The 3 Pillars of Persuasion
Marketing’s role is to create leads. The Wildly Important Objective of the sales organization is to convert those leads into customers. The most important skill to convert is the ability to persuade.
Every successful sales conversion involves 3 moments of truth: 1st - establishing trust, 2nd - creating urgency & 3rd - generating preference. Fail to meet these emotional principles & you will fall into the rank-in-file of all your competitors. However, if you can consistently lead prospects through each of these rites of passage, you will achieve remarkable sales results. There is a guide, The 3 Pillars of Persuasion, that will enable you to lead your prospect through this transformation.
Establishing Trust: The 1st Pillar of Persuasion
When you first meet with a new prospect their fear (or apprehension) is high and your level of credibility, with them, is low. Your objective is to raise your level of credibility, in their eyes, and in so doing –lower their fear of doing business with you (Illustration 1). Most sales people start telling customers about their company and the features and benefits of their product, in essence . . . selling. Selling breaks rapport! When you first meet a prospect, they don’t want to “be sold”. This is the first pillar of the metamorphosis and it’s called trust. A better way is to teach the prospect something that they are very interested in – and the one thing that all prospects are interested in . . . is themselves. People are interested in their business (B2B) and their personal concerns (B2C). To create a natural rapport and position your sales person as an expert, it is best to educate prospects on market information that brings real value to them. Where selling breaks rapport, education actually builds it and increases your sales person's level of credibility while lowering the prospect’s fears - fulfilling the 1st rite of passage . . . establishing trust.
Creating Urgency: The 2nd Pillar of Persuasion
The biggest mistake salespeople make is offering their solution too soon! All prospects fall somewhere between “satisfied” with their current situation and “crisis” mode to take action (Illustration 2). The closer the prospect is to “satisfied”, the less receptive they are to any solution & the closer they are to “crisis” mode, the more receptive they are to any solution. When salespeople interact with prospects, especially early in the relationship, prospects tend to be closer to “satisfied” with their current situation. When do most salespeople offer their solution? At the very first opportunity . . . when prospects are least receptive to any solution. The key to creating urgency, the 2nd rite of passage, is to replace “offering solutions” with asking questions that move prospects toward “crisis”.
Generating Preference: The 3rd Pillar of Persuasion
Henry Ford once said “thinking is the hardest thing a man can do . . . no wonder so few engage in it”. People don’t like to engage in prolong periods of cognitive reasoning – in essence, they are shouting from the mountain tops “don’t make me think”! Therefore salespeople must learn how to make the selection process a “no brainer”. Once prospects have passed through the 1st two rites of passage (trust & urgency), they have already decided to make a change to their current situation. Now, they must simply select the best option. They do this by comparing their choices. They need for one option to stand out as the clear choice. This is where salespeople are given the opportunity to make their presentation, offer their solution. The problem with most presentations is they serve merely to convey data, not to persuade. The purpose of every presentation is to persuade! Salespeople must learn how to boldly contrast their solution against the other options . . . what can your solution do (or do quicker, safer, more accurate, etc.) the others can’t? Once the salesperson stakes their claim, by contrast, they must prove it! When salespeople learn how to contrast their solution & how to prove it, they will have completed the 3rd pillar, called preference.
In order to improve the conversion rate of leads into customers, the sales organization needs to embrace the 3 Pillars of Persuasion that lead to remarkable sales results. At Program on Persuasion® we have developed a powerful tool for each pillar of persuasion.
Check out our Tools tab to learn more about how to increase your conversion rate and reduce your sales cycle.
