Why the Salesperson Needs to Know the Psychology of Sales

Every single step in the process of a sale is a mental process. The mental attitude and mental impression of the customer; the mental attitude and mental expression of the salesperson; the process of arousing the attention, awakening curiosity or interest, creating desire, satisfying the reason, and moving the will- all these are purely mental processes, and the study of them becomes a branch of the study of psychology.

The display of goods on the counters, shelves, or windows of a store, or in the hands of the salesperson, or the product shown in a banner ad, or a PPC advertisement, must be based upon psychological principles. The argument must not only be logical but must be so arranged and worded as to arouse certain feelings or faculties within the mind of the prospective buyer- this is psychology.

And finally, the closing of the sale, in which the object is to arouse the will of the buyer into final favorable action- this also is psychology. From the first glimpse of the product to the final. closing of the sale, each and every step is a psychological process. A sale is the action and reaction of mind upon mind, according to well established psychological principles and rules. Salesmanship is essentially a psychological science as all must admit who will give to the subject a logical consideration.

Elements of Personality in Sales - Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm in a salesman is the quality that makes him talk in an intense and earnest way that carries conviction. The enthusiastic salesman spontaneously overflows with self- confidence and belief in the goods and the satisfaction they hold for the customer. Confidence can only be secured by knowledge; knowledge of one's own ability, of the customer, of the goods, and of the selling process.

Enthusiasm based on confidence begets confidence and enthusiasm in the customer. It is contagious. The salesmen with enough confidence in the product and themselves to become enthusiastic, soon bring others to see their point of view. Sincerity, reflected by enthusiasm, is impressive and will command the attention and respect even of customers unable to share in their belief.

Enthusiasm backed by facts is a combination of the spiritual and the material. The latter lacks life without the former, while the former is hollow hypocrisy without the latter. Enthusiasm cannot be faked. Without the background of knowledge and belief it stands forth in all its shallow futility. Counterfeit enthusiasm can never pass for the genuine for it lacks in weight, sound and appearance. Salesmen who attempt to be earnest and eager in their sales talk will fool no one except themselves. Only by intelligent observation, reflection and study can salesmen create a harmonious background for the efficient functioning of enthusiasm.

Not only does enthusiasm stimulate self- respect and enhance the customer's esteem for the salesmen, but it also develops loyalty for the brand and its methods. To be loyal to a sales institution salesmen must have confidence in its integrity and belief in its policies. Enthusiasm developed from knowing the goods will go far towards developing loyalty to the store that sells those goods. Further knowledge regarding the store's history, its aims and ambitions, will generate new enthusiasm which will form the basis for a broader and stronger loyalty.

Perhaps it is not too obvious to note that loyalty to a store can only be based on its honest and square dealing. Truthful advertising, honest representations by salesmen and sympathetic treatment of customer's needs are some of the foundation stones for the building of the loyalty structure. Some firms that deserve it don't get it from all salesmen, but no firm that doesn't deserve it ever, wins it from any salesman.

How To Make Money From Passions

Maverick Money Makers © 1997 - 2008

To make money online many people jump right in before they are properly prepared. You know that to be a rocket scientist, a doctor, a brick layer, a construction worker, an office worker, a teacher there are prerequisites, things you must learn, before you can be successful, you don't just jump right in unprepared.
The same applies to the Internet marketing industry even though there are unsavory people out there who'd have you believe it's a "Walk in the Park" and requires no more than the belief that you can just do it.
And I'll have to admit, it is a walk in the park compared to what you have to put up with in the working world punching a clock being a subordinate to someone who does not have your interests in mind, but there are still rules you have to follow and pitfalls you must avoid to actually make Internet marketing work for you.
Most people will not make a dime online and yet there are others who will make more in one month than most people make in a whole year. Why is that?
My answer begins with the age-old chicken or egg question, "what comes first the chicken or the egg"? Personally I vote for, well never mind, each argument you or I make comes back to the same old conclusion - I have no clue and I don't think many of us do either.
But one thing I do have a clue about and know for sure is that to make money online you must first have Passion for the company products and/or service of any Internet business from which you expect to make money.
Passion in this sense simply means that you've researched and like the company and products or services. It is then that you translate that like (or Passion) into the education, excitement and work that usually accompany Passion.
I will have to say that many online entrepreneurs are so good at what they do that they ignore passion because they can sell anything. But I'm concerned about those of you who are not so knowledgeable at working an online business successfully.
Now, I'm not trying to make anyone believe that Passion is the only thing necessary. Because to be successful you must also have a good website, good marketing, widespread advertising, company support, effective keywords, and etc. Those things are often learned from the company you join - but sidestep Passion and you reduce your chances for success dramatically.
It therefore follows that, if you have no Passion for the company and the products and services provided by that company, again, you won't attempt to do the work you are being taught.
Internet marketing work is typically not all that difficult or time consuming but it does take motivation caused by Passion to get you off and running with a sustained effort so that you won't stumble.
You have a great resource in the Internet search engines to search about the Internet Marketing industry for business opportunities, USE IT!
Your research should uncover a company that you like and have confidence in. It should be solid, founded on great principles, and easy to understand with great products and services that are sell-able for which you can have Passion. If you don't find it move on,You can find the right opportunity containing the attributes identified above.
Comments like, well, that one sounds good and the compensation plan is excellent so I guess I'll start that business - does not sound like a decision based on anything near Passion. And remember when you hear that an Internet "guru" does that, don't be tempted, because as I said earlier they are experienced and can sell just about anything, without being Passionate about the company products and services.
Note: By the way it's your goal to get to the point where you can sell about anything online. That end skill and goal is a worthy one indeed.
Remember, there are other steps you must make before you step into Internet Marketing but if you don't first find the right company products and services to be passionate about, all of those other steps may just cause you a lot of frustration instead of bringing you great success.
Not being Passionate about a company and products and services that has market proof that it will sell is a pitfall you simply must avoid.
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If you want to make money online, join the society before it's too late.
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Attracting Customers

