Winning the Battle of Beliefs with Your Prospect – Sandler Training

As a salesperson you possess beliefs you want your prospect to have about you. Those might include, “they’re a trusted adviser,” “their price is worth it for the value I receive,” and/or “that salesperson is a resource for my business.”

Our prospect’s (including salespeople who are buying) also possess beliefs about salespeople. Those might include, “they’re gonna hard sell me,” “if I tell them my budget they’ll take all of it,” and/or “they’re going to say whatever they need to to close me and provide no support after.”

Your prospects probably aren’t away of these beliefs, but unless you win the battle of beliefs with your prospect your sales cycles will lengthen and you’ll spend a lot of time quoting and hoping.

Our beliefs live in the part of our brain known as the “limbic” system, which contains the amygdala. Most people know the limbic system for the “fight or flight” (actually fight, freeze or flight) mechanism, but in addition to holding our beliefs, the limbic is also the seat of emotions and is the seat of decision making in the body.

The challenge for salespeople is that the limbic system, which humans share with other animals, has no capacity to process language so when a salesperson dumps features-and-benefits they are disengaging their prospect’s decision maker and reinforcing their negative beliefs!

To win the battle of beliefs with your prospect use stories (which are both emotional and prompt action in your prospect) and emotional questions (e.g. “what happens if nothing changes”) to simultaneously engage the limbic system and minimize the potential for triggering the fight, freeze or flight mechanism (aka “analysis paralysis”). The Sandler techniques of Up Front Contract (establishing in advance what will happen at your interaction in terms of time, agenda and outcomes) and Post Sell (giving your prospect an opportunity to back out) also support you in wining the battle of beliefs because you’re saying to your prospect, “this interaction is as much about you as it is me and you’re welcome to end it if you don’t feel we’re a fit.”

David Sandler said, “a sale isn’t between you and your prospect. It’s between your parents and their parents.” This means that our parents instilled most of our beliefs, which we aren’t aware of until something or someone triggers that belief and we react. None of what’s described above will eliminate your prospect’s parents from your sales cycle, but you will turn down their volume significantly.

Until next time… go sell something.

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