IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS, OR IS IT?

By Marilyne Woodsmall

One of the biggest challenges for a salesperson is to know how much detail to give about a product or service. We have found that most salespeople have a tendency to keep talking until they get or lose the sale. Such an approach means that these salespeople are losing out on half of their potential customers. What they fail to realize is that some buyers want a lot of information and some require very little information.

The amount of information that a person wants or needs in a communication exchange is determined by what we refer to as the Global/Specific or Chunk Size Information People Pattern™. This powerful pattern reveals the quantity of information presented or how much information a person desires in a given communication.

The Chunk Size Information People Pattern™ (which is another element of one’s Personality Language™) is comprised of two types of people, and in the case of sales, of two distinctive types of buyers. Those who want a lot of information are called specific buyers and those who do not require a lot of information are called global buyers. Let us take a look at each.

Specific prospects want to know everything that there is to know about a product. They require a lot of information and a lot of detail in the information in order to make a buying decision. In fact, they will keep asking the salesperson for more and more detail. If the salesperson is not able to provide this, then the specific prospect will think that he or she is either not knowledgeable about the product that he or she is selling or that the salesperson has something to hide. Either way, it means bad news for the salesperson.

Global prospects, on the other hand, need very little information in order to make a buying decision. Too much information will turn them off, confuse them or make them suspicious. They will usually not ask detailed questions. If the salesperson keeps providing information they will not listen and will be completely turned off.

How does a salesperson know whether they are dealing with a global or specific buyer? Listen carefully to the way that the prospect describes his or her needs. Does the prospect provide a lot of specific details or does the prospect just give you vague, general information? Also, determine if the prospect asks a lot of questions or if he or she doesn’t ask questions at all.

The general rule of thumb is this. Provide the prospect with as much information as he or she needs to make a buying decision and no more. Often salespeople keep providing information in order to delay closing. This is a mistake. Close early and close often. If you close and the prospect needs more information, then they will ask for it. Once the prospect is sold, then shut up and close. Once you close, wait for a yes or a no. Adding more information at this point merely takes the prospect off the hook.

So the bottom line is to apply the Global/Specific Information People Pattern™ in all of your sales presentations to make a solid impact on the buyer or buyers with whom you are communicating. If you apply this pattern in sales, you will enhance your sales and you will connect with your customers more readily. If you don’t do this, you’ll be missing out on half of your customers and prospects and you will end up losing sales.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Me, Me, Me

All sales, all persuasion and, in fact, most things in life, depending on one’s values, revolve around one basic question. The question that lies at the basis of all sales and influence is the following:

What’s in it for me?

Most people ask this question subconsciously to one degree or another. Interestingly, it also happens to be a question that many people disregard. (As we shall soon see, this basic question is directly connected to a behavioral pattern that is our motivational trigger which we call the Motivation People Pattern™.) In our everyday interactions with people, whether in sales, in negotiations, or in general life situations, notice how often people do things because there is some benefit to them.
There is a common reframe that people use when it comes to this question and it is that they do things out of so-called “enlightened self-interest.” One cannot really say that this has anything to do with enlightenment anyway, so for all practical purposes, the word “enlightened” with self-interest is basically an oxymoron more than anything else.

The reality is that, in general, people do things that are in their self-interest. The bottom line is that people do things because there is something in it for them. This being the case, there is an important question that arises. It is the following:

If a person doesn’t do things that aren’t in his or her own self-interest, then why should one expect other people to do things that are not in their self-interest?

Let’s take sales. It would be naïve to believe that people will buy things simply because you would like them to do so. If you want customers to buy something, then you have to provide them with something that they want. In fact, all sales and influence boils down to this very point. So, if you want your customers to buy from you then there are two things that you have to do:

1)Figure out from their perspective what it is that they want or need or what they want to avoid.

2)You have to determine what it is that you have which they want and be willing to give it up.

In other words, determine what is in it for your customers from their perspective and not from yours. Remember that you don’t get something for nothing. In order to receive, you have to give something to your customers. This is the golden rule upon which all human interaction is based.

It is amazing how many people in the world continue to believe that they can get something for nothing. They think that by flattering or pleading with people, that these individuals will simply give them things for nothing. If you happen to force someone to give you something without a reciprocal exchange, then the person will feel cheated and may lash out at you with what we call “The Three Dragons”: Remorse, Recrimination and Revenge, each to different degrees.

The essence of sales is to provide your customers with one of two things: either provide them with something that they want or else help them to avoid what they don’t want. The Motivation People Pattern™ reveals this very powerful secret of human behavior. From our previous articles, remember that the Motivation People Pattern™ identifies two different motivational mindsets: 1) move toward and 2) move away from. Either you are going to give your customers something they want (move toward people) or else you are going to help them to avoid something that they don’t want (move away from people).

As we have explained in previous articles, once you know the motivational trigger of your customers, then you will know whether they are move toward in orientation or move away from in orientation. If they are move toward, this means that you offer them carrots, or incentives and things that they want. If they are move away from, then you offer them sticks, or things that they don’t want or offer them things that they want to eliminate or to avoid.

So a knowledge of the Motivation People Pattern™ will enable you to understand and to satisfy the “What’s in it for me?” principle of human behavior of your customers and of anyone for that matter. And the Motivation People Pattern™ is just one of the People Patterns™ that make up what we call “Personality Language”™. It will enable you to cater your sales copy or sales presentation to your respective customers’ motivational triggers, and, thus, increase your sales, as well as create trust, the key to all interaction.

In Personality Language ™, one of the key components is the the People Pattern ™ of Motivation.

This video introduction goes over the two major components of Personality Language ™  that could dramatically improve your sales and explain why people do nearly everything that they do.  Enjoy!

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