If you’re interested in business you know you have to attract customers, some of which will be using your competitor’s product. If you’re interested in leading, you know you have to have followers. If you’re interested in getting someone to change a behavior, you have to be convincing. If you’re wanting to change a person’s thoughts or opinions about something, you have to compel them to change by seeing that what you’re offering is the best for them.
There’s only one problem. People are naturally resistant to change. They don’t like it. Even if it’s better for them, they’ll kick and scream and shake their fists in the air. Why is that?
I think the answer is relatively simple.
They don’t like to be wrong.
There’s a deep psychological connection somewhere in the brain between making a decision and self worth. Pay attention to how defensive people become when you challenge their ideas, beliefs, or choices. You’ll see what I mean. Be especially careful around people who are known to bite.
Years ago I sold telephone service to people. I thought the service was awesome and it allowed anyone using it to talk to anyone who had the same service for free… on their land lines. I loved it. It was actually rather revolutionary at the time (amazing how quickly technology changes in the matter of a few years).
There were a number of ways that I found to be successful where other people could not be. One of those was understanding what convinces people to make a change in their lives. For one, there’s a difference between the words “change” and “switch”.
People don’t like to “change.” Change requires effort. It requires a new thought process it requires work, and people don’t like work.
People don’t like to “switch” either–but they like it better than change. Switch is an easier word to swallow. It’s a minimual effort word that doesn’t require a whole shift of process or a compromise of one’s values.
You don’t have to convince them to do either.
The words change or switch infer that you’ll be going from something of inferior quality to something of higher quality or greater worth. Instead of making them feel like they’ve made a poor choice, you can help them see the benefits of what you offer. Help them to see that buying your product isn’t correcting a poor decision they previously made (even if it was a poor decision), but that they’re getting an upgrade. A new life. A new purpose.
Help them to see the benefits of using your product or service and you’ll find that people are much more willing to jump on board. Let me offer an additional insight. Instead of going strait for your competitor’s clientele, find the fence sitters. The one’s who aren’t really satisfied or who aren’t really convinced, but are just waiting for a better option to come along. Now we’re talking.
There is a really old fellow, who had his own answer a long time ago. Maybe you recognize him:
An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
An interesting offshoot this article might be “how to sell without feeling like a salesman.” Feeling like I was somehow being sneaky and people off was always the biggest hangup for me when doing sales. Employing convincing language wasn’t doing it for me. I just had the feeling that every time I approached someone, I had an ulterior motive for talking to them, and they could sense it.
Correction: “Feeling like I was being sneaky and ripping people off.”
.-= SkinnyD´s last blog post: Spring Fever =-.
@Skinny – It’s only “ripping people off” if you don’t believe in the product you’re selling, but I do agree that there is a sneakiness you must employ to get them to listen to the benefits before they realize what you say will make them change/switch/upgrade.
.-= Tammi Kibler´s last blog post: Writing Career Goals – I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours =-.
Great comments everyone :)
@Markus… that’s funny that you bring that up. I almost incorporated that into my article, but cut it out at the last minute.
@SkinnyD… thanks for the suggestion… I’ll give it some thought. I’m not sure I’m the right guy to be writing an article like that–perhaps I can find someone to do a guest post though. I’d like to learn more about it.
@Tammi… I agree with that. It’s much easier to sell a product or service that you believe in, and the best way to know is to use it yourself.
I love the Star Wars comic!
I actually tried sales once, and I had no confidence in myself to begin with. I felt like even calling someone to talk to them about the service being offered was intruding and being totally annoying. Also, I doubted whether the friends and family I called would even trust my judgment. As you can imagine, I was a total failure at sales.
I just had the thought that in order to inspire people to “upgrade” you need to have previously established your good character, integrity, genuine desires, intelligence, and good judgment. If they are inspired by you and trust you long before you have anything to sell I think they will be much more easily convinced when you tell them about the “upgrade” you’ve discovered!