CHAPTER  2

The Art and Neuroscience of Sales

The New Way to Influence

MANY SALESPEOPLE have heard the saying, “Sales is an art and a science.” We think it’s time to update this phrase for today’s business environment to, “Sales is a combination of art, science, and neuroscience.”

The art of sales pertains to your ability to size up the prospect, determine their personality style, and adjust your selling style to create rapport and trust. It involves your ability to read and connect with the buyer by paying attention to nonverbal clues, such as a shift in body language or a change in the prospect’s tone of voice.

The science of sales involves following a defined sales process and applying specific selling skills at each stage. For example, business development requires executing strong value propositions; uncovering the prospect’s story involves specific questioning and listening skills; and, at the solution stage, skills such as storytelling and presentation come into play.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines neuroscience as “a branch of the life sciences that deals with anatomy, physiology, biochemistry or molecular biology of nerves and nervous tissues and especially with their relation to behavior and learning.” “Behavior” and “learning” are the key words here. Knowledge of neuroscience elevates both the art and science of sales because it ensures that salespeople behave consistently in executing the influence skills they have learned in order to produce sustainable sales results. As discussed in Chapter 1, many salespeople know what to do—and still don’t do it.

Sales professionals experiment with a lot of different tools in order to be more successful in sales. They read about the law of attraction: “Think about your goals and they will come.”

They write positive affirmations: “I am happy, successful, and wealthy.” And each morning, they wake up believing and achieving.

Then a tough sales or account management situation occurs, emotions take over, and the only thing salespeople are attracting and believing is self-doubt and frustration. According to Dr. John Arden, author of Rewire Your Brain (Wiley, 2010), “You cannot change how you think and feel without changing your brain.” In other words, unless you actually change your mental pathways, new behaviors, responses, and skills will not be executed. And the better you understand how your brain works, the more likely you are to be successful.

Selling to the Old Brain

Start your education about the neuroscience of sales by learning about a part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is an almond-shaped cluster of connected structures that lie directly above the brainstem in each hemisphere of the brain. It is the oldest part of the brain, often referred to as the “old” brain or “reptilian” brain. The amygdala is part of the limbic system, which is a group of structures associated with emotions and experiences that help detect a threat. It’s the emotional alarm system of the brain and screens all stimuli coming into the brain and decides what’s safe or not safe. It’s similar to the stoplights we use every day. Red is stop, green is go, and yellow is proceed with caution.

This screening of information occurs without conscious thought. The amygdala has the ability to override other parts of the brain, including the cognitive, rational center located in the prefrontal cortex, the front of the brain and the part that is involved with planning complex cognitive behaviors. When the old brain senses danger, it automatically produces a fight, flight, or freeze response. Heart rate increases, as does the production of adrenaline to prepare your body to react.

To get a better understanding of this structure, let’s look at two examples, one where the amygdala works in your favor and one where it doesn’t.

You’ve probably experienced the positive benefit of the amygdala many times. Take a situation where you are driving down the highway and, unexpectedly, the driver in front of you slams on the brakes. If the prefrontal lobes of the brain were in charge, and not the amygdala, you would tell yourself, “Gee, the dumb driver in front of me is braking unexpectedly. I’d better take my foot off the gas, steer to the right, and put my foot on the brake.” By the time this logical conversation ended, you would have been in an accident. Instead, the amygdala took over, sensed danger, and executed the automatic response to brake and adapt—without logical thought or reasoning.

Now, let’s go back to prehistoric times and study the caveman. His daily life was primarily focused on food, shelter, and safety. On more than one occasion, he probably encountered an animal, such as a bear. Upon such a meeting, his amygdala signaled danger, eliciting a fight-or-flight response. If the caveman chose to fight, there is a good chance he lost to a bear with sharp teeth and claws. If he chose to flee, the bear was probably faster; either way, the bear probably enjoyed a tasty lunch.

(Just so you know, if you ever encounter a bear, the correct response requires emotion management, or engagement of the prefrontal lobes where logical, rational thinking occurs: stand still [no flight], remain calm [no fight], and talk to the bear in a soothing voice.) Since emotional intelligence training wasn’t around in early times, we are pretty sure the caveman defaulted to a flight-or-fight response.

Why Good Salespeople Can Buckle During Difficult Selling Situations

How does the understanding of neuroscience improve sales results? We aren’t being chased by bears, though some tough prospects and customers do a nice job of imitating one.

Picture this selling scenario: You are meeting with three prospects for the first time. Two of the prospects are engaged and friendly. They are asking and answering questions, and are fully present. The third prospect is not engaged in the slightest and is happy to let you know it. He is looking at his watch, checking his smartphone, and every bit of his nonverbal communication is telling you that he does not want to be at this meeting.

This aloof and hostile behavior can elicit a fight-or-flight response if you are not trained in emotional intelligence and the basics of neuroscience.

Fight or Flight

Let’s take a look at some fight responses shared by clients during some of my sales training workshops. Perhaps you can relate to a few of them. When working with a hostile prospect, the following might happen:

  Salesperson gets more aggressive and leans forward toward the prospect.

  Salesperson talks faster and louder.

  Salesperson gets defensive and the tone of his voice is sharp and short.

  Salesperson goes into a product dump to prove how smart she is.

  Salesperson tries to engage the hostile buyer by asking specific questions.

  Salesperson delivers sarcastic responses to the question, “Why are you so much higher than your competitor?” “Well, Mr. Prospect, you get what you pay for,” or “Are you looking for a Yugo or a Cadillac?” (Yeah, that’s a response the prospect hasn’t heard before.)

Flight responses are equally interesting, and can look and sound like these:

  Salesperson ignores the hostile prospect, hoping the meeting floor will open up underneath her chair. She turns her focus to the two engaged prospects and ignores Mr. Grumpy.

  Salesperson discounts too quickly. When the non-engaged buyer finally speaks up and asks, “Can you do this for 10 percent less?” the emotionally charged salesperson immediately concedes to a price reduction.

  Salesperson agrees to write a practice proposal. The non-engaged prospect has responded to questions with only short, one-word answers. We call them “grunt” sales meetings. At the end of the sales meeting, this same prospect asks the salesperson to put together a proposal. The salesperson, in flight mode, answers, “Yes, I can put together some recommendations,” even though he doesn’t have a clue about the prospect’s needs, budget, or decision-making process.

The Knowing-and-Doing Gap

The fight-or-flight response, triggered by the inability to manage emotions, is often the root cause for the lack of sales skills execution. You know you are supposed to follow your sales process, but under pressure you fall into the prospect’s buying process. You actually can’t recall certain skills or responses that you have been taught.

Here’s why: it doesn’t have to do with will or skill—it’s Biology 101. When you get emotionally charged, the blood moves from the digestive tract to the muscles and limbs in preparation for fleeing or fighting. (The amygdala thinks you are in front of a bear.) Heart rate goes up, adrenaline is released, and clarity of thought is compromised. All your selling skills are lost in a fray of emotion and, in many cases, you are left with the communication skills of a monkey.

Another reason you may not execute the right response is that you have not practiced new skills and behaviors enough for them to land in long-term memory. Long-term memory is the ability to recall information. For example, most adults can still sing the A,B,C song learned in grade school. Others can recite scenes from a favorite movie. Short-term memory is just what it sounds like. You can only recall information—a phone number, a person’s name—for about thirty seconds. (Ever gone to a party, been introduced to someone, and two minutes later you can’t remember their name?) Focused rehearsal and repetition is the only way that data transfers from short-term memory to long-term memory.

Due to lack of “sales rehearsal,” salespeople revert back to old, ineffective responses because they haven’t updated old habits and responses, currently in their long-term memory, with new, more effective responses.

We tell our clients that they must practice a new skill at least 144 times in order for the skill to land in long-term memory. We figured by the time someone has focused and practiced a skill or response this many times, there will be change in their brain structure. It’s a number that definitely gets salespeople’s attention and makes them realize that they are not putting in the time and effort to achieve mastery.

John Wooden, one of the most successful coaches of all time, won ten NCAA championships in a twelve-year span while coaching at UCLA. Wooden coached his players on basketball skills and emotion-management skills. In his book, Wooden on Leadership (McGraw-Hill, 2005), he said he stressed to his team that “losing your temper will get us outplayed because you’ll make unnecessary errors; your judgment will be impaired.” “Manage your emotions or they will manage you,” he warns. His advice is as applicable to sales professionals and sales teams as it is for basketball players.

The Emotionally Intelligent Response

There is a third response to a difficult prospect other than fight or flight—the emotionally intelligent response. The successful salesperson is aware of negative triggers and chooses not to respond or react to them. She manages her emotions and addresses the “sales elephant” in the room. (The “elephant in the room” refers to an obvious truth that is being ignored or unaddressed.) The sales elephant is big and visible. In Mr. Grumpy’s story above, it’s obvious to all that the hostile prospect doesn’t want to be at this meeting. People of influence don’t dance around the elephant; they dance with it.

