Tag Archives: neuroscience

How Do You Create a Positive Environment?

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I like spending time with my friends; I enjoy the camaraderie and the conversations we have. I like that we challenge each others’ points-of-view and still find time to laugh and joke with each other at the end of the day.

I’m guessing that you’re that way with your friends too. You have a great time when you’re with them; you banter back and forth with a free flow of intriguing information. It’s usually a very causal, non-threatening environment and you simply enjoy being around them.

If you’ve been in the field of sales for any length of time, you’re sure to have heard the phrase, “people buy from people they like.” My proposition is this, how do you create a similar type of atmosphere with all of those new prospects and customers as you’ve created with all of your friends? Turns out, the answer may be closer than you think.

In a recent New York Times article, “You Remind Me of Me,”[i] author Benedict Carey notes that psychologists have been studying the art of persuasion for nearly a century. During that time, they have found that “immediate social bonding between strangers is highly dependent on mimicry, a synchronized and usually unconscious give and take of words and gestures that creates a current of good will between two people.”

The article discusses a study where psychologists at Duke tried to identify how mimicking someone’s behavior might impact their decision on whether or not to buy your product.

During a taste test for a proposed sports drink, subjects were interviewed about the new product. Psychologists observed that mimicking or mirroring the interviewees’ posture and movements with a slight delay made subjects more likely to consume the new drink, purchase it, and predict its success in the market. This was further reinforced even when the person being interviewed knew that the interviewer had a stake in the drink and its success.

Mirroring is something that occurs naturally in communication with people who are in rapport with one another. You quickly fall into mirroring when you’re with friends or acquaintances. However, when meeting with folks that you’re unfamiliar with, such as clients or new prospects, it often feels as if there’s an invisible wall or barrier that has to be broken.

The New York Times article also quotes Jean Decety, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, who states that “when you’re being mimicked in a good way, it communicates a kind of pleasure, a social high you’re getting from the other person.” By subtly mimicking or mirroring your prospects’ posture and body movements, you can create an environment where they begin to feel comfortable. You create a warm and convincing environment where those invisible, protective barriers begin to come down, ‘good will’ gets extended and a free flow of information can take place.

Great communicators and salespeople have long recognized this and are masterful at creating this rapport within relationships. Whether it’s picking up on the tone of the conversation, the words that are used or the physical cues that are given – they’re able to respond without thinking about it.

A word of caution: social mimicking or mirroring can and does go wrong. If your mirroring is ‘immediate and precise,’ people quickly pick up on it and you’ll lose rapport, credibility and likely the sale. The intent of mirroring is not to manipulate your customers for personal gain, but to quickly create an environment of trust, so you can build the win-win relationship you need for your customer to ultimately buy from someone they like…YOU!!

By Mike Miller, Consultant, Corporate Visions Inc.

[i] Carey, Benedict, “You Remind Me of Me,” New York Times, February 12, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12mimic.html

Anticipatory Emotions

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Coke or Pepsi?  It’s an age old question, and now, in a world that’s run amuck with choices, it never seems to stop:  GM or Ford, Honda or Toyota, Nike or Reebok, tea or coffee, your company or your competitors?  We are all faced with so many choices everyday that it’s a wonder we are able to get anything accomplished.

Now, imagine having the ability to look into your brain and understand why you make the choices you do. Even better – imagine having the ability to understand why your customers make the choices they do and understand how to influence those choices before the purchasing decision is made!

The emerging world of neuroscience and its somewhat controversial application to the world of marketing (neuromarketing – marketing to your mind) offers some fascinating insights.

Through his research, Stanford neuroscientist Brian Knutson has zeroed in on some primitive aspects of decision making.  As he states, “We come equipped to assess potentially good things and potentially bad things…”  Knutson calls this ability “anticipatory emotions.”  He believes, “…that these anticipatory emotions – the intuitive or more emotional regions of your brain are already priming the decision making process…and foreshadowing outcomes…well in advance of when your cognitive areas are brought in to evaluate options….”

It’s one of the challenges you face every time you go on a sales call or presentation.  The anticipatory emotions that your customers experience when accepting a sales meeting appointment run the gamut from:  this is going to be a waste of time (#1 fear of executives); they’re going to pressure me into making a commitment that I don’t want to make; it’s not going to be informative; they are going to bore me, and so on.  Have you ever received that last minute call canceling your meeting because “something urgent just came up!”?

