How Cognitive Dissonance Can Empower Your Sales

How Cognitive Dissonance Can Empower Your Sales

Decision-making plays a massive role in sales.  It’s not just about the decisions your customer makes, either.  The decisions you make as a salesperson are just as important and maybe even more so.

One decision you’ll find yourself making is how personally involved you are going to be with your customers.  Some salespeople are in it just for what they can get out of it, kind of like some people are in relationships.  Sure, you can be one of “those” salespeople who thrive on finding a sucker and bleeding him dry. 

Or, you can take the high road.  You can establish a genuine relationship with your customer and have a win-win game plan.  In the course of the sale - you get the commission from the sale...he gets the awesome product.  And, best of all, if you play your cards right...you both walk away as better people. 

How to Create Deeper Relationships

Whether it’s with your colleagues, friends, loved ones, or with a customer, there are some key factors in creating more fruitful relationships. 

Recapping on some methods mentioned in previous articles are:

1.     Mindfulness.  Mindfulness is being aware of all levels at all times.  Needless to say, if you are sitting across from your client and start daydreaming while he’s telling you about his family, you’re distraction certainly isn’t conducive to getting a sale. 

Soaking up what your customer is saying, listening,  and being in touch with how he is feeling will help you set the stage to hook him by your pitch and closing.  It will help you influence his decision-making too. Mindfulness is more than practicing good manners and trying to get a sale. It also promotes good character qualities within yourself. 

You’ll find mindfulness is becoming a hot topic these days.  Entire office rooms are devoted to the technique as well as phone apps, websites, books, and workshops.

2.     Empathy.  Empathy is another sales tool that is imperative yet simple.  Empathy is the ability to feel the experiences of another person or to understand where they’re coming from.  To practice empathy, you first need to have an interest in that person. You’ll never be able to be empathetic if you are centering only on yourself.

As your customer senses your empathy, he will share more information and emotions with you.  Those are things that can elevate your sales. The more you know about him, the more you can help him by offering solutions your product can offer.

Perhaps your customer is going through a nasty divorce.  He vaguely mentions the fact. When you show empathy, however, he begins to open up more.  He senses that you genuinely care and, therefore, releases some pent up emotions. Maybe he even chokes up. 

Not only do you connect with him as a human being, but you are also able to get hints as far as nudging, how to influence his decision-making, and other essential things.  You’ll know not to mention how much his wife will love the product and may go so far as to imply it might help his newfound bachelorhood to drive that red sports car around, or wear the fashion-forward suit. 

Through empathy, you have gained trust and respect from your customers and knowledge too.  Chances are, he’ll want to return the favor by buying from you if you make the offer attractive enough.  How do you do that? Apply the knowledge you’ve gained, and you’ll be set.

 Cognitive Dissonance

By Wikipedia definition, cognitive dissonance is the name for the mental discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory values, beliefs, or behaviors.  It is triggered when there’s a situation that causes a clash of beliefs when the person perceives new evidence. 

For instance, a rich and famous Spanish movie star named Maria traveled to Haiti to visit some destitute, underserved children in an orphanage there.  Although the gesture appeared to be a noble humanitarian act of kindness, everyone who knew Maria knew the trip was only done for publicity’s sake. Deep down, she felt poor people were a nuisance and had stated such to some close friends before making the trip.  She was even to make jokes about the less fortunate.

When she stepped off her luxurious private plane into the reality of the orphan’s sad world, she was overcome with cognitive dissonance. Upon meeting the children, her heart was aching for them.  Her previous thoughts on poverty and the belittling jokes and comments she had made were now in conflict with the cognitive reality she was experiencing.

Perhaps an even better example is the petroleum protesters who showed up in droves to block oil tankers.  Ironically, they were riding in boats made with...petroleum. The same scenario is true of those who drive miles in gasoline-propelled vehicles to protest air pollution.  A little hypocritical? Cognitive dissonance is the politically correct word for it.

History of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Leon Festinger was the first to put a name on the concept.  It happened in 1957 after he had witnessed how a cult desperately tried to make excuses for a failed prediction that the world was coming to an end by a certain date.  When the day came and went without incident, the members said it was because they had prayed if from taking place. 

The way the cult responded spurred Festinger to think of how humans, in general, have trouble when there’s an inconsistency between their behaviors.  Some try to justify it. Some slip into denial. But some are willing to change one or more of the behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs in order to bring harmony between the elements.

A teenager might be drawn to experiment with drugs because of peer pressure.  The drugs make him feel good, so he continues to use them. When confronted by his parents (or the law), however, he “sees the light.”  His behavior was not working for him so he accepts the need to change it.

Another option the teen would have is to reduce the importance of the cognition.  He might tell himself, “You only live once.” Or, he might justify the behavior because his parents drink or take prescription drugs. 

Any action taken or not taken when cognitive dissonance is present requires a decision to be made.  In fact, decisions stir up dissonance because they cause us to think, analyze, and sometimes even argue with ourselves and others. Also, when someone is forced into an action, such as being grounded or going to jail, to eliminate the behavior at hand, there’s still the decision to be made about what kind of attitude he or she will choose to have about it.

Festinger also determined that effort also influences our decisions.  The more time and energy you’ve put into something, the greater lengths you’ll go to keep that behavior or belief.

Imagine a priest who has forgone marriage and family life in order to devote his life to the church and his religious beliefs.  When challenged, he has more to lose than a man who goes to church only on Easter and is not sure of his faith. 

 Cognitive Dissonance and Sales

What on earth does cognitive dissonance have to do with sales, though?  The relevance may surprise you.

Cognitive dissonance sets the atmosphere for a change to occur. 

A customer who is adamantly against life insurance may have all the arguments against it.  He feels it is a waste of money. Then he might hear of a man whose family was financially devastated upon his demise.  Suddenly, he becomes aware of how his family would suffer, as well. There’s your way in. 

Or, perhaps, your product is an organic essential oil line.  An individual who has no faith in holistic remedies hears testimonials from others who felt the same way, but tried the products and had life-changing results.  You sense your customer’s mind is beginning to open up because cognitive dissonance is setting in. He is questioning his own beliefs about essential oil. That is your cue to present your product with persuasion. 

If cognitive dissonance can be interpreted as hypocrisy, then taking advantage of that state of mind could be seen as manipulation.  It all boils down to intent. Remember this; If you believe in the good of your product and have your customer’s best interest at heart, it’s a win-win.

Cognitive Dissonance and Customer Relationship

In an article entitled “What is Cognitive Dissonance in Marketing?” by Patrick Gleeson, Ph. D. on the website Chron, it is explained that in general, consumers want to want a product.  Why? Because humans don’t wish to experience cognitive dissonance, they naturally wish to any opposing views to be eliminated.

Cognitive dissonance strategies in marketing require a customer to resolve two conflicting views by purchasing a product.  If you are into green living, would you dare not save the ducklings by buying any other dish detergent than the one that saves their lives during the oil spill?  If you are a savvy consumer, how could you pass up the most innovative car on the market? By buying a certain brand of dog food, those who love dogs can not only feed their own dog the food but through their generous purchase, they get to contribute to a shelter as well.  Those are the things marketers hone in on when they package and advertise products and are the very things that help salespeople like you too.

Limitations of Cognitive Dissonance in Sales

If the method of using cognitive dissonance in marketing were foolproof, no salesperson would struggle.  It’s not. But it’s close. It helps to know the limitations and the possibilities so you can make wise decisions yourself.

When using cognitive dissonance in sales, some factors must be present.  First and foremost, using the technique to influence a customer’s decision-making product requires you to have a bond with them.  You must establish trust, respect, friendship, or some quality before the customer will allow you to have any input which will influence them.

 Furthermore, the distance between their belief or behavior and the idea you are presenting cannot be ridiculously high.  If you are trying to convince a vegetarian to buy your truckload of beef steaks, you are likely wasting your time. Your efforts might be better spent on someone who eats meat but doesn’t buy it very often because it’s too expensive.  That’s not to say the sale would be impossible, but it might be impractical to spend much time on when you could go on down the road and convince someone else much easier.

Taking the time to get to know your customers and to establish a genuine relationship will pay off.  Be mindful and listen. Be empathic. By strengthening the bond between the two of you, you are increasing your chance for a sale.

The Choice is Yours

When you firmly believe in yourself, your customers, and your product, you have triple the power where sales are concerned.  Using tactics such as getting to know your customer, mindfulness during your sales presentation, and employing cognitive dissonance during decision-making will become second-nature to you. 

You’ll be able to implement those at just the right time once you get the hang of it.  Things will flow, not because you’re a bullet-proof salesperson or a doctor in psychology, but because you are going with the flow of human interaction and communication.  The worst-case scenario is that you may not gain a sale every time, but you’ll definitely take away something...and so will your customer.

When deciding how much influence you will have with a customer, from start to finish, the choice is yours - get your toes wet or dive on in. 

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In what ways do you plan to become more personally involved with your customers?

In what ways do you feel you can promote your product during the course of cognitive dissonance? 

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