In a world Where Everything is For Sale, Prejudice Against Salespeople Remains a Barrier
This article is written by someone who accidentally stumbled into the world of sales in 2006 and never left.
Over the years, I've constantly strived to build transparent business relationships. I'd like to delve into the topic of prejudices against salespeople and some techniques to overcome them.
Where does bias come from?
Biases usually stem from past negative experiences, personal distrust, or simply unfounded bias.
Let's examine the common reasons that give rise to distrust toward salespeople:
Self-Interest vs. Customer Needs: The common perception is that salespeople prioritize their gains, such as meeting targets or earning commissions, over understanding the real needs of the customers.
Excessive Promises: Some people tend to exaggerate the benefits and features of a product to quickly close a deal without considering that if the promise is not kept, trust with the customer is eroded.
Aggressiveness: While healthy sales aggressiveness is motivated by energy and conviction, aggressive selling can be unpleasant because it is manipulative and coercive.
Past Negative Experiences: Customers tend to remember unfavorable interactions with salespeople, often reflecting these negative feelings onto the brand.
Lack of Transparency: Customers who discover different contract terms and hidden costs after purchase feel a sense of betrayal towards the salesperson.
General Stereotypes: Culturally, salespeople are labeled as manipulative or astute.
Information Asymmetry: Customers now conduct thorough research. If they feel a salesperson is withholding information, distrust can arise.
Impersonal Approach: Cold calls or unsolicited emails that are not focused on a customer's interest make the salesperson appear intrusive.
A type of listening that is different from active listening.
Strategies to Overcome Prejudices
Understand the Origin of Prejudice: Apply active and sincere listening to understand the reasons for the prejudice.
Build Trust and Rapport: Don't just focus on the sales process; create a human environment by finding time to talk about common interests or shared experiences.
Be Transparent: Be Transparent: To win or prevent bias, provide data, share testimonials, and offer product trials without strings attached
Emphasize Personal Experience: Share stories of similar cases and issues that the customer is facing, explaining how you've helped by providing data, information, and evidence.
Seek Feedback: Don't just talk to customers who want to buy; also understand the reasons of those who decide not to, to see if our approach failed to create a trust bond.
Be Professional and Empathetic: Show genuine interest and understanding for the customer, and don't bring your reactions into a business relationship. Professionalism implies a neutral and supportive approach
Continuous Learning: I'm not just talking about knowing our products, but also studying the customer's context, being informed about the situation in their market, and analyzing trends. Convey your passion for the work you do.
Diversify the Approach: This is a difficult point for salespeople who are not prepared on psychological concepts related to sales, but especially to the characteristics of our interlocutor. Each customer communicates differently, and it's up to us to find the best way to connect with them.
Create a Diverse Team: Different backgrounds, personalities, and sales skills can create a supportive environment for the salesperson who struggles to overcome these prejudices.
Follow-up and Persistence: Continuous follow-ups over time for noble purposes, which aim to bring value to the customer, tend to diminish initial bias.
Cognitive Psychology: This branch of study analyzes how sometimes we use mental shortcuts or heuristics to quickly process a large amount of information. Cognitive Biases are a type of heuristic that allows us to quickly "label" people based on their job, ethnicity, or nationality.
Confirmation of Prejudice: Always for energy-saving of our mind, we tend to self-perpetuate prejudice by seeking information that confirms it, compared to those that question it, which requires analytical skills and motivation.
Cognitive Dissonance: People tend to maintain consistency between their beliefs (even wrong ones) and actions. Having conflicting cognitions about ideas, beliefs, values, and emotions creates a state of tension. To avoid it, our mind seeks information that justifies our beliefs, and in the case of prejudice, even minor characteristics confirm it to reinforce the prejudiced belief.
When Psychology and AI Collide
Integration of Psychology and AI
For salespeople who do not have solid psychological and social knowledge, an AI platform could quickly teach them the psychological principles that can help them in their interactions with customers. For example, a training module can use simulated scenarios to teach active listening, objection handling, or just how to change the sales approach depending on the person you are interacting with. Another application of AI could be sentiment analysis. A platform can analyze customer feedback, identifying areas where biases are evident. This information can be used to train salespeople.
Conclusions
Cognitive bias is a normal phenomenon of our cognitive process, both as a defensive technique and as a mental saving in labeling instead of coming into contact with a specific person. Once formed, it is difficult to eradicate unless negative beliefs are overcome by positive experiences that do not create cognitive dissonance. My opinion is that actions are not needed to prove that customers are wrong, but only to focus on understanding and the desire to create a relationship based on trust and value. Overcome personal defenses and focus only on the strategy to bring a benefit to the customer, shifting the issue from an emotional point of view to an objective one related to facts.
I leave you with a thought for your reflection, asking you:
"How many times has unconscious prejudice influenced the perception of a salesperson and the company he represents?"
"How many times has prejudice against a salesperson inhibited you from really knowing the features of the product, not giving them a chance to present them, even if useful?"
