Psychology plays an important role in sales and marketing. Without appealing to your audience’s psychological faculties, you can’t persuade them to engage with your business. This is why understanding and properly deploying human psychology is important when it comes to digital marketing and sales. That being said, today we will talk about how you can boost sales by playing with human psychology.
There are a great number of substitutes available for almost every type of business. This is why, it is important to stand out if you really want to connect with your audience. Hence, you can’t close a deal with cold sales techniques. Therefore, mastering human psychology involved in sales is imperative.
Marketing doesn’t end where the sales start. It’s a continuous process that starts long before sales and keeps going on even after that. So, if marketing has led a potential customer to you, as a sales person, you have to make sure that you market the product in a way that you cut the deal. For this, it is necessary to understand your customer’s mind. And this is where some psychological tips can come really handy.
That being said, let’s find out…
7 tricks to boost sales by playing with human psychology
#1. Create scarcity
One of the most common yet highly effective sales technique is to create scarcity. Now this doesn’t mean actual scarcity but to make it look like so. For one, you can display your website the number of items remaining in stock for your fastest selling products. This tactic is used by many ecommerce businesses. And it is really effective. In fact, simple words like “Limited Stock” or “Only x items left” can also be quite effective. Moreover, you can introduce some limited edition products. This way, you will be able to accelerate sales with the help of psychology.
#2. Create urgency
Well scarcity pretty much does so but there is more you can do. If you really think your deal is worth it and customers will love it then this can be another useful tactic. There can be many ways of creating urgency. Apart from scarcity, you can make a special deal campaign for a small period. (But make sure to market accordingly or else your efforts just may go in vain.) A simple “Limited Period Offer” on your ad campaign can do the thing. However, it doesn’t mean that you can copy-paste this tactic for any of your goods or services and expect it to sale. There are a number of things important to be kept in mind-
- Place your offer clearly
- Communicate your Unique Value Preposition effectively
- Emphasise on the relevancy of your offer
- Reduce distractions
- Build trust, not anxiety
#3. Tell them what they don’t get
Step a bit forward from marketing your product’s value. To really increase the chances of closing a deal, rather tell your customer about what they lose if they don’t get the product. The point is, before emphasising on how your product fills a gap in their life, focus a bit more on explaining the gap itself. This way, you will be able to create a need and will be able to capitalize on the opportunity you just created.
#4. Less is more
You may think that introducing a lot of options will help your customer to make better choice. However, it is not really true. It can get quite confusing to have too many options. And generally, a confused customer won’t really buy. Therefore, it is best to keep limited options for a product. Moreover, you should learn your prospect’s needs, wants, and preferences before getting to make the sale. As a result, you will already be able to narrow down the options vis-à-vis their requirements. This way, you will pitch only those options which provide most value to them. Hence, it will increase your chances of closing a sale.
#5. Exhibit your social proof
Apparently, consumers trust other consumer more than they trust the sales rep or marketers. This explains why social media marketing is so important. People generally go to social media when researching a business. It helps them see what others have to say about your business. Therefore, exhibiting your social proof helps strengthen your credibility. Hence, make sure to flaunt it when pitching your product. Now, you apparently can’t do so directly. So, find out subtle ways to do that. For example, you can post customer testimonials on your website. You can also use celebrity endorsements. Or encourage happy customers to write good reviews by offering them incentives to do so. These are some techniques that can help establish your credibility and improve sales.
#6. Don’t be predictable
Even when you read this post, your brain is still trying to predict the next words. This is just how our cerebrum works. Well, a little science and psychology comes really hand sometimes— just like in sales. So, whenever you’d be pitching your product to a prospect, their brain will attempt to predict what next. This is one of the things that make sales calls tedious for consumers. Therefore, you need to twist it a bit and keep from being predictable. Below are a few examples-
- The giraffe in the room
- Time flies but you don’t
- Kill two birds with a pellet
You will notice how I have twisted a word or two in common idioms. This is to give an example how you can play with your prospects psychological faculty by flipping the familiar. It’ll help you take a step from tedium and surprise your prospect. And as is the nature of unusual, it will leave and impression on their mind. So, try employing such techniques in your sales pitch script.
#7. Employ the left-digit strategy
You must already be aware of this one. You will find that instead of pricing a product $5,000 bucks, they’d price it $4,999 instead. Why? Because we read left to right. Hence, the first digit we read in this case will be 4 which is smaller than 5. This leaves an impression as if it is somehow cheaper while there is a difference of only one buck. Actually according to Hibbett who is the associate professor of marketing at Freed Hardeman University, our brain may not really try to process any digits after the first one that immediately follows the dollar sign.
But, there is a big chance you already know that. And since many businesses already employ this tactic—does it really even work? Yes, it does. Even if the consumer is aware about it, it can still work. This is because it has more of a sub-conscious effect. Moreover, since it is such a norm, now customers have come to expect it—especially when it comes to sale. As a result, this prices ending with 9 give consumers an impression that they are getting a good deal.
Conclusion
Just like psychology goes hand-in-hand with digital marketing, so does it with sales. As a salesperson, knowing how to appeal to your prospect’s psychological faculties is important. However, it is gradual process. But with the help of the tips above, you can get more of your sales efforts. And along with that, you get some valuable insights into psychology involved in sales. But remember, merely copy-pasting these tactics can’t really help. Understand, analyse, and then decide how you can get best of these tips.
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