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Victor Antonio
Sales Influence
Finding the Why in
(How People) Buy
(Volume I)
By
Victor Antonio
1st Edition
Sales Influence
Victor Antonio
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company,
is
proof
Victor
that
the
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Victor is a
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Table of Content
Chapter 1: The 2.5x Price Magnifier
Chapter 2: Value Attribution The Discount Deception
Chapter 3: The Tupperware Effect and Why Were
Influenced to Buy
Chapter 4: How to Prime the Prospect to Say Yes
Chapter 5: DBM Factor Increase Your Close Rate by
10% to 20%
Chapter 6: How to Sell Your Side of the Story
Chapter 7: How to Get Bigger Tips and Higher
Commission
Chapter 8: How People Lie in a Social Setting
Chapter 9: How to Sell Without Using Closing Strategies
Chapter 10: Customer Penetration and Up-selling
Chapter 11: How to Prevent Price Point Erosion
Chapter 12: Show and Sell Why Displaying Your
Products Can Increase Sales
Chapter 13: Price Strategy When to Consolidate or
Partition Pricing to Win Deals
Chapter 14: Lowering Sales Resistance The Contrast
Principle
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Chapter 1
The 2.5x Price Magnifier
behavior.
Interestingly enough, when the prices later rose to $4 a
gallon, aside from the complaint of high gas prices, it really
didnt make much more of a difference, since consumers
had previously altered their behavior and were already
driving less. Nonetheless, the media continued to dredge
up and report any story, no matter how tangential, on how
Finding the Why in (How People) Buy
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If drivers
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price decreasing with the same fervor as they did when the
price was increasing. In fact, by the time gas dropped
below $2 a gallon, the media had all but forgotten about the
gas
problem
America
was
having,
and
had
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An increase of X
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Chapter 2
Value Attribution The
Discount Deception
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The Psychology of Sunk Cost, by Hal Arkes and Catherine Blumer, published in
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 35 (1985)
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Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, Ori Brafman and Ram Brafman,
2008, Doubleday, New York, NY
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leather jacket that was selling for only $55. At the time I
wondered why it was so inexpensive. Was it the quality?
Something must be wrong with it!
Whatever the reason, the result was that I hardly used
the jacket, and after a few months I decided to donate it to
Goodwill. What happened? From the very moment I made
the purchase, I had already devalued the jacket in my mind.
That perceived devaluation guided my behavior in such a
way that I never used the jacket.
Now imagine how my attitude, hence my behavior,
toward the jacket would have been different if I had paid
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The
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Chapter 3
The Tupperware Effect and
Why Were Influenced to
Buy
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Sound
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Chapter 4
How to Prime the Prospect
to Say Yes
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lighter, the vagrant would thank the stranger and then ask,
Hey man, do you have any extra change in your pocket
you can spare so I can get something to eat?
More often than not, the stranger would dig into his
pocket and pull out a few coins and hand them over before
continuing on his way.
If the vagrant didnt know the stranger was a smoker, a
much safer approach was to ask him for the time of day,
Hey, Mister, can you tell me what time it is? And then
hed follow up with the spare change request.
This was life in the neighborhood (a.k.a., The Hood). I
didnt think much of this technique until I began studying
influence and persuasion techniques.
One in particular,
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You: Fair enough. Ill let you take our new Gizmo
3000 home for a week and let you see for yourself that
it does work and it will save you money in the long
run. (Target Request)
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Chapter 5
DBM Factor Increase
Close Rate by 10% to 20%
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For
instance:
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Exercise:
For your business, think of a typical clients DBM. Then,
take the time to write down three to five reasons that
support the DBM. If you don't know what those reasons
are, then probe by asking the client questions regarding his
motivation for wanting to buy.
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Chapter 6
How to Sell Your Side of
the Story
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Persuasion Theory
Motivation to Think
Effective Effect
High
Primacy
Low
Recency
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Advertisers Get It
Medical commercials are good examples of how using the
effect of primacy can be effective in convincing viewers to
buy their products.
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Sales Strategy
Suppose a client asked you the question, Why should I
buy from you and not your competition? The inherent
implication is that the client is motivated to think about
making a decision. What you now have to do is deliver
your message effectively.
First, begin by letting the client know that you will be
presenting your product first, and that youre going to cover
all the relevant features (and benefits). Second, show how
your product or service is superior to that of your
competitors. Your response to the question, Why should I
buy from you and not your competition? might go
something like this:
John, I get that question a lot and I am more than
happy to answer it. So heres what Im going to do.
