Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
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neurosciencearevolutioninselling Admittedly, in the mid-19th century, that doyen of sales and champion of the positive mental attitude, William Clement Stone said: "Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect." gies in any given situation and therefore stimulate sales growth. Neuroscience ofers us the historically unparalleled prospect of illuminating our understanding of both sides of the equation — the sellers and the buyers — and therefore achieving results As much as 95% of our decisions are made by the subconscious mind. Now, that was an interesting theory, well ahead of its time. What would Stone have made of the modern advances in neuroscience, I wonder? One can only suspect he would have fallen upon such tools as it presents with alacrity, recognizing that through this research we now have the opportunity not only to shape the attitude of the salesman, but also to identify and therefore better understand the attitude of the "prospect." It is easy to forget in this electronic age that all sales eventually involve interacting with people. People with brains, feelings, emotions and — wait for it … yes — needs. It is more important than ever in today's tough economic climate that we re-examine much of the old-fashioned thinking on sales strategies. Many top companies continue to invest large sums of money in formal sales training that is proving inadequate to the demands of modern markets. It would be no exaggeration to say that they are merely compounding the mistakes of the past. Tese selling systems are largely redundant today because they assume an adversarial environment. But when your customers are your partners — hopefully long term — such tactics are obviously counterproductive. Nowadays, the sales person and the customer are looking for a co-operative and supportive relationship, not a quick fx. Tis involves mutual respect, trust and essentially, empathy between seller and buyer. ACHIEVING SELLING ALCHEMY Neuroscience works by giving you an invaluable insight into the brain's processing patterns, which can infuence sales strate30 June / July 2013 Elearning! that are mutually satisfying. All selling is brain-to-brain process, in which the salesperson's brain communicates with the customer's. As much as 95 percent of our decisions are made by the subconscious mind. As a result, the world's largest and most sophisticated companies are applying the latest advances in neuroscience to create brands, products, package designs, marketing campaigns, store environments, and much more that are designed to appeal directly and powerfully to our brains. Our brain has what could be termed a "threat detector" whose sole function is to decide at the moment of frst contact whether the person in front of us is a friend or a foe. Located within the subcortical brain, it is incapable of thought or rationalization and reacts purely on instinct by how it perceives the world around it. Now that is obviously useful when reacting to a lifeor-death situation and ensures our survival. However, is it always a useful behavior? So let's bring this back to practicalities and think about what this means in the typical sales situation. If your initial approach to a customer is seen as "unfavorable" to their "threat detector," it will instantly switch on the fght/ fight response. Part of this process includes shutting down all other message receptors, which means any opportunity you had to establish rapport has just been made much more difcult. To avoid alarming the "threat detector" in your customer's brain, the signals that you need to give out at that very frst point of contact need to be favorable and instinctive — like your body language, which includes your movements, gestures, facial expression, eye contact, appearance, clothes, enthusiasm and posture. Once you're past this initial frst impression, you can get on with developing a relationship with your customer. It is important to note that what alarms one person's brain "threat detector" may well make another person's "threat detector" feel comfortable or reassured. So, the frst step in achieving great sales is have total focus on getting past the brain's "threat detector." Afer we have disarmed it, we can then move on to develop and build rapport, and open the potential customer's message receptors so we can sell to them. Tis means that we must focus on the customer to identify his or her behavioural preferences so that all our subsequent communication matches his or her behavioral needs. Correctly identifying the customer's buying preference and responding to it appropriately is crucial. If done correctly, when faced with a buying choice, a customer's subconscious will encourage him or her to choose you rather than your competitors — even if your customer believes he or she is acting completely rationally. Tis sales approach is known as "adaptive selling." As a result of the dramatic growth in interest in neuro-selling/adaptive selling, a three-year research project has now been set up at Oxford University to examine its