There are always two lines of effort to be used by the salesperson: First, to help the uncertain customer, who doesn't know exactly what is wanted for the desired purpose, and second, to attract the desire, of the passing customer to the thing not thought about before. To be successful, in either of these directions, requires complete knowledge of the goods being sold.

The salesmanship that is shaky about the technical features of the products is going to be very weak about catching or holding the attention of the customer.

Every ambitious salesperson will be a constant and thorough student of the trade publications in his or her line of merchandise. In all lines of business these publications are usually subscribed for by the firm, or they will be subscribed for, as a rule, upon the proper request being made. Every merchant and manager will be glad to have salespeople request to see every issue of the trade papers, for it proves that they are earnest and thoughtful about their work, and desirous of improving their knowledge of the goods they sell and learning more about methods of selling them. If salespeople do not know the names of the various trade publications that they should read, they can get the information from the buyer or from the merchant.

In other words, even if you are just doing affiliate sales from a site like Clickbank, you need to have a knowledge of the products you are selling. You may be asked by a visitor to your site about some feature or even if it is suitable for what the customer wants or needs. If you have no answers, you have lost a sale.

What Your Visitor Sees In Ads

A two year series of experiments on the psychology of advertising utilizing actual ads and created ads was performed to test:

1. the initial attention value of text matter as against cuts,
2. relevancy and irrelevancy of each to the article advertised,
3. the effects of repetition on each of these four elements,
4. different colors,
5. different sizes of type
6. different parts of the page.

By means of answers to four sets of artificial advertisements, in which each article was presented in six different kinds of advertisements, an effort was made to get at the reasons, which influence buyers in their choices. Any differences in the sexes were kept in view throughout. From the three figures and twenty tables, mostly taken on college juniors and seniors, there resulted the following conclusions:

Attention:

1. Best gained overall by relevant words or text matter, next by relevant and then irrelevant cuts, and least by irrelevant words.
   
2. Through five repetitions, the relevant words increased steadily in value, while the cuts decreased, and the irrelevant words remained on their initially low level.
   
3. The female observers were attracted proportionally more than the males by cuts and by irrelevancy.
   
4. In colors, males were attracted mostly by black and green, females by red and green.
   
5. A progressive increase of attention within the sizes of type from 2 to 5 mm. high.
   
6. The left side of the page was seen more than the right.
   
7. The horizontal quarter above the middle was overall more effective than the other quarters, with the bottom quarter decidedly least valuable.

Only about half our informants seemed to be influenced consciously by advertising, the females somewhat more so than the males. However, a considerable amount of advertising acts upon people below the threshold of their conscious attention and memories.

The reasons given for choosing one advertisement over others as the place from which to buy were:

1. Decidedly foremost from the age or reliability of the firm; then from cheapness, statement of qualities, with statement of prices and style least effective.
   
2. For last choice cheapness was by far the main reason, either directly or under the brand of “fake” while an unanalyzable distrust and suspicion from too great claims or details was next operative.