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Let me first tell you about our product and what makes
it a good choice and fit for your business. And then Ill
talk a little bit about what our competition offers and let
you decide which is more suitable. Is that a fair
approach?
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Exercise:
Think of a situation where you have to present two sides of
an argument, and ask yourself how you could improve your
argument by using the principles described. It doesnt have
to be a business situation per se; it can be a personal
situation where you have to convince someone else of your
point of view. This comparison between your and your
competitors products also invokes a rule of persuasion
called Contrast (see Chapter 14), which makes this
overall approach that much more effective.
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Chapter 7
How to Get Bigger Tips and
Higher Commission
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Scenario 1:
You walk into a restaurant and are escorted to your
table by the greeter, who tells you that your waiter will
be by in a just a moment to take your order. After a
few minutes go by, a nice young man introduces
himself politely and asks, May I start you out with a
beverage or a drink? You order your drink and the
waiter tells you about Todays Specials. After rambling
off the list of specialties, and before he quickly darts
off, he says, Let me go get your drink, and Ill be back
to take your order.
Minutes later the waiter comes back with your drink.
He grabs his pen and notepad and asks, Are you ready
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Result: The meal was great. You usually tip 15%, but
for his honesty and kindness you feel the need to
reciprocate and show your appreciation, so you decide
to leave the kid a 20% tip.
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Scenario 2:
You walk into a car dealership to browse around and
look for a car. You walk past a few cars on the
showroom floor, and one of them catches your eye.
Out of nowhere a salesman appears and says, I can see
you like this car. My name is Bob. Youre lucky I got
to you before one of the other salespeople. Theyve
been trying to unload this car for the last month. Let
me tell you upfront that it may look good, but you dont
want
the
headaches
that
go
along
with
it.
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The old adage that honesty is the best policy holds true
here. With so much information available to buyers today,
they need someone they can trust who wont steer them in
the wrong direction when making a purchase. This is the
premise of consultative selling. People need help making
critical decisions. Position yourself, much like the waiter
and car salesman, as trustworthy, and you will reap the
benefits in the end. Seek to serve, then to sell.
Demonstrating goodwill is a powerful influencing
technique, if done correctly and with integrity.
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Exercise
How can you use this Reverse Field strategy in your
business to create trust and goodwill between you and your
client?
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Chapter 8
How People Lie in a
Social Setting
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use
of
tools
than
any
other
species.
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I stepped to the side near one of the walls, leaned against it,
and closed my eyes. I no longer wanted to see what was
happening; I wanted to hear the event. The sound was
amazing a cacophony of sound bites, each person battling
to be heard, each wanting to make an impression on the
other!
Call it a salesman's instinct, but as I listened in closely
to neighboring conversations, I got the distinct feeling that
people weren't being altogether truthful about themselves,
their careers, or their services. Some might call it bending
the truth; I prefer to call it by its real name lying.
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schizophrenic,
then
all
bets
are
off).
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Gender Note: Men and women lie equally, but for different
reasons. Men are more likely to lie to make themselves
look better. Women are more likely to lie to make the other
person feel better.
So having a highly developed brain capable of abstract
reasoning, language, and introspection can come in handy
at a networking event. Our ability to manipulate objects
has now been extended to manipulate "perceptions as
well. Now, let me state for the record before I get any hate
mail from Networkers":
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The next time you find yourself talking with someone for
whatever reason, make sure you really listen in to what
people are saying or trying to selling you. Always be
questioning, and in the back of your mind ask, "Can this be
right? Can this really be true?" This is the best defense
against deceitful social intercourse with fellow Homo
Sapiens.
If people can lie three times (2.92 according to
Feldman) in a 10-minute conversation, can you imagine
how many "inaccuracies" you'll hear in one to two
hours?! It's insane, isn't it?
In sales, often it's the customer who is not telling us
what's really going on.
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Chapter 9
How to Sell Without Using
Closing Strategies
what
went
wrong.
Upon
further
mental
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the
presentation
objection
using
blockers
examples,
into
stories,
your
or
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If, at the end of the sales process, youve covered all the
clients objections and have answered them satisfactorily,
theres not much left to do but ask for the order.
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Chapter 10
Customer Penetration
and Up-selling
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Although these questions are very broad, you can use them
as a starting point to determine if there is any untapped
potential. What youre really trying to find out is what
other products can be sold into this account. To do this,
your questions have to more specific and related to your
other products.
How do you know what questions to ask? Start by
doing the following:
1. Review what the client or account has purchased
from you in the past.
