Over the past two days, we discussed the first eight principles to influence a sale from the book, “Rain Making Conversations,” written by Mike Schultz and John Doerr.
Today, we will cover the next 4 principles:
9. Stepping Stones – People are more interested in things they are familiar with. A good salesman takes the customer from something he is familiar with to the solution the salesman wants the customer to embrace by going through a series of steps. Sometimes this process is called the Domino Strategy. In essence, you are trying to shorten the customer’s leap of faith by peeling away the layers of an onion one by one so he can make the journey to the solution.
10. Ownership – Until the customer takes ownership of the solution, your influence is limited. A customer that says “OK, let’s try it” is not yet on board. The customer must want to own the solution. Without ownership, the customer will not devote themselves to the solution and others may talk him out of it.
11. Involvement – When the customer has a hand in the solution, he is more likely to be a passionate advocate. Make your customers part of the solution. Ask them their opinion and have them help in coming up with answers.
12. The Desire for Inclusion – People may say that they are not influenced by the actions of others, but they are. In the blog post, “Blinded by Peer Pressure,” we discussed how when a person’s perspective is not shared by most others, they are more likely to accept the perspective of others. They assume that the other people must know something they don’t. The use of social proofs in the forms of testimonials and statistics, like “25% of Fortune 500 companies use our product,” help stroke the customer’s desire for inclusion.
Which of these four principles do you use to influence a sale?