Creating a New Want

Advertising may be defined as the art of creating a New Want, for successful advertising does not stop with publishing the claims that are made for a product. The advertising must not only tell the possible consumer all about the product, but must create in his mind a desire to possess it-in fact, I am willing to go far enough to affirm that advertising which does not create a New Want in many minds is not good advertising.

It is not enough to tell an automobile enthusiast of the good, strong mechanical points in a particular machine. The advertising should not stop with giving information to those who are already interested in automobiles; it should create "automobile enthusiasm."

In other words, it should imbue the mind of the reader with a longing to participate in the pleasures and delights of driving that particular car, for if the sale of the particular machine which is being put upon the market is to be limited to those who are already enamored of it, the possibilities of the industry would not justify a very heavy or extended expenditure for publicity.

Take the safety razor as an illustration. There are now many safety razors on the market, but the man who made the first safety razor and ventured to put it on the market had to spend a lot of money creating a New Waat in the minds of men. He had to talk to that portion of the race which grows, a beard on its face and which was anxious to escape the tiresome thralldom of the barber shop.

He had to appeal to the universaI desire of man to escape the enslavement of the imperial tonsoral fiend who, with reckless disregard for his time and patience, makes him fritter away precious momemts, even hours, in his shop awaiting his turn.

In other words, the maker of the first safety razor had to lay the foundations for all future business with an educational campaign. At mch expense and through the tribulation of possible loss he blazed the way for the manufacturers of safety razors yet unborn. It was his lot to convince mankind that they could emancipate themselves from the despotism of the barber shop.

It was his mission to point out the avenue of escape. It was his task to convince bewhiskered humanity that the safety razor was a practical thihg; that it was a time-saver, a money-saver, a blessing to tender faces and that it was possible for the man who could not shave himself with the old-fashioned razor to scrape his face quickly and smoothly with this new device.

Thousands of other examples might be adduced to illustrate the fact that modern advertising must seek to create a New Want, and the man who knows best how to do this through the medium of the English language is the successful advertiser of today. So go out there and create a New Want for your product.

THE CREATIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING

B EFORE advertising was developed into a fine art, and before it became a factor in the commercial world, the business of the manufacturer and merchant was to supply the normal needs and desires of the human family. Merchandising was bounded by man's necessities and by his meager knowledge of the luxuries which he deemed within his reach.

Modern advertising has made the luxuries of yesterday the necessities of to-day. It is something more than a "drummer" knocking at the door of the consumer--something more than mere salesmanship-on-paper. It is a positive creative force in business. It builds factories, skyscrapers and railroads. It makes two blades of grass grow in the business world where only one grew before. It multiplies human wants and intensifies human desires.

Advertising is not merely a method of diverting trade away from the merchant or manufacturer who does not advertise. Its function is not merely to pull business away from unprogressive competitors. It has "news" value as well as psychological power. It not only supplies regular information at stated periods concerning the best and most economical methods of supplying the needs of a normal 'and comfortable existence, but, operating through well-established psychological laws upon the human mind, it gradually implants in multiplied mentalities the idea that certain things are needed which were never before regarded as necessary to human contentment or happiness.

It enlarges and expands the horizon of man's daily life and experience by bringing to his attention new commodities designed for his comfort and convenience without which he would have been perfectly happy in his ignorance; but, having learned of their existence, he cannot find it in his heart to be happy or contented until he possesses them. It is the constant reiteration of the so-called "selling arguments" in connection with a product that convinces and finally impels the reader to purchase. The constant dropping of the water of publicity gradually wears away the stone of indifference. The human mind is so constructed that it is appreciably affected by repetition-and, after all, advertising is only repetition.

