Saturday 6 June 2015

You Must Read This Sales Article Because You Will Never Have to Queue in Line Again

In a legendary experiment, social psychologist Ellen Langer sent students to jump the queue to use a university library Xerox photocopying machine.

Students who made a request only, "May I use the Xerox machine?" were allowed to go in front of the person who was about to use the Xerox machine 60% of the time.

However students who offered a reason that sounded genuine, "May I use the Xerox machine because I am in a rush!" were allowed to go in front of the person who was about to use the Xerox machine 94% of the time.

Amazingly even offering a fake and, lets face it, a pretty lame reason, "May I cut in line to use the Xerox machine because I need to make some copies" succeeded 93% of the time!

The magic word appears to be "because". The word "because" appears to provide a reason that encourages people to comply with the request and could possibly be acting as a powerful trigger word.

I have experimented with this when approaching a queue of people at airports as follows:"Can I go ahead of you because my flight is leaving?" was successful nearly every single time. This wasn't untruthful as my flight was indeed leaving.... only not for another 90 minutes!

Bizarrely I also found the phrase, "Can I go ahead of you because I need to get to the lounge?" was also successful nearly every single time.

 So in addition to jumping queues how else can this be used?
The answer - in a lot of sales situations, for example:

"The reason we are slightly more expensive is because....."

"Lots of people like you are buying this because...."

"I agree that it is more expensive and that is because..."

I am sure that you can find countless ways to use this simple but powerful principle.

So why should you try this out with your customers? Because…it works!

Good luck and good selling!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience.

He is the bestselling author of five business books:
  • Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
  • Bare Knuckle Selling
  • Bare Knuckle Negotiating
  • Bare Knuckle Customer Service
  • The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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