True sales professionals know that there is more to making sales than having a good gimmick. Neuroscience and the psychology of motivation combine to help sales professionals understand the factors that motivate someone to take action and make a purchase. Understanding these techniques can help you to design other websites, improve your click-through rates, and ultimately improve sales.
Sales and the Brain
We now know that the decision to make a purchase is a complex process involving chemical reactions and the release of hormones from three different parts of the brain. The reptilian brain, middle brain, and new brain all work together to create the motivation to take an action, or not.
The reptilian brain is the instinctual part of the brain. It is responsible for avoidance behavior, survival instincts, issues regarding safety, and motor balance. The middle brain is the heart of emotions. This part of the brain is also responsible for memory. The new brain is what is known as the rational brain and is responsible for processing language, facts, and logic.
A sales pitch or blog post must appeal to all three levels of the brain and take into account how each portion affects different parts of the brain. For instance, the midbrain may process the overall design of the landing page or product. The introduction or headline can release dopamine or adrenaline in the reptilian brain. If the headline is negative, it may cause a fear reaction and the release of cortisol. When the blog post or sales pitch engages the brain in a way that reduces stress and solves a problem, it is likely to have an impact on the person taking action.
Old School Sales Techniques
Sales factors such as reciprocity, authority, social proof, scarcity, and creating unity have been a part of sales training for decades. Commitment is another important part of making a change or achieving a goal. For instance, if you are selling a gym membership and the person posts it on social media, they are more likely to be committed to their weight loss goals and to using their membership. They are also creating social acceptance and serving as the best type of free advertising, word of mouth.
Old school techniques that rely on establishing social cues offer many tried and tested sales techniques, even though the reasons why these techniques worked were unclear. Humans are social creatures by nature and the field of psychology offered many solutions to creating a set of social pressures centered around offering a certain product or service.
The psychology behind creating social pressures to make a purchase have not been discredited by neuroscience. Instead, they have been enhanced through a greater understanding of how the brain works. Like many of areas of science, discovery has led to more questions that need to be explored than answers.
Creating Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is an important element in getting people to take action now, rather than later. The art of the impulse buy means that you get the person to take action before they have a chance to process the consequences through their logical brain.
Some ways to increase a sense of urgency are showing the remaining number of items in stock, offering sales and special prices for a short time, or any other tactic that makes a person feel they will be missing out if they do not take action now. Perhaps the most cliché marketing tool used is the phrase, “for a limited time”. Surprisingly, people tend to respond better to what they are missing out on more than they respond to what they can gain from making the purchase.
Aside from creating a sense of urgency, you must address any of the concerns that the consumers may have about the product. Customers who feel that you are trying to trick them into making an unwise purchase will not respond to the call to action. They must feel that you are genuine in your claims.
Neurolinguistic Programming
Neurolinguistic programming is a relatively new field in psychology and sales, but it is quickly gaining popularity as its importance in sales and motivation become more apparent. It is the ability to incorporate the influence of the subconscious mind. It is similar to the way someone can change their state using mindfulness techniques to reduce anxiety.
If you are wondering why should you learn NLP, science has several answers. First, NLP is not new and it’s use dates back to this 1970s. A sales professional knows that in order to influence a person, they must first establish a rapport with them and gain their trust.
Learning NLP is about learning to be a more powerful communicator. NLP also means becoming skilled at reading nonverbal cues, such as eye movements. Using NLP, you can then adjust your sales pitch to create an environment that is more likely to motivate a person to take action, such as making a purchase.
Now, neuroscience understands more about why time-honored sales techniques work. Neurolinguistic programming offers many powerful techniques and solutions to help understand why people may or may not take action on a certain advertisement or the purchase of a product. Learning neurolinguistic programming can help take sales to the next level by providing a deep understanding of the biochemical processes behind it.
