Tap into these 4 common psychological phenomena to seal your next deal

Companies have business needs and rational reasons for purchasing products or services, and those reasons will determine whether or not they purchase a product. But it’s the humans who work at those companies who are going to have to decide if the product they buy is yours. And those humans are usually a lot more complex than just rational decision-making.

It’s elementary: if you want to seal the deal, you have to be willing to meet the needs of your new partner. But some of those needs might be more varied than you think.

Some common social and psychological factors absolutely affect purchasing choices—and thus, the intrepid salesperson’s ability to close. Here’s a quick and dirty run down of four of the best:

1. Fear of missing out.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) refers to how, when we know what other people are getting up to via social media or gossip, we can feel pretty bad about not getting to join in. This applies to a party you saw—just down the road from you—that your friends attended on Instagram, sure, but it also applies to sales. Our fear of missing out can make us worry about missing deals, services, or the opportunity to use cool products when we know all our friends are.

This ties right into the next common psychological phenomenon that might be affecting your sales.

2. Social proof.

You’ve probably heard about social proof in the context of product reviews, but it’s both older and broader than that. This one was discovered back in the 1980s to describe the way people will tend to imitate others when they encounter ambiguous social situations.

Social proof is a product of our natural tendency towards herd mentality and social conformity. There are many ways to reassure prospective customers that they’re not the first to experiment with a new or different product or service. You can tap into it by making sure it’s easy to see how other valued customers are using your product or service, through things like case studies, reviews, social media shout-outs, or even by name-dropping a common connection in a sales call.

3. Choice paralysis.

This goes by a lot of names, including decision paralysis, choice overload, and analysis paralysis. This term describes a curious paradox: although some choice is key to our feelings of autonomy and freedom and our sense of wellbeing, too much choice can create an unnecessarily complex decision for purchasers. If there are too many options, and the person you’re trying to sell to doesn’t have great familiarity with the product or service, there’s an increased likelihood that the complexity will turn them off.

This phenomenon has implications for your sales process—shoppers who are completely overwhelmed by the choices you offer are less likely to reach the point of purchasing. It’s often better to present a few, simplified options instead.

4. Authority bias.

It’s dependent upon personality and cultural factors, but in general, people trust those they think are in authority—to the point at which we’ve coined a name for it: authority bias. We like authority so much that, even when someone’s authority is irrelevant, we give their views greater weight. This effect only gets stronger if the authority is relevant, which is where the salesperson’s knowledge and confidence comes in.

When you’re engaging as a sales rep, you’re representing your service or product—you’re immediately an authority on it, and by cultivating your own confidence and a thorough knowledge of your product, you can take advantage of it!

These four factors are common influences on the sales process—and once you know about them, you can make sure they work in your favour.