Closing a Sale? Give them a Reason to Buy

Very often when sales professionals sell, they never give a reason why a customer should buy. Maybe you have or have heard one of your sales reps say “can I send you a quote?” (passive and all about price) They never gave a reason why they should get your product now. What if I told you that by simply giving a prospect a "because" could increase your chances of hearing “yes” to a sale by 33%. I hope you would say that is fantastic news, because increasing your chances by 33% would suggest you are making a lot more money than you did before.

 



"May I use the copy machine because
I have to make some copies?"



In a classic study, by Harvard Psychologist Ellen Langer showed that by structuring your sentence and giving people a “because” will increase compliance to requests. Study can be found here. The study looks at a person trying to cut in front of a copy machine line.

 

The first time the person says something like “Excuse me, I have some pages. May I use the copy machine?" This process got a 60% compliance. (Better then I would think)

 

The next time they said “Excuse me, I have some pages. May I use the copy machine because I’m in a rush” This was able to create a 94% success rate, amazing! I know what you are thinking; it was because she was running late! Wrong they did a third option.

 

The third time was a slight variation on the second one but changing the reason “Excuse me; I have some pages. May I use the copy machine because I have to make some copies?” Surly this would not be as successful as because I am late. You would be wrong because this still saw a 93% success rate. They could have given was blah blah blah, and they would have increased their chances of cutting the line, incredible!

 

What’s this all mean for you closing sales and making money? Simple, by giving a customer or prospect a “because” reason to your request for a transaction it will increase the likelihood of them saying yes to it. It does not even matter how persuasive the reason is, just give them one. “You should buy our fantastic widget now because it should help out your product.” is far more effective than “can I send you a quote on our fantastic widget?” So next time you are trying to close a sale never forget to add a “because” reason to your pitch.