Sales Engagement
Sales Strategies
Understanding the Human Brain in Sales
The human brain has 6 major regions. Out of the six, the cerebellum, also known as the lizard brain, is the smallest yet most powerful.
Its goal is to help the rest of the brain (and your body) survive the situations you encounter throughout your day.
The brain is the first processor of an experience, and the cerebellum is mostly making powerful, un-ignorable decisions along the lines of “This is good – keep going” or “ This is bad – get out of here.”
As a seller, your prospects cerebellum works like an hourglass.
You have 3-5 seconds before it begins to lean toward “keep going” or “get out of here.”
The beginning of a meeting or conversation is supremely important as it determines If your prospect is going to be receptive to being engaged with you.
Break Patterns, Increase Sales
How can you leverage the brain’s pattern seeking nature?
Following a pattern causes the brain to go into autopilot; whereas, breaking a pattern alerts the brain it needs to be engaged.
Now, take a moment to answer this simple question: How do most salespeople begin their calls? Exactly. The same way!
Most of us sound exactly the same when we begin a meeting.
With what we just learned, your response might have been “OH NO!” However, it should have been “AWWW YEAHHH!!” Why?
Most salespeople are giving you an awesome opportunity to break a well-established pattern which will open up the brain of the person you are talking to, engaging the cerebellum, giving you a chance to force the “keep going” response.
That sounds like a winning outcome to the first 5 seconds of a sales call.
How to Break Patterns During Sales Calls: The Element of Surprise
When someone comes on the call, don’t say “Hey, is this Ron?”
That’s what everybody does, and we already established that it’s a boring, expected pattern that puts the brain to sleep.
Break the pattern by coming up with an unexpected thing to say or way of greeting the participants.
I open all of my sales calls with…
“Whaaaddduuupp y’all?! Are you guys killing it?”
People always smile, and I’ve engaged their brain by interrupting the pattern.
Everyone likes to brag about how they are awesome, so the cerebellum tells the rest of the brain to keep going with the conversation.
Find an unexpected way to start your sales conversation so you can increase your chances of starting your meeting off on the right foot! Then add it to your sales call script.
In conclusion:
Nobody likes to be bored by a sales call. Especially if they sit through a lot of them.
The best way to keep your prospect listening is to continually break their patterns during the conversation. Do something unexpected every now and then to keep them on their toes.
Do you have any other ideas for ways to interrupt patterns during sales calls? Let me know in the comments.
If you liked this article you may also be interested in:
First sales call – 30 or 60 min? New data shows how long your first sales call should be
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