Welcome to primal selling, a series of columns over the next few months in which we will examine the core elements of selling and buyer behavior at the cognitive and subconscious levels.
We toss aside conventional selling rules of the past as we consider how we think and talk, and how a buyer thinks and talks - real DNA stuff. Perfecting the sales exchange at this level makes the rest of selling easy.
Fear and greed, along with other motivators, are common to man. This month, we peer into the causal relationship between fear and contentment in a sales situation. The idea is to create fear that motivates the buyer to want you as a business partner, and to avoid providing them with a negative experience.
And here's another element that is equally powerful in a successful sales presentation: contentment.
You need to foster contentment at just the right point to make your sale successful and to walk away with the business. Contentment is not a motivator. It is the reward you give a buyer who is motivated by fear. Fear gets the prospect's attention; contentment relieves the buyer of the fear.
No buyer is aware of all of the statutes and titanic regulations that surround benefits, human resource management and compensation, but they need to be. Use a few of those regulations - and the associated fines - to generate fear. Sell your solutions to address those regulations.
Give the prospect the technology or other application you have in your quiver in return for the buyer signing the agency of record agreement. Then, and at that specific point, back off of the fear motivation and relieve the buyer of any psychological distress. Now is the time to apply the magic elixir - contentment.
Make the buyer feel real good about you. Commit yourself and your solutions to your new client. Drive home the point that you will always be available. Your job now is to maintain that contentment.
Buyer satisfaction
Some buyers exhibit contentment most of the time while others are angry part or most of the time. Contentment equals retention.
How do some producers maintain contentment among their customers while others seem to be always reacting to discontented buyers? Does the answer lie in their ability to establish positive interpersonal relationships? Yes, but another reason is equally true.
The modern producer knows how to leverage technology of all sorts to create high-touch, high-value and high-frequency communications with clients, lots of clients at the same time, and with little time spent. This forms the basis for contentment.
Buyers experience discontent when they cannot talk with you, cannot get a timely answer to a vital question, cannot find an electronic tool they need to do their job, or many other reasons. You may not be responsible for the discontent, but you will feel the wrath.
You don't need this. Leverage technology to create contentment. Everyone is tethered to a computer, telephone device or tablet today. Why not exploit that experience to keep your customers happy?
Join me next month for another installment of primal selling and become a primal seller for your personal success.
Davidson, CEBS, is founder of websites futureofficenetwork.com and mysales-rockstar.com. He is on the faculty at the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business at the University of Wis-consin, Milwaukee. Reach him at
