Sales Hack: Let Your Buyers Draw Their Own Conclusions

February 13^th, 2023 (two-minute read)

 

“The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it.  And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects; in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former
conclusions may remain inviolate.”

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

 

Cut through the ancient academic rhetoric and Bacon’s statement presents a commonly occurring cognitive bias known as confirmation bias.  In short, confirmation bias is the human tendency to “search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.”  Put another way, we prefer information that fits our preconceived ideas.

 

This has enormous implications for sales in particular, to say nothing for persuasion in general.  Here’s the lede:

 

ü  Buyers give precedence to what they think and say, more than what is told to them by a third party

ü  Buyers value their own conclusions more than conclusions drawn by someone else and then told to them. 

 

The old selling proverb puts it this way:  If you say it, the Buyer will doubt it.  But if the Buyer says it to himself, it’s true.

 

Telling Buyers what they need and how you will help them get it is a path to failure.  Which only confirms another selling proverb, one which we will spend some time talking about in the months ahead:  Ask.  Don’t tell.

 

Confirmation Bias reminds us that Buyers prefer to identify their own needs, and the skilled salesperson asks questions that direct a customer’s decision-making without overtly “telling” them where to go.  But before asking questions, be sure they are the right ones. 

 

Buyers are not interested in filling in knowledge gaps.  They want you to help them structure their thinking, so they can see patterns and connections that were previously unrecognized or unanticipated.  Your questions must lead them down the path of self-discovery. 

 

To win in consultative selling: Ask.  Don’t tell.