Instead of ignoring the obvious, the emotionally intelligent salesperson calmly stops the meeting and states the truth: “I really appreciate all of you taking the time to meet with me today. But Tom, I’m getting the feeling that we should be taking the meeting in another direction. Am I correct?”

The question isn’t delivered with anger or nervousness. It’s stated calmly because it is simply referring to what everyone in the room is already highly aware of. We call it “truth telling,” and it is a powerful influence skill. From Coach Wooden’s perspective, this is managing your emotions as opposed to letting your emotions manage you.

Calling out the elephant in the room, or truth telling, requires a knowledge of neuroscience as well as emotional intelligence skills.

First, you must be aware of the natural physiological response to perceived danger. Awareness is always the first step to any permanent change or improvement. Then, because of your heightened awareness, you can identify the trigger and make a conscious choice to remain calm and cool by applying two emotional intelligence skills.

1.  Self-awareness—the ability to know what you are feeling and why; it’s the ability to choose how you want to appear to others.

2.  Assertiveness—the ability to state nicely what you need: “I can’t write a proposal if you aren’t talking to me.”

Walk a Mile in Your Prospect’s Shoes

It’s important to remember that your prospects also have an amygdala. Many salespeople have been taught ineffective selling skills that don’t take brain structure into account.

For example, salespeople have been taught the ABC rule: Always Be Closing. Put yourself in the poor prospect’s shoes (and brain) and think of the pressure she feels during a sales meeting when the salesperson is doing a bunch of obvious trial closes. “So Ms. Prospect, if we can solve that problem, would you want to move forward?” (It’s painful to even type this statement.) The amygdala senses danger because the salesperson asked a leading question. The prospect is worried that any information shared will be held and used against her in a court of sales. As a result, the prospect shuts down, and what started as a consultative conversation moves to a superficial conversation with no real sharing of problems or goals.

Emotional intelligence is about common sense, and leading questions don’t make any sense. What is the prospect supposed to say? “No, I have really learned to enjoy this problem. It’s fun to see money wasted at the company.”

Prevent Fight-or-Flight Responses from Your Prospects

We teach our clients to employ a safer approach to keep prospects feeling safe because we don’t want to sound the alarm in the amygdala. When prospects feel safe, they share more information, which in turn helps the salesperson put together the right recommendations. Here are a couple of examples:

  Typical approach: “Are you having issues with technology?” Questions that start with “are you” can be interpreted by the old brain as setup questions for the big close. The prospect thinks, “If I answer ‘yes, I’m having issues,’ this salesperson is going to start selling me.” So the prospect becomes guarded and so does the sales conversation.

  Safe approach: “I’m not sure if you’re having issues with technology. But if you are, let’s you and I figure out if these challenges are big enough to invest time and money in solving. I know you have a lot of priorities competing for your attention.” This approach is nonthreatening. It puts the prospect in control of the meeting and reverses the roles of each person in the meeting. You also show empathy by stating that you know how many directions your prospect is being pulled. It’s now up to the prospect to convince the salesperson that the problems are high on the priority list to get resolved. When people feel they have control, they feel safe and engage more openly in conversation.

Are You Insane?

You may have heard the old saying, “Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results.” Sales can be a tough profession. It’s even tougher if you keep repeating the same selling mistakes. Sadly, many salespeople choose to be average rather than strive to be excellent. The puzzling part about this is that mastery of emotions and skills is in a salesperson’s full control because you can actually change the way you think, process, and react to events. A bad economy and good competitors don’t prevent you from becoming masterful.

Repetition is the key to mastery, and understanding the neuroscience behind this statement should inspire you to incorporate practice into your daily sales life.

Here’s the simplified version. You are born with about 100 million neurons. Each neuron has the ability to make up to 15,000 connections, called “synapses.” One repetition can create a neural pathway. The formation of neural pathways is called “neuroplasticity.” “Cells that fire together wire together” is a common phrase used to describe this action. It’s similar to weightlifting. The more you exercise a muscle, the stronger it gets.

The exciting news about this information is that you have the ability to learn new skills and form new habits of thought and response. There was a time when people thought that once something was hard-wired in your brain, you were stuck with it. Recent discoveries in neuroscience are proving that the brain has an incredible ability to adapt and form new neural pathways. The brain’s plasticity is what enables us to keep learning.

