Whether you’re talking about a product or service, pitching an idea, making the case for budget allocations, or trying to convince someone to get on board with a new strategy, selling is a part of the job description for most of us in one way or another. As Dan Pink put it, To Sell is Human.
But just because it’s human to sell, that doesn’t mean we all do it well. Selling effectively requires understanding the person on the other side of that pitch. What do they care about? What really matters to them?
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a special power that allowed you to get inside their head?
Star Wars characters have the Force. Here on earth, you have access to a power that can help you maximize your effectiveness in any situation: the brain. Whole Brain® Thinking—the ability to understand, adapt and apply your thinking to get the best results—is always available to you. You just have to be intentional about using it.
Selling is a perfect example of how Whole Brain® Thinking not only enhances what you may already be doing, but also brings simplicity and clarity to an often-complex task. Let’s take a closer look at why it’s so effective in maximizing sales effectiveness.
The buying decision is directly related to the way people think. Their behavior may change or be affected by external factors, but thinking is constant. As one learning and development leader recently shared, in explaining why her company uses a thinking-based approach, “You may be putting on a personality for work but it’s not really who you are. How you think is how you think. That doesn’t change.”
And how you think affects everything else.
The Whole Brain® Model provides a quick and simple way to get inside the head of a prospect, manager, investor, team member or anyone else and understand their mental processes—how they go about making a decision, what they pay attention to and what influences them the most.
No matter what kind of selling situation you’re in, this gives you four advantages:
Because you have access to your entire brain, not just the modes you prefer the most, you have the power to adapt
Below are some tips for optimizing your approach with different thinkers, keeping in mind that most of us have preferences for more than one quadrant.
In sales terms, an easy way to look at the different kinds of thinkers you might encounter is with the acronym REPS—each letter corresponds with one of the four quadrants of the Whole Brain® Model:
Results. The blue quadrant in the upper left part of the model represents the mental processes involved in analyzing data. People who prefer this mode of thinking can quickly sift through a lot facts and cut to the chase—the bottom-line results they want to achieve.
Execution. The lower-left green quadrant is all about how to achieve desired results. People with this preference place a high value on follow-through. They move into action and make sure that tasks get done. In addition, they like to follow step-by step processes—to “cross the t’s and dot the I’s.”
People. The lower-right red quadrant represents “people first” thinking. Buyers with this preference want to know how a decision will affect the people they care about—coworkers, friends, family members. They also look for a “gut” feeling that you're the right person to work with because you see the world from their viewpoint.
Strategy. The yellow quadrant in the upper right represents the ability to see context—the “big picture.” People with strong preferences here can think creatively about their goals and ways to achieve them. In addition, they can frame problems in new ways and combine ideas to come up with novel solutions.
You don’t need supernatural powers to maximize your sales effectiveness. Buying is about thinking. Use the Whole Brain® Model to get inside the buyer’s head, and then leverage the power of Whole Brain® Thinking to adapt to their preferences.
The results will be out of this world.