Sometimes the decisions your potential customers make seem absolutely nuts. They choose competitors over your clearly superior offerings, they look elsewhere for products or services that you can easily provide, or they kick the can down the road on products that you know would make their lives or businesses better. Or worse, they buy from a competitor and spend way more than what they told you their budget was.
If you’re laying out evidence of your offering’s superior value, why is that approach not working?
Developing effective verbal and written communications that convert into sales requires recognizing that people don’t make decisions in a psychological vacuum. Persuasion researcher Robert Cialdini identified six core principles that influence how people choose: reciprocity, scarcity, authority, commitment and consistency, liking, and consensus.
None of these are explicitly about features, benefits or price. When you recognize the emotional and social factors behind how your potential client choose, you can structure your sales process and communications to support their decision-making process rather than fighting against it.
Focus on these 4 key areas in your sales process:
- Emotional validation comes first: Your customers need to feel heard, understood, and validated before they can even begin to process features and benefits. Address their concerns and fears more than highlighting benefits.
- Social proof influences confidence: People look for evidence that others like them have made similar choices successfully, making testimonials and case studies particularly powerful for hesitant prospects. When your business is active on review sites, engages on social media and posts videos, you make it easy for customers to discover social proof of your value, even if they don’t know you or haven’t been referred to you by someone they trust.
- Timing is important: Buyer readiness fluctuates based on external pressures, internal priorities, and cognitive load, so recognizing these patterns helps you time your pitches and communications effectively.
- Choice architecture matters: How you present options—including the order, number of choices, and comparison frameworks—significantly impacts your potential client’s comfort with making a decision.
- Lead with questions to uncover both logical and emotional needs
- Share relevant client success stories to help your prospects see themselves achieving similar results
- Present your recommended solution when prospects are mentally prepared to consider them rather than pushing for a sale
- Organize your proposals to make the decision process feel manageable rather than overwhelming
Positive Business Impact
When you understand and work with client psychology rather than against it, conversations become more natural, objections decrease, and clients feel more confident about their decisions. This approach leads to higher conversion rates and stronger long-term client relationships.
Want to learn more? Check out your planning resources at MakeMoreWorkLess.
As clients of The Benefit Works, you get significant discounts! Susan Thomson, CEO and Licensed Coach, ActionCOACH Business & Executive Coaching Proud Member of TEMPO Madison
Direct: 608-441-5374
Email: mailto:susanthomson@actioncoach.com