One of the oldest professions known to us, sales, has evolved with every decade, changing consumer preferences, advancing technology, and the emergence of renowned sales leaders. Expectedly, this means a number of sales techniques have cropped up as best practices and mantras over time, usually developed simply from what works or from the observations of sales leaders.
As a salesperson – especially if you’re new to the profession, or driving sales for growing businesses – you might find yourself confused. Every bookstore (both online and brick-and-mortar) has its shelves packed with sales books, and an internet search for “sales techniques” reveals no less than 10 million search results.
So, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to curate a list of sales techniques that are not only well-known but are actually backed by science. That means they’re backed by principles in neuroscience and behavioral understanding.
After all, when it comes to growing businesses you don’t always have the luxury of time – time to figure out sales techniques that are most likely to drive results for you, time to develop a repertoire of sales techniques best suited to your business.
So, what better way to weed out the trusted from the noise than to trust science and data?
Without further ado, here are…
5 Most Effective Sales Techniques Backed by Science:
1. The Cognitive Bias of Loss Aversion
Sometimes, negative reinforcement works better than positive reinforcement – case in point, loss aversion. The bias represents how the pain of losing can sometimes be twice as powerful as the joy of gaining something of equivalent value.
That is, the pain of losing $500 is a far more powerful influence in decision-making than the joy of gaining $500.
Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky first expounded on this bias in a 1979 paper, but you’ll notice it is now a commonly-used marketing and sales technique.
How to apply it:
Understand your prospect, what their motivations and aspirations are, and what their biggest risk factors are.
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For example, in B2B selling, a contact who handles the financial aspects of sourcing for a company is going to be mainly concerned about the ROI on your product, price & feature comparisons, and the financial feasibility of their company.
In this case, showcasing why your product costs less in the long term and actually saves them money will be a winning pitch for you when it comes to this contact.
When to apply it:
During the pitch. You want to leverage this cognitive bias right from the get-go and use it to form the base of your pitch for that particular prospect.
The catch is that you need to adapt your pitch and angle on this bias depending on whom you’re talking to – because every person within a company will have a different loss aversion bias, you’ll need to tailor your pitch accordingly.
2. Active Listening & the Power of Repeating What You Hear
Active listening is a sales technique that has been popularized as a commonly-used best practice.
Essentially, active listening is a process where you truly listen to what your prospect has to say (rather than simply waiting for your turn to talk), and process and use the information to steer the conversation.
Active listening helps you come across as an empathetic person, and a good listener and increases trust between you and your prospect.
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Repeating what you hear is an important part of the active listening process: after you pay close attention to what your prospect has to say, it’s essential to repeat your takeaways from the conversation.
This can be a word-for-word repeat of what they’ve said (“Here’s what I hear from this conversation”), or a paraphrase of what you’re taking away (“Here’s what I’m hearing…”).
A paper expounding different ways to maximize tips for wait staff explains how this psychological tactic can increase tips by a whole 26% – a statistic that can easily be applied to the sales industry too.
How to apply it:
At the end of any conversation with a prospect – even just a lead qualification call, if required! – make it a point to end with a list of takeaways. When you have any inputs from your prospect at all, you need to apply this tactic.
As we mentioned earlier, this could be a literal repetition of what he/she said, or it could be a paraphrasing of what you understood. Then, ask for confirmation on those (“Did I get that right?” “Was there anything else I missed?”).
We recommend taking actual notes during the conversation to make this easier!
When to apply it:
When having a conversation with a prospect – not only at the pitch stage but right from the get-go. This sales technique is effective when done consistently because it helps build trust over each conversation by showing the prospect that you’re consistently showing up and listening to what they want/need.
3. The Paradox of Choice: Guiding Your Prospect Towards a Decision
Plenty of research shows that when you give people too many choices, they have trouble making a decision and most likely end up not buying anything at all. This is the ‘paradox of choice’.
As a salesperson, it tells you that limiting choices for your prospective customers actually works out for you in the sales cycle.
Here’s how it works – offering customers plenty of choices helps draw them in (think about when you go to a mall, peek in a store window and see shelves lined with great shopping possibilities) but once they’ve expressed interest, too much choice can confuse them (imagine a store that didn’t have any particular sections, any discounted racks, any new arrivals rack, etc. but just left you to your own devices to browse).
So, as in a brick-and-mortar store, you want to guide your prospect toward a decision. Inform them about your bestselling products, guide them towards newer products, and give them insights about the products from which other customers in similar situations have benefitted.
