The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible pdfdrive com

The Friendship Factor
One of the most notable truths in sales, which I have already addressed
briefly, is this: “a person will not buy from you until he is convinced that you are
his friend and acting in his best interest.”

---

his friend and acting in his best interest.”
Another point in Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence, is the importance of
“liking” in sales success. If a prospect likes you, the details will not get in the
way of the sale. But if the prospect is neutral or negative toward you, the details
will trip you up every step of the way and often make a sale impossible.
The first unspoken question a customer asks when he meets you for the first
time is “Do you care about me?” If you do not answer yes in the first minute or
two, the customer will quietly lose interest in doing business with you. He may
sit politely through your visit and your presentation, but at the end, he will thank
you for coming in and tell you that he will “think about it.”
We like to deal with people toward whom we feel friendly. We set the stage
for this relationship in the first few seconds of the first conversation, and with
the first few words.
Hair Care
The focus of the sales conversation should be on the face of the salesperson.
For this reason, grooming is of the essence. The rule is that nothing about your
grooming, or your dress for that matter, should distract from the message that
you are there to deliver.
You’ve heard the saying “birds of a feather flock together,” or “like attracts
like.” The fact is that we like to deal with people, and buy from people who are
similar to us in as many respects as possible. We feel more comfortable with
people who dress the way we do, groom the way we do, have the same attitudes
and opinions that we have, and so on. The more you harmonize your appearance
so that it is in keeping with the way people look in the customer’s environment,
the less resistance the customer has to listening to you and doing business with
you.
One of our greatest desires is to feel comfortable in a personal or business
situation. Everything you do that increases the level of comfort of your prospect
also increases the likelihood that you will make a sale to him or her.