How to Earn Progressive Commitment by David Hoffeld

I read an excellent new book written by David Hoffeld and I highly recommend it for anyone seeking a 'scientific approach' to positively influencing others in business and professional selling. With David's permission, here is an edited [by me] excerpt from chapter 8 of the book that provides real insight into how to secure strategic commitments from your client.

The rest of this post is written by David Hoffeld.

Imagine being led into a room where a large, heavy candle, a box of tacks, and a book of matches are lying on a table. You are informed that your task is to figure out a way to adhere the candle to the wall, using only the three items on the table, so that the wax does not drip on to the table. How would you solve this problem?

Many who have attempted to complete this exercise try to use the tacks to hold the candle to the wall. However, this doesn’t work because the tacks are too small to secure the large candle. Others light a match and melt some wax on one side of the candle and try to use the melted wax to adhere the candle to the wall. Though it’s a creative solution, it’s also unsuccessful. The only solution that works is to take the tacks from the box and use them to fasten the empty box to the wall, then place the candle in the box and light it. 

This is known as the “candle problem,” which was created by psychologist Karl Duncker and published in 1945.1 Since then, it has been used by many behavioral scientists in a variety of research experiments to analyze problem-solving ability. One finding that has emerged from these studies is that regardless of age, socioeconomic status, or level of education, it usually takes participants between five and ten minutes to solve the puzzle.

The reason the brain initially struggles to identify the solution to this simple dilemma is because of what behavioral scientists refer to as functional fixedness. When participants look at the items on the table, they initially assume that each has only one function. This limits their ability to recognize the dual function of the box: initially to hold the tacks, and then the candle. It’s only after they begin to think outside the box (pun in- tended) that they are able to summon the creativity necessary to identify the solution.

Many salespeople experience this same functional fixedness when it comes to closing sales. Traditionally, closing has been defined as the time during the sales process when a salesperson asks buyers to commit to purchasing the product or service she is selling. This commitment occurs at the conclusion of the sales message and closes the sale (hence the use of the word “closing”). However, is this way of closing the one you should use when you sell? The evidence would suggest that it’s not.

To understand how we should close sales, we need to first reexamine how we view closing. The more that closing strategies mirror the mental steps the brain takes when buying, the more successful they will be. This is why the current method of closing is highly unproductive because it clashes with how the brain instinctively formulates a purchasing decision.

For too long, closing has focused only on the commitment at the end of the sale. This limited perspective (functional fixedness) has caused many to miss the key to effective closing: small commitments throughout the sale. A multitude of scientific studies have confirmed that the brain uses the commitments that it has already made as its reference points for constructing a much larger choice on a related matter. In other words, small commitments naturally lead to bigger ones. This is why the best way to lead someone into any sort of major decision, such as a buying decision, is to first guide him in making a series of small commitments that are consistent with the larger decision. Let’s take a look at why this is the case.

The best way to lead someone into making any sort of major decision, such as a buying decision, is to first guide him in making a series of small commitments that are consistent with the larger decision.

WHY SMALL COMMITMENTS ARE SALES BUILDING BLOCKS

In a now legendary social experiment, behavioral scientists Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser led a team that canvassed a California neighborhood asking residents, “Would you allow us to put a billboard in your front yard?” Posing as volunteer workers, the researchers showed each homeowner a picture that clearly portrayed how the large sign would obstruct the view of their house. Inscribed on the billboard was the recommendation drive carefully. Only 17 percent agreed to the request; most residents refused to allow the billboard to be erected on their front lawn.

However, when the research team went to a nearby neighborhood and posed the same request to its residents, they were shocked by the response. A staggering 76 percent of the homeowners in the second California neighborhood agreed to allow the billboard to be placed in their front yard. After witnessing the stark contrast between the two neighborhoods, one of the research assistants commented, “I was simply stunned at how easy it was to convince some people and how impossible to convince others.”

The reason the second group of homeowners overwhelmingly agreed to the daunting appeal was because they had received a prior visit from the researchers. Two weeks earlier, the research team had asked them if they would be willing to display a small, three-inch sign that read be a safe driver in a front window of their house. This minor request was met with widespread acceptance. Freedman and Fraser concluded that this seemingly trivial commitment influenced the residents to such an ex- tent that the vast majority complied with the larger request to allow a billboard promoting safe driving to be placed in their front yard soon after.

Freedman and Fraser’s findings were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1966.3 Since then, there have been many similar studies confirming that once a commitment is made, the brain will begin to act in a manner that is consistent with it.4 For example, small commitments have been shown to boost charitable giving, in- crease show rates for blood drives, and even reduce smoking.

Commitments, even seemingly minor ones, are highly influential and shape the outcome of the sale. Why? Because they change future behavior. So now let’s take what I’ve shared about the importance of small commitments and apply it to closing. Because when we do, the data reveals a very clear picture: closing is not one large commitment that occurs at the conclusion of the sale, but a series of small, strategic commitments that occur throughout the sale.

CLOSING WITH STRATEGIC COMMITMENTS

Though a buying decision may be revealed at the end of the sale, it is being cultivated during the entire sale. For the brain to construct the decision to purchase a product or service it must make certain foundational commitments to the Six Whys?.

1. Why Change?
2. Why Now?
3. Why Your Industry Solution?
4. Why Your Product or Service?
5. Why Spend the Money?
6. Why You and Your Company?

These small, strategic commitments are the building blocks of the sale, because they lead buyers through a natural progression of consent that enables the larger decision to purchase.

As a result, the final commitment to a buying decision that occurs at the end of the sale is intertwined and even dependent on the series of essential commitments to the Six Whys? that buyers have already made. Ignoring these necessary commitments during the sale and only focusing on the final one at its conclusion forces the brain to take an unnatural mental leap that produces negative feelings of pressure and anxiety. Yet this is exactly what traditional closing strategies have done.

So how should you approach closing? No longer can it be viewed as the event at the end of the sales process when salespeople obtain one isolated commitment, because that does not reflect what closing is supposed to do—guide potential customers through the decision-making process and into a positive buying decision. Because the brain constructs a decision to purchase incrementally, throughout the sale, closing should be thought of in a similar way.

Thanks David for sharing your wisdom with my readers here. If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' button and also share via your Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook social media platforms. I encourage you to join the conversation so feel free to add a comment on this post. Please follow my LinkedIn post page for all my articles and visit my website at RSVPselling.com.