The Power Of Suggestion In Sales

The strength of a suggestion depends in part on the degree to which it appears to be our own - to be of spontaneous, internal origin. A particular theatrical manager and producer, it is said, is particularly successful in handling obstinate employees. It is said further that he is accustomed, on broaching a proposition to which he does not expect the other person to assent readily, to remark, "It seems to me it would be well to do as you suggested the other day and . . .” The method is peculiarly effective although the manipulated person does not remember ever having any such suggestion. It is enough that the plan seems to be his own or is stated by another to be so. So in advertising, arrogance, domination, should not be attempted. It is at once resented and resisted. The more indirect the suggestion, the more it can be made to be an original determination or plan or conclusion on the part of the reader, the more its dynamic power
Suggestion Must Accord with Regular Habits and Instincts
The dynamic power of a suggestion will be the greater the more forcefully and vigorously the association is presented. This law is especially true when the suggestion is in line with pre-established habits and tendencies. When the suggestion violates life-long habits and instincts, attempts to be forceful and vigorous usually lapse into arrogance and thereby defeat their own purpose. The following head-lines on the one hand conform to, and on the other hand violate this law:
A forceful suggestion –
I WANT YOU TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE TWO SHAPES
A weak suggestion –
HERE ARE TWO SHAPES, TAKE YOUR CHOICE
Positive, Not Negative
It is more effective to suggest the desired response directly than it is to argue against a response that is not desired. Thus it is more effective to say to a child, "Put the potato peelings in the garbage pail." than it is to say, "Do not put the peelings in the sink." The positive feature of the association is always the most effective. In the one case the positive association is "peelings"-"pail." In the other case it is "peelings "-"sink." The negative suggestion always tends to defeat its own purpose. The attempt to dissuade from the use of substitutes is the classical illustration of the futile negative suggestion.
The customer should be asked, "Does the shoe feel comfortable?" not "Does the shoe pinch?" The cadet should be told "Stand erect with feet together" not "don't slouch". Passengers should be told “get off this way" rather than shown how not to get off. Thus a customer at your website should see “Buy my product” and not “Don’t buy their product”.

Take this with you as you approach people trying to get them to join your team or purchase your product. Lead people through the power of suggestion to believe they have come to the conclusion all on their own and make it positive not negative.

SECURING RE-ORDERS FROM A CUSTOMERLIST

I came across this article in a book from 1914. So if you think that using lists is something new that these "gurus" have created since the internet came about, think again. Read this for some good tidbits on using your list. Just update the thinking to today's world of the internet. One of the key points I took away from this is that you need to keep track of more than just email addresses with your customers.


By J. Harry Selz President, Selz, Schwab and Company

AVERAGE clerks or department heads are inclined to regard the cabinet of names called the "house list" solely as a piece of modern ingenuity for the expansion of business. While this is showing the proper spirit of push and progress, it is a mistake to think that so valuable a tool as a "house list" can be put to only one use. The cabinet of cards containing the names of the current, former and prospective customers, is one of the most flexible pieces of filing mechanism ever devised, and the active head of any large merchandising house can well spend hours in its company.

Suppose it possible for him to assemble in one great •hall all the men at the moment carrying live accounts with him and all who had traded with him in the past. That privilege would instantly arouse his enthusiasm. But where this list runs ten to twenty thousand individuals and firms, the assemblage would be somewhat unwieldy, so far as actual results are concerned. There might be much poise and good feeling, but small opportunity for the wholesaler to learn definite and directly helpful things about his trade.

But what are his privileges with the "house list" in the card catalog drawer? With it he can assemble his whole trade and quickly interview each customer. And customers, thus approached, consume no time in comments on the weather. These cards will tell him the fluctuations of each customer's trade, from month to month and year to year.

In these quiet card conventions with his buyers the merchant learns how much may be done with a right business system, besides adding more customers to his list. The word expansion has been as popular in business as in politics. There is something else to be done in the course of sound business progress besides expanding. To solidify your business structure is quite as essential as to expand it.

This fact is enforced with emphasis by an intelligent study of any system that really puts before the eye of the executive a complete picture of his relations with each customer on his list. There is nothing in which you can better invest two or three days' time, at intervals of three or six months, than in a direct personal study of these cards. Handle them with your own hands, read them with your own eyes and make your deductions and conclusions from your personal contact with the list.

WHEN you go through the customer list

get in mind a way to strengthen weak purchasers

and a plan for enlarging small accounts with frequent re-orders.

But what should you have in mind as you go through the "cabinet," turn one card after another and scan each customer's relations with the house? Two things: First, how to develop weak customers into sound ones; second, how to build small accounts into larger ones without increasing the tension of credit. In my opinion the first object to be held in view is quite as important as the second. It is more vital to have a trade that is absolutely sound and closely knit than to have a big trade full of weak spots that are causing work and worry. Enough weak accounts will strain the credit of the best wholesaler and will absorb more time and high-priced energy than they are worth — ten times over ! A glance at each card tells you how much your customer bought last month, how much the corresponding month of the previous year; how he has made his payments; and the whole character of his transactions.

After picking out the weak points which need to be fortified, the shrewd manager will carefully formulate the general lines of a campaign directed wholly to making stronger the customers he already has, without regard to getting new ones.

This must be done in a thoroughly systematic manner to be effective. In fact, it would be wholly impossible to make even the preliminary investigation necessary to such a campaign without having in operation a modern system, which, at least to a degree, is analytical in its operation. In this sort of campaign it should be remembered that the object is not to load your customers up with a larger line of goods, but to make them so strong that they will need more goods and can take them with less credit than under existing conditions.