2. Review your product offering and select other
products that might be suitable.
3. Develop a list of related questions to see if there is a
need or whether you can create a need.
If there is a need, then all you have to do is qualify and
quantify that need (i.e., make sure there is a need and
identify how big the opportunity is). If there is a need, then
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Exercise:
List your top five to ten clients vertically, numerically by
total sales. Across the top, list all the different products
you offer. Then, fill in the dollar amounts of how much of
each theyve purchased in the previous year. You will
quickly begin to see where you need to start penetrating
and up-selling to meet your sales goal.
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Chapter 11
How to Prevent Price
Point Erosion
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the retail price was $5,000 and another group was given a
retail price of $4,988. After tallying the results, the group
with the $5,000 price tag guessed much lower wholesale
prices than did the group at the $4,998 price.
Another study done over a five-year period found that
houses listed at $500,000 got lower closing prices than
those listed at $494,500.
Further studies confirmed Janiszewskis and Uys
suspicions. Prices with round numbers produce lower
bids. People have a tendency to discount an item more if
the number is round. Simply put, people will round down
(i.e., negotiate down) farther when the product is priced
with a round number. How can this help you?
In sales, when submitting a Request for Proposal (RFP)
or presenting the client with a price, it may be wise to keep
this study in mind. For example, instead of submitting a
starting price of $50,000, you may want to price your
product or service at $49,900. Instead of a starting price of
$200, you may want to price at $197. This way, the client's
price in counteroffer will be higher than if you had used a
round number. Get the idea?
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Chapter 12
Show and Sell Why
Displaying Your Products
Can Increase Sales
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Chapter 13
Price Strategy When to
Consolidate or Partition
Pricing to Win Deals
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$199.00
$0
$0
$0
$199.00
Partitioned Pricing:
Software:
License Fee:
Upgrade Fee:
Tech. Support:
Total:
$145.00
$ 5.00
$ 10.00
$ 36.00
$199.00
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reputation company that no one has ever heard of, and this
could be a problem when bidding on a deal. Consolidate
all your features, add-ons, support, and so on under one
price to avoid triggering any suspicion or hesitation on the
part of buyer.
Use this tactic next time you're submitting a bid,
especially if youre entering a new product space for your
company, or targeting customers who havent worked with
you before and dont know just how good you are!
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Chapter 14
Lowering Sales Resistance
The Contrast Principle
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silent.)
Victor: How long is this going to take?
Mark: I can have a new temporary line up to the house
in about an hour. And the whole job, which includes
contacting the city to see where the gas lines are
located before I dig a trench, could take 48 hours.
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Anatomy of a Sale
Mark used several influence techniques on me to reduce
my resistance. The first one was to thank me for my past
business. We all like it when people appreciate what weve
done in the past. That made me like him right off the bat.
Second, the job they had done before was professional
and timely. So he had credibility going for him.
Third, using the rule of contrast when showing me the
two prices, one crossed out, lowered my resistance. It was
as though he was saying, Youre special, so therefore you
get my special price.
Fourth, he exploited my fear of loss by reminding me of
what might happen if I went with the quick fix of $2,800.
And finally, he didnt apply any pressure for me to
accept his offer. He simply handed me the price estimate
and went silent.
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Chapter 15
How to Sell More Using
Decoy Pricing
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$50
100 units
$5,000
Chair 2
$60
30 units
$1,800
Total Revenue:
$6,800
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Now, lets say that in the second year I decided to add the
third option at $75, and still sold the same total number of
chairs (130):
Chair 1
$50
30 units
$1,500
Chair 2
$60
80 units
$4,800
Chair 3
$75
20 units
$1,500
Total Revenue:
$7,800
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Chapter 16
Verbal Gifting The
Ultimate Rapport Builder
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questions.
Theyll
listen
intently
and
then
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prospects
will
see
dramatic
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Chapter 17
The Endowment Effect
Getting Your Clients
Loaded
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Chapter 18
Sales Positioning #1:
Redefining the Need
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5. Price
Product Strength
Client Wants
Weight
Screen Size
Screen Size
Brand
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Memory
Memory
Brand
Price
Price
Weight
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Bob: Yep.
Salesperson: Im curious, Bob, do you do a lot of
traveling?
Bob: You have no idea. The airport is my second home.
Salesperson: Do you bring your computer with you?
Bob: Dont leave home without it.
Salesperson: When I traveled, I used to haul around
company materials, samples, and all kinds of small, but
necessary items. I remember feeling like a pack mule.
