Dialogues for Results

Sales - Art Based on Science

A well meaning sales trainer tried to teach me the value of tie downs when I first started in new home sales. I strongly resisited the idea of concluding all my statements with "don't you agree" or "isn't it" etc. At best they were pointless; at worst, they were canned and artificial. I was sure that my uttering of those words would turn off any self respecting customer. That's the way I felt until someone taught the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, a very basic prinicple of psychology.

Here's how it works in the abstract...our brains require a balance between our thoughts, actions and words. If those three things are not in agreement, we suffer from dissonance, and are compelled to bring the three into alignment. It stands to reason that if two of the three are in agreement, the simplest approach for our brains is to align the third with the other two.

Here's how it works in sales...as salespeople, we want our customer's thought to be "I love this home so much that I want to own it". So, our task is, using questions and commands, to position our customer's words and actions to demonstrate this thought. Over time, the customer's actual thought will align with the words and actions.

Once I understood the logic for the tie down, I became a true fan! Part of sales' fascination for me is how to artfully execute this and other psychological principles while infusing my own personality in the sales encounter. All it takes is knowledge, creativity and practice.

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