I’ve read a lot about sales and their techniques, but I always end up noticing that some successful cases in the market carry some secret with them.
Do you know when you catch your eye and see that strategy is not matching what you studied so much?
So I decided to research in more detail some techniques that are not commented on, but that are used by big names in the market and have proven to be extremely efficient.
Losses from not buying
Imagine that I have a dollar coin in my hands and we are betting heads or tails. If when turning the currency fall guy you lose 100 reais , how much you need to earn on the side * crown * to accept part of the game?
Studies show that to accept this game, the minimum that a participant would accept is 200 reais, at least twice the risk of losing.
This is a principle of psychology called ” loss aversion “, the idea that ** the pain of loss is twice as strong as the pleasure of winning **. In a simpler way, ** we are twice as inclined to take action to avoid losses than to gain some benefit. **
Leaving psychology and going back to the sales universe, remember how most companies demonstrate their advantages to their prospects. Manoel, a seller of human resources management software, would say to his client during a negotiation:
“I guarantee you will save up to 100 thousand reais in one year”
Of course, there is a certain appeal to this argument, the prospect of saving money is always interesting. However, if we take into account studies on loss aversion, it is even more striking to rephrase the argument as follows, showing how much it would lose:
“Without my product and the improvements in the process it brings, you will lose 100 thousand reais next year”
And it is necessary to make it clear here that there is no lie, to stop saving in a process actually means to lose money . The difference is in the way we present this information to our customers and make the offer more attractive.
Increase the price to improve the perception of value
There is a common mistake in the market: entering the competition and fighting to define who offers more features at a lower price.
However, this idea that lower prices bring more customers most of the time has the opposite effect. Because it has lower prices, the perception of value that the market assumes in relation to your product, is that it is worse or of inferior quality.
However, the very relationship that we see happening in the market and that some studies end up suggesting is that the price directly affects the perception of value that customers identify in the product. To understand how serious this perception is, research at Stanford University shows that patients believe that cheaper drugs are less effective. And another Harvard Business Review article explains: ** customer value perception is as important as price. **
Clothing brands work hard on this concept, forcing the impression of value that customers have of the product going beyond the price-quality ratio. We could also justify that a large part of the fashion market transfers the strength of its brands by increasing the price of products, which would be true if most of them had not already reached the market with this pricing strategy.
Other products are also known for applying this strategy, differentiating themselves from the competition, not for presenting a more competitive price, but for demonstrating superiority by increasing prices in relation to competitors.
Apple with its line of cell phones and computers follows this model to the letter. Their products tend to reach a higher price range, not so much above direct competitors, but always treating their pricing as a quality differential. Customers easily buy this notion of better quality in relation to the higher price.
The iPhone X and Galaxy S9 are, for example, devices of the same competitive category in terms of technical specifications and market reach, however the Apple smartphone costs at least R $ 1,200 more than the competitor. It is clear that Apple customers consider the quality of their iPhones to be different from the competitor.
Present your weaknesses as advantages
Every business has its negative aspects, weaknesses in relation to its competitors that can leave loopholes during negotiations.
These negative points are not always technical or lack of functionality, sometimes they are fundamental characteristics when the company matures. A company launching to the market, for example, often does not have many customers, and for the market this can be perceived as a negative point that denounces a low adhesion.
The best thing to do in these cases is to try to reformulate each of the negative points of the product raised based on the experience of customer inquiries and the sales history of your CRM.
Right now that old SWOT matrix that we learned in college and rarely apply can help to identify the points that need this treatment.
In the end, what will be needed is a good game of argument and sales strategy to present what was previously bad as something positive.
Still in the example of having few customers, which before would be a difficulty to justify: “I still have few customers but our base is growing” *, * ends up becoming an advantage for the prospect:
“By adopting a new solution on the market and with so many differences, you will certainly be one step ahead of your competitors.”
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These are just three of the many techniques that we can hardly find concrete information on how to execute, but when applied accurately and with the necessary tests, they can greatly influence how the customer interacts during a negotiation and the results in billing.
