The pre-social media era of the hard sales techniques is over, and it has been replaced with understanding and guidance
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) is an iconic drama film about the lives of four American real estate salesmen and the desperation that sets in when their head office sends a trainer, Blake, to ‘energise’ the team. In a particularly savage scene, Blake launches into a torrent of abuse at the salesmen, telling them that only the top two of the four salesmen will keep their jobs at the end of the monthly sales contest. He tells the salesmen to adhere to the ABC of sales: always be closing, noting that they should pressurise prospects into making purchase decisions quickly.
In the 1990s, the power of the salesperson relied on information asymmetry, where they had superior knowledge about the products they were selling. The customer was not able to easily make comparative decisions, enabling a ‘buyer beware’ pressurised sales culture. Salespeople were regarded as untrustworthy and aggressive. Although Blake's techniques may have been effective the back then, they soon became out of step and ineffective once the internet and social media became more prevalent.
Access to information
Today, customers have access to as much (or, in some cases, more) information as the seller, as they can tap into an endless stream of choices, comparisons and reviews. They can now talk back to the seller, from leaving product reviews to attacking a brand on social media, thus changing the culture to ‘seller beware’, instead. Now, if a customer is wronged, a brand and reputation are likely to suffer.
So, how should selling work in the 21st century? Sales need to be personal and purposeful—not pressured. (Pink, 2012) suggests that we consider these two questions:
- If the other person does what I want them to do, will they benefit?
- If the other person does what I want them to do, will the world benefit?
If the answers to both these questions are no, then it might be time to rethink what you are doing. Today, idealism is not just a stance: it is a practical methodology. Aesthetic practitioners already do this daily, from convincing colleagues to adopt a certain approach, to selling the virtues of homework to children. In fact, practitioners do not need to be an extrovert or pushy to get results—if anything, being too pushy no longer works.
Let us look at a modern version of the ABC of sales: attunement, buoyancy and clarity.
Attunement
Attunement is about being able to understand the other person's perspective, as, when they have their own reasons for doing something, they are more likely to do it. It is not about coercion; it is about seeing the situation through their eyes, rather than one's own. Perspective-taking requires:
- Understanding where the other person is coming from—what concerns, biases and motivations influence them?
- Listening to them and truly grasping what they are saying
- Respecting their point of view, as this can build a bridge to an agreement.
Perspective-taking is quite interesting, in that the more powerful a person, the less effective they are at understanding another person's perspective. If in a position of authority, dialling back on the power that this position provides will help. For example, with a manager trying to ask an employee to take on more work, imagine being their peer, rather than their boss. How would you persuade them to do it as their peer? How would you feel as the employee? Using empathy to understand the person's emotions will help to influence them further, too.
Persuasion used to be purely about irritation (getting someone to do what you want), but is now about agitation (getting someone to do what they should do and will ultimately want to do). Agitation is the better method, as it harnesses a person's own motivations for making change.
Buoyancy
Buoyancy is about personal resilience to survive in an ocean of rejections—‘no’ will be heard far more than ‘yes’. There is always the risk of the following biases creeping in:
- Personal bias: one may believe that the rejection is somehow due to who you are as a person, and this is not necessarily correct. To counter this, look for all the ways that the decision was not based on who you are or what you said (or did not say). The chances are that there other factors at play
- Pervasive bias: rejection can cause a cycle of negative confirmations: ‘This always happens’. The reality is that it does not always happen. Focus on the times that you have succeeded instead
- Permanent bias: a rejection can sometimes feel like an indelible black mark against you, even though this is not the case. In this scenario, think about all the ways in which things are not ruined, then stand up again, dust yourself off and start again. Clarity
»Simply understanding the product is not enough. A patient may present a wide range of products that they are interested in, but the aesthetic practitioner's expertise can help them to unearth what they want to achieve«
Clarity
Clarity is simply the ability to see a situation from a new perspective and help people to surface problems that they did not realise they had (Pink, 2012). The persuaders' role has changed from an information gatekeeper to an information curator and from a problem-solver to a problem-finder.
In the context of clinics, this means being knowledgeable both clinically and from a beauty perspective. Simply understanding the product is not enough. A patient may present a wide range of products that they are interested in, but the aesthetic practitioner's expertise can help them to unearth what they want to achieve and curate the swathes of information they have collected.
Social proof can also be a very compelling motivation tool. Being able to demonstrate that others have made the right decision can be a powerful lever. Helping to understand the decision as a possible experience instead of a product can be effective too. For example, describing how people felt after they had a treatment can be as effective as selling the benefit of the product itself. Following this, triggering a loss aversion frame can be useful too—what does the client stand to lose out on if they do not purchase your product? Loss aversion is frequently used to sell insurance, for example.
Conclusion
The pre-social media era of the hard sales techniques is thankfully over, and it has been replaced with understanding and guidance, which is good news for those who are not extroverts. An effective pitch today is a collaboration where you work together to understand the problem, find common ground and focus on the end goal for the patient.