Last week I was a member of a jury selecting the
salesperson of the year in an exhibition for Young Entrepreneurs, Junior Achievement
(Ung Företagsamhet in Swedish).
First, the jury visited the exhibition stand incogninto,
asking about their products and observing their sales pitches. In the
exhibition the entrepreneurs need to make quick contact, build fast relations
and go for the sale in just a couple of minutes. While competing with 180 other
stands!
After a few rounds on the exhibition floor, the jury picked
four finalists to make a sales pitch in the jury room about a product that had
been presented to the sales persons just
10 minutes earlier.
We were utterly impressed by these young entrepreneurs’
drive and creativity!
Listening to the sales pitches, I was reflecting to Cialdini’s
six principles of influence: reciprocation, commitment & consistency, social
proof, liking, authority and scarcity.
The winner came into the jury room with a smile on her face,
directly showing different ways of using the product she was pitching (a flat
plastic sports bottle). She told how the product was popular among sporty
people (social proof). She was willing to give a special price and then asked
the buyer in return to recommend the product to thier customers (reciprocation).
She smiled, nodded and asked interested about the buyers needs and
expectations, ending the sales pitch with the question: ”Do you feel okay?”(liking).
The winning sales person ended up with a deal with the buyer
(a jury member and a ”hard core” sales person himself): a larger order than he
had in mind, 10% more expensive than the first asking price, and the buyer
promised to recommend to product to their customers (commitment &
consistency)!
We the jury were blown away! And the buyer/jury member never
even saw what hit him! Well done!
I don’t think that the young entrepreneurs even understood
that they were using Cialdind’s weapons of influence, some people are just
natural talents.
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