The anticipatory emotions of your customers, the ones that are already priming your customer’s decision making process and foreshadowing outcomes well before you even walk through the door, are often times anticipating the worst outcome.  So, when you start the meeting by turning down the lights and firing-up your laptop (or sitting across the table from your customer and pulling out a color copy of your slide deck) so that you can talk about yourself and your company for the next 60 minutes, you have just validated their worst fear and expectations.

What if you were able to grab your customer’s attention right out of the gate?
What if your customers were on the edge of their seats, riveted by your message?
Imagine creating a different type of anticipation – the desire to listen to how you can help their company?

Do something different! Change your audience’s expectations!

Use ‘What If’ questions to highlight how you’ll solve their problems using a solution that only you can uniquely provide.  Create positive anticipation in their mind.

Use ‘Mini-Dramas’ to help them visualize the challenges they are faced with.  Through the use of ‘Mini-Dramas,’ you will also show them that you listened during discovery; you heard their pains and challenges. Doing this will create some positive anticipation for them to see how they can do it different.

Illustrate your uniqueness and differentiation through compelling ‘Word Plays’ and ‘Number Plays’ that are relevant to your customer, creating excitement and anticipation with what they’ll be able to accomplish with you.

Use ‘Grabbers’ to create positive anticipation in your customer’s minds. You’ll not only change their emotional state around your sales call, but also their expectations around you, your company and the solution you can provide.

-Mike Miller, Corporate Visions’ Consultant

No One Ever Got Fired for Buying IBM

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“No one ever got fired for buying IBM.” This phrase is often called the most powerful marketing phrase ever created.  In the 1980s, if you had to decide what computer hardware to buy for your company, these words rang through your head.  It made your buying decision pretty easy.  And, if you were a competitor to IBM, that same sentence made your job nearly impossible.  Your product could be superior in every way – features, price, warranty, etc – and you still couldn’t beat IBM.  What is it about the idea that ‘no one ever got fired for buying IBM’ that made it so powerful?  Is there a lesson there that can be applied to anyone doing sales messaging?  The science of neuromarketing provides answers to these questions.

What motivates people to buy?

Let’s look at the example of Kevin, a highly trained engineer in a company comprised of engineers.  He has the reserved personality that you expect from someone who chooses engineering as a career.  If you ask Kevin, or his peers, how they make buying decisions, they’ll tell you that they are rational and logical in their approach.  In fact, they can sometimes seem so focused and unemotional that you might wonder if any of the decision is based on emotion.  At the moment, Kevin is involved in a project that requires him to bring together subcomponents from a number of different vendors to make his product.  He was meeting with a vendor recently who wanted to be the supplier for one of the subcomponents.  Kevin listened patiently to the salesperson, but for most of the presentation, Kevin was focused on the fact that he already had a vendor who could provide this subcomponent.  For Kevin to change to this new vendor would be a painful transition.  He’d have to write new specifications, get the new vendor through his contracts department, etc. Then, at the end of the presentation everything changed for Kevin.  The sales person got to his last slide and said, “Look, I don’t want to make you feel like I’m pushing you, but you should know that I’m already providing these components to several of your competitors.”  On his last slide, he had a list of all of the companies Kevin needed to compete with.  Suddenly, Kevin was focused on the fact that his competitors were using this supplier; if he didn’t, then his competitors would start with a lower product cost than him.  Since he charged a premium for his product because of the built-in service, he would end up going to market with a price point so high that he would never win any business.  Needless to say, Kevin ended up buying those subcomponents from this new vendor after all.

Now, notice what happened to Kevin.  He started off the presentation focused on the pain he would experience if he switched from using his current vendor to using this new one.  In fact, he went into the presentation with no intention of switching vendors. Through the beginning and middle of the presentation, Kevin’s mind never changed, even though the vendor was telling Kevin all of the great things he’d get by using this vendor’s solution. Then, on the very last slide, the vendor showed Kevin that, if he didn’t change his strategy, he would put himself in a bad market position because of what Kevin’s competition was already doing.  Suddenly, Kevin wasn’t focused on the pain he would experience by making a change in vendors; instead, he was focused on the bigger pain he would experience by going to market with an overpriced solution.  It was emotion that caused Kevin to change his mind about what this vendor was offering, not pure, rational thought.  And it was a particular emotion – PAIN – that caused Kevin to change his mind.  Through most of the meeting, the vendor tried to sell Kevin on the benefits of his solution, but that wasn’t working.  It was ONLY when the vendor made Kevin aware of the pain he would experience by staying with his original plans that Kevin realized he had to move forward with this new vendor.  Now this vendor has Kevin’s business.  So, is Kevin typical in the way he makes decisions?

