3 common sales techniques, take them without thanks!

Most people don’t like sales pitches. The first reason is that they feel disturbed, and most of the things they are sold are things they don’t need. The second reason is that rejecting someone is something that can easily lead to negative emotions (because they will feel embarrassed when they see that the other party has failed to achieve their goal). Of course, even so, people will still reject the vast majority of sales pitches.

However, there are always times when we cannot refuse others. Think about what your mental state is when you can't say no to someone, and what are the reasons why you can't say no to the other person.

First, let’s talk about why we find it difficult to say no to others.

Whether it is rejecting others or being rejected by others, it all falls within the scope of social psychology.

Some foreign psychologists conducted an experimental study: they asked the subjects to participate in a passing game, and then other people passed the ball to each other but not to the subjects. As a result, the subjects felt very unhappy.

But the most crucial thing is that the area in the subjects' brains that senses physical pain was activated, indicating that this social pain and physical pain have a common physiological basis. Simply put, being excluded or rejected will hurt, and the heartache really hurts.

But the thing is, being rejected hurts, but why does it affect rejecting others? The initiator of that experiment, Williams, KD's student Chen, Z., initiated another experiment to prove that rejecting others will cause pain.

Because in this world, no one exists alone, we are all social animals, and therefore, we live in a social environment where we exchange, provide and receive resources. Today, you rejected someone's request, but maybe tomorrow that person will reject your request.

And sales promotion is a performance art of rejection and difficulty in rejection. When it comes to sales, there are three commonly used sales techniques that can help the salesperson be better accepted by the other party.

1. Phase Request Method

The first is the “stage request method” (also called the door-to-door method), in which the salesperson first makes a small request that is difficult to refuse, gets people to accept it, and then gradually makes more difficult requests . For example: "It doesn't matter whether you buy it or not, just listen to my introduction first." Generally speaking, we can refuse other people's sales pitches, but shouldn't we let people speak? Therefore, many people enter the salesman’s effective range at this time and then start the next routine.

The effect of a small but hard-to-refuse request at this time is to change your attitude toward the event itself, thereby weakening the individual's resistance to higher demands for similar activities and making it easier for the individual to comply with the second request. This is the threshold effect. Once one foot is in, why bother about the whole body going in?

Psychology believes that every human volitional action has an initial goal. In many cases, because human motivations are complex, people often face comparisons, trade-offs and choices of various goals. Under the same circumstances, those convenient and simple goals are more likely to be acceptable.

In addition, people are always willing to adjust themselves into a consistent image. Even if other people's requests are a bit excessive, people will continue to do so in order to maintain the consistency of the impression.

This effect also exists in real life. When customers are choosing clothes, shopping guides like to constantly persuade customers to try on the clothes in the store. When you put the clothes on, the salesperson will praise the clothes for suiting you and persuade you to buy them. It is difficult for you to notice that your mental state has changed at this moment, because even if you don’t like this piece of clothing, it is easy for you to try another one under the persuasion of the shopping guide.

When selling cosmetics, salesmen also suggest a trial first before making a purchase recommendation. When a man is pursuing a girl he likes, he does not "get it all done in one go" and directly propose to spend the rest of his life with her. Instead, he gradually achieves his goal through small requests such as watching movies or having meals.

Experienced bosses do the same when assigning work to employees. They first ask employees to commit to completing an easier task, and then make greater demands after the task is completed.

If you say that I am accustomed to this trick, I will never give the other party a chance for something I am not interested in, and I will decisively refuse even a small request.

The following sales techniques may trick you even though you know it is a trick. This technique is called "reciprocity."

2. Reciprocal Marketing

The principle of reciprocity means that if someone gives us something good, we should try our best to return it.

A university professor did a little experiment: he sent some greeting cards to strangers to see what the reaction would be. The result surprised him. After a few days, holiday cards came in from all directions. Although he expected someone to respond, the fact that most people sent him back cards was still beyond his expectations. The most important thing was that the professor didn't know them at all, and these people didn't inquire about the identity of this unknown professor. They just sent back the cards out of a natural reaction.

This is almost the instinct of each of us: if others help us, we will also be willing to help them; if others give us gifts on their birthdays, we will also give them gifts in return on their birthdays; if friends invite us to dinner, we will also invite friends to dinner next time; even if we meet strangers on the street, they will praise us by saying, "Your children are so beautiful." You would also politely reply: "Your child looks very cute, too." These acts of reciprocity are almost a norm in our lives.

According to the principle of reciprocity, we have an obligation to repay others' kindness, gifts, help, etc. in the future. Therefore, reciprocity often comes with an accompanying sense of repaying a debt.

After conducting in-depth research, Alvin Goodner and other sociologists said: "All human societies recognize this principle." Archaeologist Richard Leakey believes: "It is because of the reciprocal system that humans become human."

