Understanding Influencers’ Perceptions and Values | Effective Selling Skills

People make decisions emotionally and justify them with logic. But perceptions drive the emotions. For thousands of years, the perception that the world was flat drove the emotion of fear that kept people from sailing too far west. In any company, the perceptions of the various decision influencers may be similar or quite different. If the perceptions of individuals within an organization are radically different, the decision process will be more difficult for you to influence.

Perceptions Are Reality

If each of your decision influencers perceives that the business is in a high-growth, stimulating economy, a decision to change service providers is relatively easy. But, if some believe that economic conditions are uncertain, they will likely believe a business should hold onto its tried-and-true advisors in such times, and you may have difficulty replacing the incumbent professional.

Compare the perceptions of business among your decision influencers and look for consistencies and differences that may provide clues on how to close the sale later.

Value System

An owner of a business that was getting lousy service from their accounting firm told me, “The hardest decision I have ever made in my business career was to change accounting firms 12 years ago.” That told me that his emotional “switching costs” were too high to overcome in a short few meetings. He valued loyalty and feared confronting a poorly performing professional. Such insight helped us develop a winning sales strategy that did not threaten the incumbent firm but focused on services the client was not presently receiving.

Conclusion

During the past 20 years, I have found that a high percentage of companies who consider changing service providers keep the incumbent, when the incumbent is allowed to also propose. Beware of the “fools gold” of proposing against an incumbent.

Learn the value system of each one of your buying influences by asking lots of questions, the answers to which tell you about the values held most dear. When you understand the value systems of each person, you will be able to devise a sales strategy that has a high probability of success.