Different societies and cultures have different attitudes towards salespeople. The vast majority of salesmen and women in this country are intelligent, highly motivated individuals that use their skills to provide a good product or service, and provide an income to support their family. Since the service sector represents the UK’s biggest industry, it could be said we are a nation of salespeople.

Yet why do some people have a negative and suspicious view of the salesperson – the typical ‘double glazing’ or ‘second hand car’ type. The media doesn’t help; we are constantly reminded that some or these scoundrels rely on persuasion and influence to charm and befuddle the customer into buying their ‘snake oil’.

Here’s an example of some psychological tactics employed which some might find distasteful, or perhaps clever:

The social proof model is a way of showing that something must be good, because others have demonstrated its value. Examples:

• Advertising a product as ‘biggest seller’ or ‘fastest seller’
• Charities listing the ‘large number’ of people already donating
• Club owners orchestrating large queues of people ‘waiting’ to enter
• Salesmen telling ‘stories’ of numerous customers who have already purchased the product
• Bartenders who put higher denomination coins into their ‘tip jar’
• Producers ‘overlaying’ live laughter recording onto their TV shows
• Product ‘placement’ in film and TV

If you want to become the best in sales, and want to have a long term relationship with your client base, look for a good communication and sales training provider.

As discussed in the article ‘Sales – The power of pen to paper’, we explored how the salesperson’s psychological commitment to achieving a goal improves when they write it down.

As those of you who have undertaken some sales training will know, a similar approach can be taken to obtain a customer commitment to an order, even if it’s not ‘in the bag yet’.

Direct selling and ‘hard sell’ companies used to employ skilled negotiators to visit clients door to door, who weren’t expected to leave the client’s property without an order in their pocket.

Due to later changes in legislations, clients were then entitled to ‘cooling off periods’ which initially results in a spate of cancelled orders, much to the frustration of the commission based salesperson.

The companies then adopted a simple approach which drastically cut the risk of a cancelled order; they had the customer fill in the sales agreement or contract, rather than having the salesman fill it in to have it signed.

This simple act had a strong psychological effect on the client, because they filled out the form or agreement, they felt a lot more commitment to going through with the sale. They were still entitled to the cooling off period, but by putting pen to paper themselves, were much less likely to cancel the order.

As a salesperson or sales manager, think of ways in which you can get a new client to write down their needs or requirements on your paperwork, either during a quotation stage, pre-order or contract. Get them to associate you with meeting their solutions which they have written down.

The past three or four decades of psychological research in the study of human behaviour have created a vast number of hypotheses which can be useful to the salesperson.

If you are a salesperson who has invested in a sales training course, you may have come across the power of positive thinking and making a decisive commitment to take action. These are basic principles which have been and continue to be consistently explored by business and personal development gurus across the globe.

Here’s a simple example of how this can work. We may have heard of the following expressions: ‘What you see is what you seek’ or ‘Perception is projection’. This is built on the fundamental principle that if we identify a vision or belief structure, we will subconsciously set about to find it, or meet it.

If you’re a sales manager, get your sales team to individually write down on a piece of paper their own sales goals for the day, week or the month. Encourage them to position it so it is in view of them (perhaps permanently placed on the desk, or taped to their monitor). If they set their own goals, write them down, and display them they are much more likely to achieve them than if they have come about through a verbal discussion in their supervisor’s office.

In the competitive environment we face in the current economic climate, retention of the existing customer client base is paramount. However, many organisations are finding that orders are getting smaller as clients are feeling the pinch of the credit crunch.

There has never been a better time to be proactive and try and get some new customers. There are many strategies that a salesperson can adopt to try and get new business, some of which they may discover when undertaking sales training courses. This may involve a range of indirect and direct marketing and sales approaches, aiming to try and promote the organisation and its products.

Studies of sales psychology have suggested that one way of ‘getting the foot in the door’ is to start small and try and gain an initial commitment from a new customer. A good strategy for a salesperson to try and obtain a large order is to start with a small one. Almost anything will do, for the goal of the first order is not to gain profit, but to establish a level of psychological commitment.

Identify a product or service which you can approach and offer directly or indirectly. Once you can persuade a new client to comply, it provides a much stronger platform for building a future relationship. In some cases, it may not even involve selling a product. If you’re a service based company, with under used manpower, consider offering a free no obligation consultancy service to new clients.

Many organisations, particularly in forward thinking countries, are increasingly looking at the personal development of their staff in terms of their mental and physical health. They realise that if they invest time, money and resources in programmes to improve their employee’s mental and physical fitness, the benefits will be reciprocal and come back to them in terms of productivity.

We have an odd relationship with the mental and physical health in Britain. Our psychological framework and social conditioning through the centuries have left us slightly cynical about investing in our mind and body. We have a ‘stiff upper lip’ and a ‘grin and bear it’ attitude to dealing with stress. Under no circumstances do we ever talk about mental health.

Eastern practices of workplace Tai Chi (or Chi Kung) have been utilised for decades, to improve the health, well-being and productivity of employees. This is an area of growth in the West now, and many companies are offering services to UK business and organisations.

The United States of America have some of the leading business and personal development gurus in the world. This multi million dollar industry has spawned greats such as Steven Covey (best known for his publication ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), Anthony Robbins (e.g. ‘Awaken the Giant Within’) and more recently, Brian Tracy (e.g. The Success Mastery Academy). These people are great examples of the practical use of psychology to improve or professional and personal lives.