Influence in sales, learning from the young and ambitious

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.