Bob: Im with you on that. Its a wonder I can fit most
of that stuff in one carry-on bag.
Salesperson: Think back to the last time you boarded a
plane where your overstuffed bag didn't fit under your
seat and there wasnt any overhead bin space
available. Has that ever happened?
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Chapter 19
Sales Positioning #2:
Highlighting a Need
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Product Strength
Client Wants
Weight
Screen Size
Screen Size
Brand
Memory
Memory
Brand
Price
Price
Weight
Product Strength
Client Wants
Weight
Weight
Screen Size
Screen Size
Memory
Brand
Brand
Memory
Price
Price
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Bob: Yep.
Salesperson: Assuming a reasonable price and a brand
name computer with good memory capacity, your top
two requirements, the must haves as we say, are a
light computer with a good screen size?
Bob: You got it.
Salesperson: Well then, that makes my job in helping
you easy. Let me show you a couple of brand name
models we have here that are the best of the best when
it comes to light weight and large screen sizes.
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Chapter 20
Sales Truth Serum for
Buyers Who Lie How to
Get Accurate Information
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What do you think you can sell next quarter (or next
year)?
And when you did get the answer (i.e., the prediction), for
some reason you didnt feel quite confident that you were
getting an accurate answer. In fact, more often than not,
the answer you received was either highly optimistic or
pessimistic, and far from accurate. Learning from a recent
study done by Robin Tanner and Kurt Carlson will help
you increase the accuracy of a persons prediction by
simply applying one simple step.
Tanner and Carlson tested an interesting approach to
getting more accurate or realistic information from a
person.
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Chapter 21
Nodding Pumping the
Prospect for Information
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question and the listener gives his answer, nod your head
during the answer. When he finishes speaking, continue to
nod your head another five times at the rate of about one
nod per second. Usually, by the time you have counted to
four, the listener will begin speaking again and give you
more information. To further encourage the prospect to
speak, stroke your chin in an evaluative way. This signals
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the prospect that you are listening intently and would like
to hear more.
The psychology of why this works is rooted in the need
to satiate our ego and validate ourselves to others. When
youre listening intently and agreeing with what the speaker
is saying, you are validating what he is saying.
That
When
emboldened
to
self-esteem
continue
rises,
to
the
pontificate
speaker
or
is
share
The
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Appendix A
The Up Side of a Down
Market 10 Reasons a
Recession is Good for
Selling
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to the U.S. dollar, bought only half of what you could buy
here in the U.S.
Rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment of about 600
square feet started at $1,500 a month, with the average
monthly wage of a worker being $300 per month. (Yes, you
read that right.) Dont ask me how they could afford to
live; thats still a mystery to me. And, the cheapest youd
ever find a gallon of gas was close to $4 (i.e., a bargain at
the time). "So what?!" you say.
During that time we grew our annual sales from a
little over $400,000 a year to $1.5M in sales in less than
two years; thats the so what! When everyone around me
was telling me there was no business to be had in the
country, I proved them wrong. Theres always an up side
to a down market, and here are ten of them:
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and
further
embed
yourself
and
your
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When
rationalizations)
why
the
client
wont
buytoday!
Not all markets are created equal.
We shouldnt
Who cares!
Pundits, be damned!
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Appendix B
Seven Ways to Spot
a Sales Phony
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If a
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Appendix C
Improving Your Sales
Performance Model
in
terms
of
investment:
Research
and
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$1,000,000
Salespeople
50
$20,000
Met Quota
% of Quota
Revenue
25%
100%
$250,000
40%
65%
$260,000
25%
35%
$87,500
10%
10%
$10,000
$607,500
As you can see, the total revenues would fall 40% short of
the sales revenue goal of $1M. At this point, we have a
problem and we need to find ways to resolve it (i.e., hit the
$1M).
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lets
assume
we
added
20
more
70
% of Quota
Revenue
25%
100%
$350,000
40%
65%
$364,000
25%
35%
$122,500
10%
10%
$14,000
$850,500
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50
% of Quota
Revenue
25%
150%
$375,000
40%
100%
$400,000
25%
65%
$162,500
10%
35%
$35,000
$972,500
As you can see from the table, the new revenue number
is $972,500. Although we didnt hit the $1M revenue goal,
its pretty darn close, and within striking distance.
Its worth noting that in both cases you will be
increasing your expenses. But in the first scenario, I can
bet the costs (SG&A) will be much higher compared to the
expense of sales and product training.
I am amazed at how much money corporations and
small businesses spend on R&D, hiring people, product
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