I've been reading Annie Duke's book Thinking in Bets, which focuses on how human beings make decisions. Feels super helpful for getting better at sales!
Found this passage particularly interesting: humans are hard-wired to believe whatever they hear as true. We assume that everything around us is fact, because evolutionarily we had to be reactive to survive.
50000 years ago: "Rustling in the grass" - Shit it's a lion, run!!
If anyone stood around to go "wait, is that actually a lion or just a bit of wind?" and they were wrong... they got eaten. So those humans who reacted the fastest with the least information/proof always survived. That's why we are so quick to jump to conclusions: it's a survival mechanism.
How does this impact sales? Your prospects are hard coded to believe what you say. But they also know that salespeople tend to bluster. What I like to do is: tell them what I'm NOT good at first. Lower their guard.
"Hey Jenny, if you're looking for a really powerful marketing automation tool that can integrate with your entire tech stack and run sophisticated flows over text/social/etc., we are likely not the best solution. But if you want a no-code solution that will be live in <2 weeks with little effort from your eng team, still get you powerful automation, is really easy to use, and super clear analytics ... that's where we thrive."
Then just be smart about how you disqualify yourself. Mention things the prospect likely won't care about, and they will be 10x more likely to believe you about the things you claim to be great at.
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