It’s no secret the pandemic turned everyone’s world upside. But some shifts are lasting well beyond quarantine life. Remote work, a digital sales environment, and more video content are clearly here to stay. And it’s these logistical trends that have pushed people out of the traditional sales field.
Globally, job transitions among sales professionals are up an astonishing 39 percent over the last three months, with many leaving Zoom-centric jobs to become solo sellers. But the lasting effects of COVID have changed the sales landscape and, therefore, what’s required to be victorious in it.
At 7th Level, we have successfully trained over 100,000 salespeople worldwide using a proprietary sales methodology called Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questioning (NEPQ). In doing so, we’ve learned unconventional sales techniques and training focused on behavior that will usher in success. Based on behavioral science, those in sales looking for greener pastures can up their skill level in this new era.
For instance, we tell trainees to think like a buyer. A gradual erosion of trust in the marketplace reached critical mass with the global financial crisis of 2008. That was the year trust died. Since then and more recently with COVID, we’ve seen a world gone wild with countless opinions, experts, voices, and platforms. Arguably, trust hesitancy has reached an all-time peak, and buyer skepticism. Consequently, one of the greatest casualties in this Post-Trust Era are salespeople who still use traditional selling techniques.
Today’s consumers are cautious and suspicious of salespeople. They expect manipulation, aggressive tactics, and being tricked into doing what they’d rather not do. The way out of this sales industry black-hole? Begin thinking like a buyer.
That involves a revolutionary approach where assumptions and sales pressure are eliminated from the sales conversation. Behavioral science indicates we are most persuasive when we allow others to persuade themselves.
Sales professionals should place the focus of the conversation on the prospect and ask skilled neuro-emotional persuasion questions that cause potential customers to relax and open up. The good news is that trust, and predictable results, are inevitable by-products of selling this way.
We also tell trainees to pull rather than push. Conventional sales techniques tend to assume a prospect’s needs. Such methods create a “push” dynamic and place a significantly greater focus on the salesperson, their company, and products than on the customer. The NEPQ sales methodology turns this approach on its head by taking a completely unconventional approach. It works with how humans are naturally wired to want to communicate.
NEPQ pioneers a sales methodology that leads prospects to “pull you in” rather than putting sales pressure on them.
A conventional sales conversation consists of the salesperson doing an unnatural amount of heavy lifting, only to have hit-and-miss results. Harnessing the power of behavioral science and human psychology to establish an easy dialogue where prospects persuade themselves, allows a salesperson to expend just 20 percent of effort to enjoy 80 percent better results.
Finally, trainees are urged to ask the right questions. Studies have long established that consumers buy based on emotion. Yet, with traditional ways of selling, the sales professional typically focuses on presenting their interpretation of a given solution with no real endeavor to understand the emotional needs of a potential buyer.
Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questions are not designed to trick prospects into saying what the salesperson wants them to say. Instead, they’re crafted using language, structure, and sequence elements that put the prospect at ease and progressively draw out their personal truth, what they value and how they’re emotionally affected because prospects have all the answers a salesperson needs to make the sale.
Unlike a typical “close” at the end of a pitch, the NEPQ process of self-persuasion begins at the beginning of the sales process. It continues throughout as the would-be buyer sells themselves on the idea that you and what you offer can help them.
As the Great Resignation continues, it’s critical to be seen as a trusted authority, rather than another salesperson trying to stuff your solution down people’s throats. Considering consumers’ behavior and working around the post-trust era will be key to success.