He said: Because our ancestors learned to share food and skills in a "credit network where debts must be repaid", humans were able to achieve division of labor, exchange different forms of goods and services, make individuals interdependent, and condense into highly efficient units.

In 1985, Ethiopia's economy was paralyzed, famine was widespread, and poverty was devastating due to years of civil war and drought. Thousands of people died of hunger and disease. In this situation, the Ethiopian Red Cross decided to donate US$5,000 to Mexico to help the victims of the Mexican earthquake.

Surprised reporters investigated Ethiopia's motive for doing this and found out that it was because Mexico provided assistance to Italy when it invaded Ethiopia in 1935. Even after half a century, and with so many unfavorable factors in reality, the Ethiopian people's need to repay their gratitude has not been stopped, and the obligation to repay the debt of gratitude has overcome everything. This explains how profound an impact the principle of reciprocity has on human beings.

In China, the value of “repaying a drop of kindness with a spring of water” is something we have been familiar with and passed down since childhood. Therefore, when we receive favors from others, we instinctively activate the desire to repay them.

Based on the principle of reciprocity, psychologist Dennis Regan conducted a series of experiments, proving that even if we don't like someone very much: an annoying salesman, an acquaintance we don't want to interact with, as long as they do a small favor before making a request to us, it can greatly increase the probability that we will comply with their words and actions.

The reciprocity principle is so strong that it overwhelms another factor that typically influences compliance decisions: whether one likes the person making the request.

Most of the experienced salesmen take advantage of this weakness of human nature, that is, they will do you a favor first. Common sales methods that use the principle of reciprocity include:

1. Free tasting (trial):

When you enter a bakery, the clerk will bring you a plate of sample bread of the day for you to taste. After tasting, most people will choose to buy some. First, the products are really delicious, so I buy some. Second, I am afraid that if I don’t buy after tasting them, the other party will think I am taking advantage. Third, I don’t want to eat the store’s food for free, so I buy some to achieve psychological balance. This is the truth: one should be grateful for what one has received and one should be lenient towards others.

I tried on many clothes in the clothing store. Although I liked them, they were a bit expensive. However, I felt that I had troubled the shopping guide for so long and I would feel bad if I didn't buy any of them, so I just bought one that was priced within my budget.

On the one hand, free samples (services) allow consumers to understand the quality of the product, and on the other hand, they can serve as a favor to release consumers' sense of indebtedness.

2. Gifts

A family is walking on the street, and suddenly someone puts a balloon or a small doll in your child's hand, and then tells you that he or she hopes you can cooperate in a product research or learn about his or her artistic photos or training classes. What should you do?

If you take the gift from the child, forcibly return it to him/her and tell him/her that you don’t have time, the child will certainly not agree; if you accept the gift but refuse to cooperate and just leave, it will seem too cruel. So, most likely you will obey and cooperate with the other party.

3. Forced favor

A Taoist priest puts a picture of the God of Wealth on your door, then knocks on your door and says he is here to bring you good fortune and hopes you can give him some money for food. What choice do you have at this time? You can't let the other party tear down the God of Wealth, it would seem unlucky. Even though you feel extremely disgusted, you will still give the other person some money.

When your car is stuck on the road, it's time for beggars to beg. If, like in the past, beggars use a pot to knock on the glass of each car one by one, hoping that the car owners will give some money, the effect will definitely get worse and worse.

So, they changed their begging strategy, turning begging into service, and letting the other party turn alms into payment for enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Then, the scene that is familiar to everyone today appeared: beggars put down their iconic crutches and instead picked up a car wash towel or car duster. Whenever there was a traffic jam, they would shuttle between the traffic jams, polish the glass of each car (although the process was extremely messy, some even just waved the towel in front of the car glass), and then knock on the driver's glass, waiting for you to pay for their "service".

What can you do at this time? Even if you are not worried about hurting the other party by your firm refusal, you will worry about being regarded as a person who is inconsiderate to the poor by the car owners in front, behind, and around you. The car has been cleaned, and in order to alleviate the "sense of debt" in your heart, you can only "comply obediently".

When there is a traffic jam, real estate salesmen have their chance to knock on the window of every car and stuff flyers with their phone numbers printed on them. Those who are quick-witted can even say something before the window is closed: "Apartment with lake view near so-and-so, down payment of 90,000." Although people are not as disgusted with real estate sales as they are with beggars, they still resist it in their hearts.

A while ago, a salesman who was handing out flyers became famous on TikTok because he handed out flyers differently from others: before handing out flyers, he would bow deeply to the car owners in front of them to express his gratitude for their support and understanding of his work. The car owners were deeply moved by the salesman's professionalism, but felt unworthy of the bow, so they lowered their car windows to take the flyers.

French anthropologist Marcel Mauss said when describing the social pressures that human culture creates around the gift-giving process: "Man has the duty to give, the duty to receive, and the duty to repay." Once you accept the other party's favor, what happens next is no longer up to you.