A recent study illustrates just how important it is to frame a customer’s current situation as a negative, just like Kevin’s vendor did in that last slide.  People are much more motivated to move away from a painful situation than they are motivated to move towards a positive situation.  As reported in Science Magazine, in an article titled ‘Frames, Biases and Rational Decision-Making in the Human Brain’, emotion is an important part of all decision-making and people are more likely to move away from something framed as a negative.

The study presented people with a choice, but the choice was framed in two different ways.  The choice was to keep the $100* they were given or risk that $100 by gambling it.  If they gambled, the participants would automatically lose some of the money.  If they did not gamble, they would lose the exact same amount of money. The fascinating thing is that whether or not the participants chose to gamble depended on how the question was framed.  When the participants were told that they would keep 40% of the money if they did not gamble, only 43% chose to gamble with their money.  When the participants were told that they would lose 60% of their money if they didn’t choose to gamble, 62% of the participants decided to gamble with their money.  What is fascinating about this study is that the math produces exactly the same result for the participant, regardless of which way the question is framed.  Yet, framing the decision as LOSING 60% of their money motivated more people to gamble than framing the decision as KEEPING 40% of their money.

The participants’ brains were scanned as they were making these decisions.  The scans revealed that the amygdala (the part of brain thought to control emotion and ‘fight or flight’ reaction) was active throughout all participants, regardless of whether they behaved rationally or irrationally. This finding suggested that everyone experiences an emotional reaction when faced with such choices.

What is even more intriguing is that the study asked the same people both questions!  In other words, the same people switched their answers simply because of the phrasing.  When the participants were asked about why they switched, they said that they recognized it was really the same question, only phrased differently, but they couldn’t stop themselves from changing their answer.

Now, you can see why the phrase ‘No one ever got fired buy IBM’ is so powerful. [By the way, this phrase wasn't said by IBM employees; it was said by their customers.] What does this mean to your sales messaging?  If you want to get customers to make a decision to buy your product, you can’t just make a rational argument, and you can’t just talk about the benefits of your solution.  Instead, you have to help your customer see the pain associated with doing nothing.  The more vivid you can make that pain, the more motivated they will be to ‘gamble’ on your product so that they can move away from that pain.  One of the best ways to make this emotional connection is through a ‘Customer Story with Contrast.’  Share a customer story with your prospect and emphasize all of the pains that customer faced (financial, business and personal pains).  Don’t just give the customer data points; instead, talk about the financial, business and personal pains that customer was experiencing before moving to your solution.  The story you are sharing should be closely related to the experience your prospect is living today.  Then, tell your prospect how your solution solved your customer’s financial, business and personal pains.  It is that focus on the pain that is so effective and powerful.  When you do that, your customer will be motivated to fix their problems with your solution.

* The study was done using UK pounds, which is about $100 U.S.

by Erik Peterson, Corporate Visions’ Consultant

 

Buying Criteria: Fact, Fiction, or Feelings?

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What creates your customers’ buying criteria?

Before we begin, let’s start with a definition of Neuromarketing as defined by Wikipedia: Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brain’s responses to marketing stimuli. Researchers use the fMRI to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain and to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do it.

I have a great friend that I have known for the past twenty-three years.  He loves anything with a motor in it.  If there is a NASCAR race that he is unable to watch live, he will record it, and while he is away from his television, turn off all media (newspaper, radio, etc.) so that he does not hear the race results until he is able to watch the replay.

