allows them to move between these two contrasting situations - from where they are now to where they want to be.

A further point of contrast that is important for you to consider is to demonstrate how you differ from and are superior to your competitors.  A good way to find out is to ask your existing customers why they buy from you and the advantages they perceive you to have.  What you may think differentiates you might be different to what your customers think!

If you ask your key customers your points of difference then you will rapidly develop clarity about what they are as common themes will occur.  You can then incorporate these into your sales pitch.   Your message needs to clearly differentiate you from your competitors and provide a strong point of contrast.  

Provide the brain with the contrast it needs to make a good decision - the decision to say "yes" to you.

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:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

Are The Two Most Powerful Motivations To Take Action Missing From Your Sales Presentation?

Neuroscience research shows us that a fundamental organising and operating principle of the human brain that drives your customer’s thinking, behaviour and action is to avoid and move away from anything that is perceived to be painful, dangerous or threatening, and to move towards anything that is pleasurable, comforting or rewarding.

At its core this is a hardwired survival instinct of the human brain.  It has played a vital role in our evolution and although it may not always be as practically useful in our safe, modern world (our brains have not changed significantly in 100,000 years) at an unconscious level it is still driving our behaviour and that of our customers.  

 “Everything you do in life is based on your brains determination to
minimise danger or maximise reward.  Minimise danger, maximise
reward is the organising principle of the brain.”
Dr Evian Gordon
Author of “Integrative Neuroscience”

Although the “stay away” and the “towards reward” drives are active all the time in the human brain, it is the away from drive that is stronger and faster.  If we consider the almost constant dangers our primitive ancestors experienced it makes evolutionary sense to prioritise keeping us safe.

This perhaps explains the fact that metaphorically speaking people will be prepared to pay more for help to climb out of a hole than to stop themselves falling into the hole in the first place!

At a conscious and particularly unconscious level (about 95% of all cognitive activity occurs below conscious awareness in the more primitive parts of the brain) your customer’s brain will be constantly asking “stay away” from pain and “towards reward” questions such as:

Does this ease my pain / solve my problems / ease my frustrations / reduce my stress / keep my job safe / get my boss off my back / stop me getting sacked / stop me looking stupid, incompetent, incapable?

Does this bring me pleasure / make me look good / get me approval / get me some more time / make me more money / help me to achieve results / make a wise decision / be positively recognised / achieve my targets / get my bonus / get me promoted?

When you are asking questions of your customers in order to understand their needs, make sure that you uncover the problems and pain they are experiencing.  If you can show their brains how to move away from these to something more rewarding then they will be interested.

Take a close look at your sales proposals and presentations.  Do they incorporate and harness these powerful motivating forces?  Do you clearly show your customer’s brain how it can “stay away” from pain and move “towards reward”? 

Help your customer to understand the costs and impact associated with the current problems or challenges they are experiencing. Help them to realise what this is costing them.  The more “stay away” motivation you can stimulate the less likely they are to do nothing.

If you are selling business to business three types of "pain" that you can stimulate are financial (money wasted, lost or not gained etc), emotional (stress, frustration, low morale etc) and strategic (things that are preventing the customer from getting to where they want to get to with their business.

Then show them the rewards and benefits of a desirable future state that they will experience once their problems have been solved by the purchase of your product and service.  Provide the “towards reward” motivation for your customer’s brain to move towards.

When you have these two motivating forces activated position your product or service as the vehicle that will take them from where they are now to where they want to be.  You can position yourself as the enabler that helps them to achieve their desired goals.

When you do this your customer’s brain is going to say “yes” to your proposal.

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:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:
www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com