For a business to reach the true heights of its potential, planning is essential. Incorporating a sales plan into your business will act as a map to measure success and help grow your business efficiently to reach organisational goals. A sales plan is particularly important as it can greatly impact a business’s revenue and profits. A statistic shared by FinancesOnline shows that 50% of high-performing sales teams have a 12-month view of their plans, while 10% map out the next three years. In this article, we will look at how you can set up a sales plan for your business, to grow your business in a measurable sustainable way.

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A loyal customer can spend 67% more than a new one, shared by Truelist. But how can you retain customers and make them loyal? A great customer success team is the answer. A customer success team makes a large contribution to your customer’s onboarding process, helping assist with customer queries. Zonka shares that 51% of customers will stop doing business with a company after one bad customer experience, so having a great customer success team is crucial. In this article, we will look at the steps you should take to ensure you have a great customer success team in place.

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Knowing the ins and outs of sales psychology can have a huge impact on the number of sales your business makes, and the amount of revenue generated. When you know the psychology of your customers, it becomes easier for your business to create strategies that can result in winning more deals and growing your business. Top performers will be able to use sales psychology to their advantage by understanding the right questions to ask. Sales Insights Lab shares that top performers will ask up to 39% more questions than the rest of the team, and get asked 43% more questions from prospects. In this article, we will look at what sales psychology is, and how it can be used to drive your sales.

What is sales psychology?

Understanding sales psychology is understanding your customer’s psyche, knowing not only about your customers’ needs and requirements but also about their beliefs and how you can sell to them. Knowing their sales psychology will mean you are able to focus less on the product or service you are trying to sell them, and more on their emotional needs by putting yourself in their shoes. This will make the process of making sales easier, as well as create a better relationship with your clients.

What are the principles of sales psychology?

Robert B Ciadini shares six sales psychology principles in “The Science and Practice of Persuasion”. These six principles will help businesses get a better understanding of their customers’ wants, beliefs and thoughts. These six principles are:

1. Reciprocity  

Reciprocity is the principle that during an exchange, people will like to get given something in return for what they give, like a gift. The thought around reciprocity is that when a customer is going to purchase a good or service, they will feel excited about getting something valuable as a present, and would be more tempted to make a purchase when things such as discounts or free offerings are involved with a product or service. Businesses that embrace this principle may offer clients:

• Discounts
• Free samples
• Free trials
• Free bonuses with purchases

Furthermore, these businesses will try to always emphasize the value of their product or service to the customer.

2. Commitment and consistency

The second principle is commitment and consistency, which states people will not change their minds once a decision has been made. This means when a customer is purchasing a product or service, once they have decided to go through with the purchase, it is very unlikely that they will then change their mind. Sales teams take advantage of this principle by asking clients leading questions about the product or service that you are offering. By asking customers leading questions, you will be able to plant positive thoughts into clients’ leading them to a decision to purchase. Guiding your customer’s viewpoint will help them make a positive decision about your offering meaning it will be unlikely that they will change their mind about the purchase.

3. Social proof

Social proof is the principle that refers to the thought that people have the tendency to mimic other people, so potential customers will be heavily swayed by other people whom they see. Potential customers that are around other people that have had positive experiences with your business can be swayed by the positivity to purchase from you. Customers can be swayed by:

• Positive reviews
• Positive word-of-mouth referrals
• Success stories
• Business ratings
• Notifications of purchases being made in your business
• Influencers

Businesses that embrace social proof will focus on sharing these elements with their customers to create positive social reception to their business, increasing the likelihood that customers will make a purchase.

4. Liking

“Liking” is the principle that if people like someone, they are more likely to listen and agree with that person. In the context of sales, this means that people will be more likely to make a purchase from a business if they have a positive relationship with the business and like them. Furthermore, if a customer is referred to your business by a friend or family member, they will also be more likely to make a purchase from your business. This means that your business should focus on building relationships with customers and creating a trustworthy and friendly atmosphere with them to increase the chances that they will make a purchase from your business. This can be done by giving customers a more personalised experience and showing a genuine interest in helping them solve their problems.

5. Authority

The fifth principle is “authority” which is based on the idea that people are much more likely to listen to someone who is a specialist in their field. Businesses can take advantage of this principle by employing experts to review their products or services for customers. When customers see the opinion of an expert supporting a product or a service, they will be much more likely to trust the business and have confidence in the offering.

6. Scarcity

Scarcity is a principle that is based on the psychological idea that people will want something more when they believe that it is in short supply. In the context of businesses, if a customer is under the impression that demand is high for your product or service, and there is a limited supply, they will be more likely to make a purchase. Businesses can take advantage of this principle by introducing limited-edition products to their product range, introducing limited-time offers or manufacturing a limited number of products. An example of a brand that does this effectively is:

Supreme – Every Thursday at 11 am during the summer/spring and fall/winter seasons Supreme will drop limited merchandise for their customers. This helps drive their sales by increasing the demand for their products and bringing customers in every Thursday to see what new products will be there.

The benefits of understanding sales psychology

By understanding the sales psychology of your customers, you will gain multiple benefits such as:

Improve customer loyalty – Knowing the psychology of your customers, you will be in a great position to build long-term relationships with your clients. As a result, your business will generate more revenue through repeat purchases and be in a better position for growth. MarketingBlog shares that loyal customers spend about 67% more than new customers do, showing just how important customer loyalty is.

Improved brand image – If you know the psychology of your customers, your business will be in a great position to improve its brand image. This is because you will be able to offer customers a more personalised service and align your business with the values and beliefs of your target market.

Attract new customers – Understanding sales psychology will help you attract new customers as you will be able to better focus your marketing efforts on the high-value customers and subject matter that will be able to connect with them emotionally. This will attract more customers to your business and increase the likelihood that they will go into negotiations with a positive outlook on your brand and offering.

Improve your sales psychology with TEB

If you want to better understand your customers to increase sales and grow your business, then TEB is the software for you. TEB is a sales automation CRM software that will help your business learn the psychology of your target market to provide a more personalised service to customers and increase revenue. TEB does this with unique features such as:

• Customer journey storyboard – View your customer’s entire buyer journey with your business to get a better understanding of their needs and requirements
• Attach additional information to leads – Attach additional information to your customers to let other sales representatives know everything they need to have the best chances of winning a deals
• TEBs customer filters and funnels – Use TEBs customer filters and funnels to organise your customers in terms of priority or industry for your business to get a better understanding of who your customers are
• Generate over 250+ reports – Generate reports to get all the information you need to know about your customers to get a great understanding of them and offer a more personalised service

Schedule a demo with us and see live exactly how TEB will give you a better understanding of your customer psychology to offer more personalised service and win more sales.