Your sales department’s role is to sell, so your business depends on their efficacy and quickness. Of course, there will be times when sales won’t be as easy to make, especially when your salesperson is in a rut.
Sometimes it’s about personal issues that spill into professional hours, other times, it’s about attitude or the prospective client. It can be any number of things that affect your sales.
Whether you want to get back on track and see conversions or get your sales department to the next level, you can use psychology to boost those working in your sales department. Of course, you can implement certain strategies that work on your buyers, too, to facilitate sales.
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But first, let’s see how you can boost the morale of your sales department.
How Do You Use Psychology In Sales?
Influencing buyers into making a purchase can require the employ of some psychological tricks. Thus, psychology and sales work well together. Especially when it comes to convincing people to buy your product or service.
The human brain is complex and vast, and it’s paramount to decision-making. It can also be influenced into closing sales. Sales reps can generate sales by upgrading their marketing and sales strategy with some psychological tactics.
By keeping your possible buyers’ attention during the pitch, you can generate more revenue for your business. Plus, the customer feels they made a good decision and feel happier in the end. That’s what sales psychology does, it helps sales reps get customers who feel good about their buying decision.
Behavioral psychology is also useful in sales. It studies how the environment impacts the human brain and behavior. In short, sales psychology uses regular and behavioral psychology to ensure sales and make the consumer feel happy about their choice.
Of course, your sales reps could use some help and motivation, too. They’re bombarded every day by factors that affect their workflow and motivation. Different things can affect their ability to sell.
So, in order to sell well, your employees have to be well-rested, hyped up and ready to make a sale at any time.
Here are some ways to implement psychology to improve your sales team and get better sales in the process.
The Psychology of Sales Performance
When you want to improve your sales team’s success, work on motivation and focus on these nine tips and tricks. They’ll work not only on your salespeople but also on your prospective buyers.
Focus on your mission and give a purpose
Those who love their jobs are great at them. Gallup found out that organizations with low employee engagement show a decrease by 18% in productivity. As a business owner or manager, you’re the one who has to keep your team engaged and ready to work to the best of their abilities.
You can start by showing your team what your business is all about. Keep them engaged and supportive of your mission. Explain plainly what your business mission is all about and what it means to you.
Emphasize the fact that each person is meaningful and that they play a part in the success of your business.
A survey from Deloitte found that 6 out of 10 millennials think that a sense of purpose is the reason for them to work for an employer.
When you give your sales team a sense of purpose, they will feel inspired to work harder and better and remain loyal to your business.
Set goals for your team
It’s important to set goals for your sales team. It will make things easier for them and give them a goal to reach. Otherwise, they won’t know what to aspire towards, and they won’t know what success truly means for your business. Find something achievable, but not too easy.
Keep in mind that it’s not all about quotas, though. Different employees are motivated in different ways. Quotas may work for some, but not all will be incentivized in this way. Others may work better if they have a personal goal.
Try to work with each salesperson in your team to find out what goal would be best for them.
Build trust with your sales department
Dan Tyre says that “the foundation of motivation is trust” and if your team has no trust to put in you, they’ll find it difficult to get inspired.
Effective leaders need to build trust with their teams. And that requires straightforwardness.
Try to be direct and don’t hide the truth, especially if there’s some problem going on. When you work with an entire team, try to keep a helpful disposition. Focus on solving problems and helping those who need to improve and grow instead of scolding them if or when they’re wrong.
Work on building an open, comfortable environment where your sales department feels listened to, appreciated and understood.
Involve all relevant departments
When things go wrong, the sales team may point fingers and pass the blame on other departments. Maybe customer support isn’t fast enough in responding, or marketing didn’t share enough leads. You can work against this outcome by encouraging communication between teams.
Sales, marketing, customer support and engineering can work well together if you want to see growth.
When everyone knows what the others are doing, it’s easier to increase productivity and involvement. Everyone collaborates better, it’s easier to adjust goals and approaches and to improve business results.
Nurture a culture of recognition
It’s clear that your sales department wants to be recognized and rewarded for their work. Commissions have become the norm now, and you have to push the envelope a little to keep your sales team happy.
It’s nice to feel recognized when completing a goal or target, so try to reward your sales representatives when they do good. A team dinner, a collective gift or some teambuilding experiences may do the trick.
A team-oriented mindset for the sales department is helpful in creating a good work environment and in your conversion result.
Of course, everyone wants to be the person recognized for their work in front of others. So, praise and recognition in front of peers can inspire the whole team to work harder and better and get more results together.
Be creative with rewards
Rewards for work well done are a must. And they don’t have to be monetary in nature. You can work with your team to find out what they’d like and what would be fun for them.
Rewards can be fun, unique, unexpected. Take into consideration doing a task your employees don’t like or shaving your head when you reach a milestone. Teambuilding exercises like escape rooms or sports games are also a good idea.
Bring them rewards that they wouldn’t necessarily think about. And don’t be afraid to ask for input. Find out what your sales employees would like, what motivates them or how they’d like to be rewarded. You may be surprised by their answers.
Use reciprocity
Robert Cialdini, a psychologist and marketing expert, used reciprocity as a go-to maneuver in sales. In short, reciprocity means giving something positive to your client so that they feel obligated to give you something in return. And the best part is they will be willing to do so. This basically means you’re closer to a closed sale.
Teach your sales department to use this tactic when approaching prospective clients. They have to give something of value to the customer to get something (i.e., a sale) in return.
Depending on your business, the positive experience you’re giving can be a trial period, a test period, free shipping, follow-ups with Q&As or offering great amenities and service.
Be ready to play to your customer’s emotions
Every purchase comes with a certain motivation. Your sales department’s job is to find out what your customer’s motivation is and work on it. When they understand the why, they can pitch the sale in such a way that they fulfill it.
To find out your customer’s motivation, you – in this case, your sales agents – need to keep asking questions. Find out more about the customer, discover their motivation.
Most purchasing motivation is emotional. In short, people want to be reassured emotionally that they’re getting what they want or need. When your sales teams appeal to this type of emotion, the odds of closing a sale increase.
Brian Tracy says in his book The Psychology of Selling that the primary emotions behind sales include security, money, recognition, influence or power, feeling accepted or personal transformation.
If your pitch satisfies one or more of these motivations, your prospective customers recognize that you are fulfilling their needs.
Reassure your clients about the value of your products or services. Focus on showing the value rather than the price of your products or services. Value encourages people to buy because they wouldn’t want to miss out on something good. Your team can use these tips to increase sales.
Create urgency
When your sales team works on converting prospective clients, the focus should be on getting your products or services as soon as possible.
When they make a pitch, your reps should focus on creating urgency in order to take advantage of the products and services you’re selling. They can improve your clients’ life.
Increasing the sense of urgency can speed up your prospective client’s decision-making. When the client thinks they have a limited time to make a decision, they will make the purchase sooner.
Why are humans so impacted by time? It’s because they don’t want to miss out on something (FOMO). Loss aversion means that people want to avoid losing out more than they want to gain something. If they feel they will lose out on purchasing what you’re selling, they’ll be much quicker to buy.
The most common way to implement this tactic is to offer limited-time deals and discounts. Another is to remind them how scarce your products or services are.
Psychology plays an important part in sales, and it can take your conversion rates to the next level. Use the tactics above to coach your sales department and to “arm” them with the best tricks to convert.
When you give your prospective customers the best experience, they’ll be most inclined to make a deal with and buy from you.
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