Psychology and behavioral neurogenetics tell us that the decision to buy a product or service is not simple and depends on many factors that are not obvious and certainly not rational. Many sales training organizations are still operating as if the best marketing and selling techniques involved emphasizing the differences in terms of features between product and service. Successful sales and marketing people realize that they are in the relationship business rather than in the business of selling particular goods or services. Having a good idea of how human beings actually work helps us to hone our skills and widen our opportunities.

You are selling your services as a lawyer or an accountant. Or maybe you are selling an automobile or a piece of clothing. What makes a customer or a client buy from you? Is it your personality? Is it the quality of the service you offer? Is it that your product is ‘different’ from the others? All of the above? None of the above?

The answer lies in the way that humans make decisions, any decisions. However, no decision is more complex than the decision to purchase a product or a service.

My team and I are frequently asked to help corporations and professional service organizations in Europe, Asia, the US and Australia improve their marketing and sales performance. Many have tried all the traditional incentives—prizes, money and the promise of promotion, threat of dismissal—to encourage their salespeople, or their partners, to be more proactive as if just doing more was the answer. It is not.

Effective Executive Magazine, Marketing and Sales, Professional service organizations, Sales performance, Law and financial services, Sales training organizations.