This is why the reciprocal sales pitch works so well. Why does a small favor often stimulate people to return a greater favor?

Because the feeling of indebtedness makes people very uncomfortable. Most people find it unpleasant to owe others. This sense of indebtedness comes from the conditioned reflex under the human social system. Behaviors that violate the reciprocity mechanism are not conducive to the best interests of society as a whole.

Therefore, just to unload this heavy psychological burden, we are all willing to give more back to others. Moreover, this greater act of returning the favor can often earn us more positive social evaluations, such as this person being "grateful" and so on. Otherwise, we may be labeled as "ungrateful".

When you understand the tremendous power of reciprocal sales, you will know that if you want to avoid falling into the carefully designed trap of the salesman, you should try to avoid the favors given by the other party.

If you are not tempted by the other party's sample offer, decisively reject the other party's small gifts, and effectively avoid the other party's forced favors, then you have almost skipped the salesman's psychological routine. But it’s only “almost” because good salespeople have a stronger killer weapon – the concession strategy.

3. Concession Sales

Remember the “stage request method” we mentioned at the beginning of the article? It means making a small request first, and then gradually making more difficult requests. Using this method in reverse, first making a bigger and more difficult request, and then making a smaller and easier request after the other party refuses, is the concession strategy.

You are walking on the street and a little boy runs up to you and says, "Sir, buy a bouquet of flowers for your lover." Although it is cruel to refuse, everyone will still say, "Thank you, I don't need it." If the little boy says, "Sir, you can also buy a rose and take it home. It's only 5 yuan. Your lover will be very happy!" Then you will easily spend 5 yuan to buy a rose, because compared to spending hundreds of yuan to buy a bouquet of flowers, buying a rose is really a very small request.

When you meet volunteers at a shopping mall holding a charity event for children in poor mountainous areas, and the volunteers ask you if they can adopt a child and pay his or her tuition for a year, most people will be torn between wanting to donate their love and care, but also having to consider their own financial ability.

But when the volunteers say that if it is inconvenient for you to claim the book, you can also donate 20 yuan to buy a book for the children in the mountainous areas, and everyone can build a small library for the children in the poor mountainous areas, you will definitely not refuse.

Why is this?

In fact, concession marketing is an extension of reciprocal marketing, and reciprocity is not necessarily limited to the material level. The essence of the principle of reciprocity is the symmetry of behavior. When others show us kindness, we have an obligation to repay the kindness we have received.

Li Xiaozhang: In the above case, the other party's goodwill (favor) is expressed in the form of concession. When the other party makes concessions from a large request to a small request, you will also repay them with similar goodwill behavior, otherwise you will feel that you are too heartless.

From business negotiations to purchasing a commodity, this concession strategy plays a very important role in exchanging interests or achieving cooperation. In order to get the other party to agree to one of our requests, we often make a bigger request first. When the other party refuses, we give in and make our real request. At this time, the other party will often give in and agree to your request after the concession.

Isn’t this also the case when we bargain when buying things? For a product worth 100 yuan, if your desired price is 70 yuan, you will ask the boss if 50 yuan is ok, and the boss says 80 yuan is the lowest. You then say I will add a little more, how about 60 yuan, and the boss says 75, it cannot be any lower. Finally you said, let's all make concessions and set it at 70. The final transaction price will be very close to 70.

In a transaction, you show your sincerity by making continuous concessions, and the other party will feel obligated to reciprocate your concessions. In this direction, the willingness of both parties to trade will continue to increase.

The reason why the concession strategy can play a very important role is that in addition to mobilizing the principle of reciprocity in human nature, it also mobilizes the principle of perceptual contrast. By exposing you to a larger number or request first, followed by a smaller request, you will find the smaller request more acceptable.

Just like your friend calls and asks to borrow 100,000 yuan for cash flow, if it is really inconvenient, you can lend him 5,000 yuan for emergency. At this time, you will feel that 5,000 yuan is a more acceptable number and request, because your attention is shifted to the comparison between 5,000 and 100,000, rather than the 5,000 yuan itself.

Since there are so many tricks in sales, can't we violate the principle of reciprocity? In fact, it is difficult for us to violate the principle of reciprocity for three reasons:

First, owing others makes people feel uncomfortable, and no one likes this feeling;

Second, if we ignore the kindness of others, the cycle of reciprocity ends, and such an approach is not in the best interests of society in the long run;

Third, people who receive favors but do not return them will hardly be welcomed by others;

Therefore, there is a magical routine behind those irresistible sales pitches, which is the principle of reciprocity. If you want the other party to be unable to refuse your request, use the principle of reciprocity to stimulate the other party's inner sense of indebtedness.

Of course, the above is limited to the business scope. As a person, I hope everyone can be more sincere and less scheming.

Author: Copywriter and Art

Source: Copywriting and Art