While one of the goals of a marketing department is to showcase your range of products, as a salesperson you should aim to understand your prospect’s requirements and guide them towards just a couple of options best suited to them.
How to apply it:
Gather insights about your prospect, either with an introductory call or from your pre-sales / lead qualification team.
Once you’ve understood their requirements, spend the pitch giving them an idea about your brand and your range of products, before narrowing the conversation down to the products you recommend for them.
Ideally, you don’t just want to recommend one product – that would be a yes/no situation. Instead, offering 2-3 options gives them a good range to compare and choose from without getting confused and dropping off!
When to apply it:
As we mentioned above, it’s a good idea to narrow down the focus to a couple of products right from the pitch call. But it’s never too late – if you find a prospect dilly-dallying over which product is right for them, know that it’s time to step in and do some comparisons for them, no matter where in the buying cycle they are.
4. Leveraging Unconsidered Needs to Break the Status Quo
‘Know what your prospect’s needs are and pitch to them’ is the first piece of advice you’ll receive as a salesperson (and we’ve used it ourselves in the techniques above).
But, very often, you’ll find that there’s a huge overlap between your and your competitor’s products, which means that you’re going to be pitching your product in the same capacity and with the same angles as they are.
For the prospect, receiving the same pitch about the same benefits from different companies’ salespersons, the purchase then comes down to a simple matter of a feature and price comparison.
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Plus, don’t forget every prospect looks at their needs and wants from a certain standpoint – they may know what they want, and what they don’t want, and in many cases (especially B2B) they have a good idea of who delivers on it at what price.
What you need is a different angle with which to approach the sale, and that new angle is the unconsidered need: a need or wants that the prospect themselves have as yet not identified, which is answered by your product.
You’ll see this approach being used by FMCG and consumer goods companies for marketing campaigns all the time.
Consider, for example, a security system that comes with remote control, carbon monoxide detection, cameras, and more: the sales pitch needs to be not just about security, but about convenience and having complete control in the homeowners’ hands.
How to apply it:
Think of all the needs and wants your product addresses, and really brainstorm on its end benefits. You’re not looking for product features here, and not even feature benefits – you’re looking for emotional and purpose-driven benefits that only your product can deliver.
Then, every time you have a prospect in hand, understand them, their needs and aspirations, and any possible hidden pain points. A conversation might not be enough, you may need to do independent research into the company here.
Overlap your findings with your benefits and you should have a great starting point for an unconsidered need!
When to apply it:
An unconsidered need isn’t something you can address in the initial pitch meeting, because you need to understand your prospect and her/his business well enough, to begin with.
Once talks move into the area of product comparisons or in-depth feature discussions, it’s a good time to bring up a possibly unconsidered need.
5. Use Social Proof to Sway Opinions and Expedite Decisions
There’s a reason why restaurant review sites such as Yelp are so popular, or why Amazon’s product reviews hold such high sway over customer purchases.
Other people’s experiences and opinions are the most influential information when it comes to making purchase decisions today.
Because customers are inundated with brand information and advertisements, they turn to the only people’s opinions they actually trust – each other’s. This phenomenon of trusting the collective opinion and believing the ‘herd’, so to speak, is called social proof.
While most brands use social proof as a marketing tactic, it’s a great sales technique you can use to convert your prospect or get them to make a faster buying decision.
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How to apply it:
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Tell your prospects about clients that have benefitted from using the same products you’re currently pitching to them. Bonus points if you can include actual data of the ROI the client got from your product or other tangible benefits!
When trying to create social proof, using marquee clients’ names may be more impactful because the prospect will attribute, but if you have a lesser-known client that’s seen great success with your product, don’t hesitate to use that case study.
When to apply it:
Social proof is usually great to bring in when you’re trying to get the prospect to make a decision, or if they seem to be on the fence about moving ahead.
Because the pitch and conversations so far have just been about you making a case for your company and product, using social proof brings in the trusted third party – other customers.
Getting a deal to move faster, changing a prospect’s mind, getting a prospect to make a decision; save your social proof for when it will have the most impact!
Conclusion
The sales techniques we’ve listed are a combination of best practices and some out-of-the-box thinking, but most importantly you’ll notice they’re all based on science or consumer psychology.
As you go about your find your way around growing businesses there’s no harm in finding your own way around best practices and techniques, but this list is a great way to put some tried-and-tested techniques to use and increase your conversions!
If you have any other science-backed sales techniques, we’d love to hear about them – and we’re always open to discussions and Q&As! Feel free to drop a comment below.