You Can Teach an Old Sales Dog New Tricks

This is of particular importance for salespeople. Old selling techniques don’t work with today’s buyers, and sales pros need to learn new skills. With repetition and focus, old sales dogs can learn new tricks by creating new neural pathways.

There is a catch, though. In order for new neural pathways to form, you must be focused and willing to practice. Learning is a function of your frontal lobes, and it requires attention in order to promote neuroplasticity and move things from your short-term memory and, eventually, to your long-term memory.

Focus is a problem in sales and business. Many uneducated companies allow salespeople to use laptops and smartphones during presentations, sales meetings, and sales training. Instead of actively listening and absorbing content, these salespeople are busy answering emails and instant messaging. Sales managers shrug their shoulders and say, “The world is changing. We just have to accept this new generation.”

The problem is that, no matter how much technology has changed, the way you learn, remember, and master new information has not—and won’t, because of the way the brain is structured. If you’re distracted during sales training or sales meetings, information will not be retained. Individuals and companies waste a lot of time and money because they don’t know how to harness the power of the brain for sales results.

Stop buying into all the new excuses for not paying attention. If you’re serious about becoming masterful at sales and influence, get serious about focus.

The Sales Athlete

Athletics are a great place to study the concept of neuroplasticity. Coaches and their team members have figured out how to improve performance better than the business world. (Ever seen a football player texting on the practice field?)

The coach introduces a new play to the team playbook. Now, does the coach have the team run the play once and expect masterful execution? No, athletes practice more than they play. They run drill after drill in order to create new neural pathways that allow them to execute the play without even thinking. Under stressful game situations, athletes don’t fall back on their old habits, because the process of neuroplasticity has replaced and upgraded those habits.

During one of the basketball games played at the 2011 NCAA tournament, the crowd watched with mouths open as a player took his time, dribbling the ball with only fifteen seconds on the clock. His team was behind by one point and he needed to make the shot. Ten seconds, five seconds, and then swoosh—the ball was through the hoop! It was a beautiful example of managing emotions and the execution of a skill accomplished by hours of practice on the court.

Let’s look at an example from the sales world. Value propositions are part of every salesperson’s playbook. Done well, they are powerful tools for opening up new opportunities and sales conversations. Learning a customized value proposition is not hard. It can be as brief as three sentences that state the problems your product or service solves for a client.

However, when we go into sales organizations and ask the sales team to state their value proposition, we often hear stammering, stuttering, or, better yet, “Let me start over.”

Not too impressive. (If you learned the Pledge of Allegiance in second grade, we are pretty sure that with focus and repetition, you can learn three sentences.) So what’s the reason so many salespeople are lacking this skill? It’s lack of commitment, lack of focus, and lack of repetition. They have not developed the value proposition neural pathway.

There is no shortcut to success. You must practice in order for the neurons to fire together, wire together, and create a new neural pathway. If you are not willing to practice, then you must be willing to accept average sales results.

Putting It All Together

Let’s bring all of the concepts in this chapter together. A trusted referral partner has introduced you to a prospect. The prospect has been very busy, so you were not able to have a very good up-front qualifying conversation. But the referral partner told you, “This is a done deal.”

The meeting starts and you ask the prospect what he would like to put on the agenda. The prospect replies, “Tell me a little bit about your company. We are not sure if we need to outsource this or do it in-house.” (So much for this deal being done and won.)

Not yet trained in emotion management, you go into panic-and-pitch mode. You turn a simple statement from the prospect into an objection and start trying to overcome it. “Well, Mr. Prospect, here are some of the reasons you should consider outsourcing this project to us instead of doing it in-house.” There is no probing, discovery, or building of rapport. There are a lot of attempts at closing, which results in setting off an alarm in the prospect’s amygdala. Danger, danger: salesperson in the room trying to force a close.

If you have been trained to manage your emotions, you will agree with the prospect and refrain from overreacting. You heard the prospect make a statement, not an objection. You know that the only way you can help the prospect determine the best course of action is to ask questions. “Well, Mr. Prospect. You may not need to outsource this. Let’s have a discussion on the pros and cons of both options. At the end of this meeting, I think we’ll be able to figure out whether you need to outsource or can do this work internally.”

Same selling scenario, same event, with very different outcomes. The first meeting involves a vendor focused on closing, which usually results in chase mode or buying on price. The second meeting is collaborative and based on a partnership mindset. If a sale is made, it will be on value, not price.

