Professional: Someone who makes the very difficult seem very easy

Following on from last week's intro article The Science of Persuasion and the Art of the Sale

Marketing and sales embody the art and science of persuasion, manipulation and compliance. “Selling” has probably been going on longer than marketing, though it is not hard to imagine the role of "advertising” embedded in our DNA in the form of gestures. Marketing is typically done in a one-way, non-interactive (passive) mode – whereas sales involve active agents. My research focuses on the latter with a goal of illuminating a possible strategy for building defenses against Bounded Irrationality by understanding Daniel Dennett’s Intentional Stance (in a nutshell, the thinking about what other people are thinking).

The best sales people know how to “read” their customers. The value added they provide ranges from gopher (fetch the item) to in-store subject matter expert. In commission based sales, where a sometimes significant portion of the salesperson’s salary (compensation) comes from a percentage of the total purchase price of the items sold (usually as a percentage of the profit) there is a higher motivation to increase the total spend of their customers.

Frequently, unbeknownst to the customer, there are additional sales incentives in place, usually in the form of a sales target or time-based contests. However, even with full disclosure of a potential bias, it does not lead to rational decision making. For example the salesperson discloses that if you buy X that will help them win a contest – in fact it could lead to a subtle collusion exploit where the shopper feels like they are helping the salesperson. This method is actually seen as the modus operandi of door to door charitable giving campaigns (magazine sales, candy bars, kids programs, etc).

Items these days are rarely of the “craft” variety (wherein you are buying from the maker directly) – which can mean the margins vary greatly by the time the end product reaches the showroom floor. The “up-sell” and the “cross-sell” are techniques employed by sales professionals to increase the over all transaction, and frequently will target higher-margin items, which likely lead to higher commissions or tips. The “gradation technique”, otherwise known as “foot-in-the door” form is as evident in dining experiences employed by wait staff as it is in consumer products.

Gradation techniques have been well understood by psychologists for decades. The so called “foot-in-the-door” (FITD) form is well known to salespeople and according to Freedman “it is one of the cornerstones of fund-raising.”

Here’s how it works:

…if a person complies with your first, small, request, he or she will have an increased tendency to comply with your subsequent, larger request.

That's an anchoring move. There's an equally effective, almost polar opposite approach called the "door-in-the-face" request:

...the “Door-in-the-Face” approach works when (a) a costly, large first request that the recipient will probably refuse and then (b) making a second, less costly and more realistic request.

This second approach exploits a “framing attack” which we will explore in greater detail in a follow-on article.

In the intro story to the paper, we see Molly employing both!

Today's Big Idea is this: Who is anchoring and framing your next thought? And what action is it likely to lead to?

Remember, "forewarned is forearmed"...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click here for a .pdf copy of the full paper.

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge