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feature Neuroscience

Brain-friendly
selling Simon Hazeldine explains how neuroscience can power your sales success

I
n the challenging commercial
environment that has become the
new norm, sales professionals need
an edge and the latest
neuroscience research provides it.
The future of your sales success (and indeed
the future of selling) lies within the most
complex structure in the known universe the
human brain and a grasp of the concept of
brain-friendly selling will make the whole
process easier for everyone involved.
Understanding of the brain is growing
rapidly, with the vast majority of major
discoveries about the brain being made in the
last 10 to 15 years. More research has been
conducted and published on the brain in this
period than in the whole of human history. As
a result of such research, we are starting to get
a deeper understanding of how the brain
functions when it is making decisions.
This is an area of great interest to sales
professionals. Our job is to influence people
and persuade them to make decisions and take
action. The better able we are to understand
how the brain functions when making
decisions to take action, the better able we are
to understand how to tailor our sales
approach, messages and behaviour to achieve
the results we want for our customers and ourselves.
We may think that our clients and prospective
The vast majority of human thinking
customers are intelligent, rational individuals, who make
well-considered and logical decisions, but neuroscience
(including decision-making) takes
research sheds new light onto how people actually make
decisions and the truth may shock you.
place unconsciously
The vast majority of human thinking (including The sub-cortical reptilian brain
decision-making) takes place unconsciously. As In evolutionary terms, this is the oldest part of the brain.
journalist Marianne Szegedy-Maszak explains, It connects the brain with the spinal column and all
According to cognitive neuroscientists, we are sensory nerves travel through it.
conscious of only about 5% of our cognitive activity, so This primitive part of the brain is primarily concerned
most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behaviour with wellbeing and survival. At first contact with a
depend on the 95% of brain activity that takes place stranger, for example, (such as an initial meeting with a
beyond our conscious awareness. sales professional such as yourself) it will instantly
In addition, emotions are an integral part of peoples conduct a threat response and decide if you are friend or
decision-making process. Emotion and reason are foe. It prioritises survival first (the avoidance of pain and
intertwined and influenced by each other. The emotional danger) and then achieving comfort so it will respond
centre of the brain is one of its oldest parts, in terms of to pain avoidance first.
evolution, and it exerts the primary influence on our It should be recognised that this is a mechanical and
customers thinking and decision-making processes. unconscious part of our brain.
The emotional brain
Your customers three brains This is comprised of the limbic system and is also
In fact, your customer does not have one brain they referred to as the mid-brain. While this part of the brain
have three brains. (See Figure 1 on the opposite page). is also unconscious in function it has a profound effect

38 | Winning Edge
on us because it links the brain stem that we can arouse the limbic
with the higher reasoning functions of Figure 1 emotional brain in a way that
the rational brain (see below), and feeds supports our selling rather than
information to it. handicaps it.
You may at this stage be wondering
what this part of the brain has to do Stay away and
with selling. The answer is a great deal! towards reward
The limbic system can become easily A fundamental organising and
aroused and can dominate and control operating principle of your brain
the thinking of your customer. It exerts Figure 2 that drives your customers
a huge influence over your customers thinking, behaviour and action is to
behaviour and decision-making. avoid and move away from anything
For example, if initial contact with a that is perceived to be painful,
salesperson stresses the reptilian and dangerous or threatening, and to
emotional brain the gatekeeper the move towards anything that is
automatic fight/flight/freeze response pleasurable, comforting or
is stimulated. This can happen in a rewarding.
fraction of a second. Part of this process includes At its core, this is a hardwired survival instinct of the
shutting out all other message receptors, which means human brain. It has played a vital role in our evolution
your opportunity to communicate is severely limited. and although it may not always be as practically useful in
Your first and most important task when meeting a our safe, modern world it is still driving our behaviour
new prospect for the first time, therefore, is to appear and that of our customers. As Dr Evian Gordon, author
non-threatening to the more primitive parts of their of Integrative Neuroscience, says, Everything you do in
brain. If the primitive part of their brain feels life is based on your brains determination to minimise
unconsciously uncomfortable then you have a mountain danger or maximise reward. Minimise danger, maximise
to climb to be able to successfully sell them anything. If reward is the organising principle of the brain.
you get this part of their brain to feel comfortable then Although the stay away and the towards reward drives
they will become receptive to you and your message. are active all the time in the human brain, it is the stay
Here are some things that you can do to help your away drive that is stronger and faster. At a conscious
customers primitive brain regions to feel safe rather and, particularly, unconscious level the customers brain
than threatened, helping it to calm down and begin to will be constantly asking stay away from pain and
feel comfortable: towards reward questions such as:
l Use open, relaxed body language. This helps to Does this: ease my pain; solve my problems; ease my
communicate a non-threatening manner to the frustrations; reduce my stress; keep my job safe; get my
customers primitive brain boss off my back; stop me getting sacked/looking
l Make sure your torso is facing towards them. When we stupid/incompetent/incapable?
like someone we tend to turn towards them. People will Does this: bring me pleasure; make me look good; get
perceive us as being more open and honest when they me approval; buy me some time; make me more money;
can see our torso help me to achieve results/a wise decision/to be
l Flash your eyebrows at the customer when you first positively recognised/achieve my targets/bonus/
make eye contact. This is a universal body language promotion?
signal where you raise your eyebrows for about a sixth of When you are asking questions of your customers in
a second when we are about to make social contact with order to understand their needs, make sure that you
someone. This gesture communicates that you are uncover the problems and pain they are experiencing. If
feeling positive about meeting the person you can show their brains how to move away from these
l Keep your voice modulation and tone calm, and keep threats then they will be interested. Additionally, if you
your voice speed controlled and gentle. Your voice can show them how your product or service will bring
mirrors your emotional state, so your voice needs to them towards reward then they will be even more
communicate a calm and non-threatening emotional interested. (See Figure 2 above).
state to your customer Take a close look at your sales proposals and
l Mirror the handshake pressure of the other person. As presentations. Do they incorporate and harness these
a default, make your handshake reasonably firm, but not powerful motivating forces? Do you show your
too strong customers brain how it can stay away from potential
l Dont invade the customers personal space once pain and move towards reward? When you do, all three
you shake hands step slightly backwards and to the side. parts of your customers brain are neurologically wired
to say yes to your proposal.
The rational brain
This is comprised of the cortex and the neo-cortex and
can be referred to as the new brain. This part of the Contributors Simon Hazeldine is a
brain processes information received from the senses Fellow of the ISMM and an international speaker,
and regulates cognitive functions such as thinking, consultant, corporate trainer and best-selling
speaking, learning, remembering and making decisions. author. His fifth book Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience
Can Power Your Sales Success, which explains his
As the majority of cognition, including decision-making, Brain Friendly Selling process in detail, is now
is unconscious, to sell effectively we must make sure available, published by Kogan Page.
that we and our sales messages are brain friendly, so Contact him at: simon@simonhazeldine.com

Winning Edge | 39

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