Over the years, I have seen my friend purchase Chevrolet trucks, Cadillacs, a Corvette and many other vehicles; however, always from the General Motors family of cars.  My friend recently purchased a new Cadillac.  Fred is careful about spending money.  He always attempts to get the most for every dollar. With months of research and analysis, Fred found his Cadillac and got a great price.  Recently, I asked Fred if he had considered any other brand of car.  He had not.  I then asked him if he ever owned any vehicle other than General Motors.  After some thought Fred said, “I owned a Mercury once. It had the best ride of any car I have ever owned.” Now, I was puzzled.  Knowing that Fred is highly analytical and always looking for the best value, I asked him, “When you purchased your last vehicle, did you look at anything other than GM cars?”  When he indicated that he had not, I asked him why.  Fred quickly responded, “I guess I am a GM man; always have been, always will.  I guess it is in my blood”.

I found this discovery perplexing knowing that my friend is an individual that is always looking for the best value and is cautious about his purchases.  Why wouldn’t Fred look at Ford, Chrysler or all of the other options available today?  Is Fred typical of most buyers?  Don’t we all buy the best product for our needs, at the best price?  I decided it was time to do some research.

I found a study that was conducted by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine assessing consumer preferences regarding soft drinks.  Think about it – do you drink Coke* or Pepsi*?  If you are like many of us, you probably have a strong preference of one over the other.  Surely you could pick out your brand in a taste test!  But, are you sure?

These two brands were specifically selected in the Baylor study because, “Coca-Cola* (Coke*) and Pepsi* are nearly identical in chemical composition, yet human beings often display strong subjective preferences for one or the other.”

When the subjects received an “anonymous delivery of Coke and Pepsi”, it was often a toss-up regarding which brand was preferred.  Without knowing which brand they were drinking, results were nearly fifty-fifty.  However, when the brand of the product was introduced in the experiment, researches found an interesting observation:  those that had selected Pepsi without awareness of brand, when brand was introduced, now nearly 75% preferred Coke.  The study concluded that “there might be parallel mechanisms in the brain cooperating to bias preference.”  The Baylor study also concluded that “in the brand-cued experiment, brand knowledge for one of the drinks had a dramatic influence on the measured brain response.” Simply put, brand awareness significantly changed the results of the “preferred selection.”

In addition to brand preference, these researchers made another interesting discovery.  This study was conducted implementing new FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) techniques to study how and where the brain is stimulated in decision making.  The FMRI imaging technology was able to observe and capture brain activity throughout the test.  In comparing the anonymous test, the researchers “noticed that the neural activity changed once the subject was aware of which sample was which brand.”  When made aware of one product brand, “the medial prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain that controls higher functions – lit up like a Christmas tree. The brand itself was trumping the quality of the product.” Brand awareness accessed a different part of the brain resulting in a significant difference in choice.

How could these results be so different?  Why would participant responses change once they became aware of the brand they were tasting?  Did the brand or the past “experience” with the brand, affect their decision preference?   Was something associated with the brand of the product that affected selection of the best product?  Was there more to my friend being a “GM man” than just the engine, the brakes, and all of component of a General Motors vehicle?

I began to think back through my 27-years of sales experience.  I have always thought I did a good job of representing my products.  I knew them inside and out.  I memorized features, benefits, my competition, and understood my customer’s environment.  I began to wonder if past selling experiences were more complex than I had previously thought.  Could I have lost sales during the dot.com era, when I represented a great technological tool with little or no brand recognition?  Then, an even more subtle thought struck me.  When I sold for a huge international computer company and never missed quota, might it have had more to do with the powerful brand I represented than the selling abilities I thought I had developed?  Humbling thoughts!  I concluded that in many of my efforts, the sale had literally begun before I made my first contact.

What if you were able to go into every sale and correctly assess the perception or impact of your brand?  What if once you were able to establish rapport, you could use your discovery skills to determine your individual customer reaction to your brand (positive or negative)?  How much more effective could you be if you found out this information early in the sales cycle?  How would this information change your selling strategy?  Just knowing that this information is critical to investigate early is a positive start.  I immediately determined that with each new customer contact, I would attempt to seek as much information regarding these questions as possible.

All of this research is starting to wear on me.  I certainly am thirsty.  To keep my analysis and thought process simple, I think I will have an iced tea!  Good luck and good selling!

By Steve Hub, Consultant, Corporate Visions Inc.

Resources:
1.  Neural Correlates of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks, Neuron, Vol 44, 379-387, October 14, 2004, copyright 2004 Cell Press.
2. Media Maze Neuromarketing: Part 1, Jim Meskauskas, Imedia Connection, Published July 13, 2005,  link:  http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/6317.asp