How can you use the "bandwagon" technique to influence a client's decision-making process?

There are 3 fundamental concerns that clients raise : 1. Skepticism 2. Misunderstanding 3. Drawback When a customer expresses doubt that your product or organisation will do what you have said it would do you have encountered skepticism The way to handle this is to 1. It is useful to let the customer know that you understand and respect their concern 2. Make sure that the statement that you are making using bandwagon or the proof that you are offering is relevant- that it addresses the specific feature or benefit the customer is skeptical about 3. Check to make sure that the customer accepts the proof or statement that you are making. If the customer rejects probe to find out the reason

The bandwagon effect, in government sales, can be one of the most powerful techniques available to sales and marketing teams. It is a cognitive bias that takes full advantage of the herd mentality. In government sales the herd mentality overcomes both the risk averse nature of buyers and the typical lack of urgency in getting deals done. Government moves at the speed of government, which is never the speed of business. The benefits of leveraging the bandwagon effect allows sales and marketing to overcome the complexity and heterogeneity of the public sector bidding processes, as well as bureaucratic decision making delays and lack of coordination between agencies, all of which pose challenges for sales to meet forecasted business.

In government sales, simplicity is generally the best practice. The first step is to map your target accounts in the aggregate. For example if your plan is to get all 17,865 police departments to buy your product you need to understand, from top to bottom, who is involved in the decision making process. The best way to do truly understand this is to sit down with existing customers and ask them how they came to buy your product and why (the why is really important). If you are listening you will learn the language that your customers use to describe your product. That is the language you want to use to help create that connection between your product and the mass audience that is your future customer base.

In government sales using the bandwagon effect is about making the customer feel like they are not the first. Providing discounted services to your early adopters in exchange for word of mouth advocacy is one of the most powerful tools in gov sales. In the early entry phases one way to create personal connections between customers is to have your sales teams ask customers write 3 things they like about your product on the back of the customer business cards. Collect these, put them into a book, show them to every customer. When you have 20-50-100 of these they become an instantly powerful testimony to the broad acceptance of your product. Seeing what someone wrote in their own hand is, in and of itself, a demonstration of overcoming risk.

In government the goal of any company is to become the standard and standardization is a common practice in government circles. Talking standardization, in and of itself is not the bandwagon effect but it is the outcome of the effect. So using language that paints a picture of the future where organizations have standardized on your product accelerates the potential customers interest in becoming part of or contributing to that standardization. Connecting the future to the present by demonstrating who is using your product today is like a security blanket for your customers to champion procurement. They see adoption, they see peers using your products and they see a future that includes your product. An all around win.