Action Steps for Improving Your Ability to Influence

So how do we get out of the cycle of fight or flight? What can you do to take your skills, attitudes, and behavior to the next level? The good news is that there’s plenty that can be done, and it’s in your control. There are three steps you can take:

1.  Make a decision to change, grow, and improve.

2.  Identify triggers and change the response.

3.  Practice, practice, practice.

This first recommendation may surprise you, as it doesn’t refer to emotional intelligence or neuroscience. However, if you don’t take this first step, don’t bother with any of the others.

Step #1: Make a Decision to Change, Grow, and Improve

We have a favorite phrase around our office: “The only time you can afford not to change, grow, or improve is when your competitor has made the same decision.” During a sales meeting for US Foods, Spencer Warren, the company’s vice president of sales for Colorado, used a funny analogy in asking his team to make a decision about doing more cold-calling.

He explained that he grew up on a 3,000-acre ranch. Part of ranching is climbing on and over fences. “You know,” he said, “you have to make a decision to put your feet on one side of the fence or the other. Straddling is just not a comfortable place to be.”

Many salespeople are professional straddlers. They say they want to get better, but their calendar doesn’t show any indication of that. There is no time marked off for personal improvement or practice. The lure of reality TV seems to win more often than the lure of mastery. Many salespeople talk about success, but aren’t willing to take the steps to walk down that road.

During a coaching session with one of our clients, things got a little tense because the client was straddling the fence. She had not learned her value proposition, couldn’t ask ten basic questions, and wasn’t doing the necessary activity to fill the pipeline. Her excuse was, “I don’t have any time.” My response was, “Do you drive to work? What’s your commute time and what are you doing with that time?”

Drive time can be a perfect time to practice skills or listen to a CD that reinforces skills and concepts. Time wasn’t the problem. The problem was that this client had not made a decision to become great. Have you?

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers (Little, Brown and Company, 2008), created quite a stir with his book by sharing research on how to become an overnight success. It was fairly straightforward: 10,000 hours or 10 years. He noted that talent is a factor in success. However, studies show that talent combined with commitment to immerse oneself in their area of expertise is the winning formula for “overnight success.”

In his book This Is Your Brain on Music (Penguin Group, 2006), neurologist Daniel Levitin tells us that, in study after study—whether of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, or even master criminals—10,000 hours is the number that comes up again and again to achieve the mastery that is associated with world-class experts.

You might be a little discouraged reading this because you are 9,500 hours away from mastery. But please remember that improvements will happen on your journey to mastery. Make a decision. Do you choose to be average or masterful?

Step #2: Identify Triggers and Change the Response

Awareness is the first step to any type of change. Top salespeople debrief every sales meeting, good or bad, to identify what they did right and where they could improve.

Armed with the knowledge of emotional intelligence and neuroscience, top salespeople also identify what triggers from the prospect may have thrown them off their game. They are highly aware that they can’t control the triggers. However, they can control their response.

Here are a few scenarios we have heard from salespeople where triggers from prospects have created an emotional response.

  “I find myself getting annoyed when a prospect keeps me waiting. I start making up stories like: this prospect doesn’t respect my time; this meeting is going to be a waste of time. By the time the meeting starts, I know I show up a little defensive.”

  “I know I overreact when the prospect starts asking about price right away during the meeting. Instead of applying good selling skills that redirect the conversation, I find myself getting tongue-tied.”

  “My big trigger is when the prospect is checking their email during our meeting. I know that I should ask them to either turn it off or reschedule. Somehow, the words get stuck in my mind and never come out of my mouth.”

Here is a great tool to change your response: change your story!

When salespeople examine the why behind the reaction, they find they are creating the nonproductive emotions from the stories they are telling themselves. Salespeople are great fiction writers. They talk to themselves, make up stories, and pretty soon they have turned their fiction novel into a best-selling nonfiction book. Here are some examples:

  The Buyer Who Keeps You Waiting: Change the story to, “Wow, this person must be really busy. This is a good sign because he is probably the type that is looking for a partner or a shortcut because he doesn’t have time to analyze and solve his problems.”

  The Buyer Who Talks Price Early: Change the story to, “I can’t blame her for asking about the price. Most prospects aren’t sure what questions to ask, so they ask the one they know: ‘What’s this going to cost?’ This will be a fun meeting as we explore other things she should be considering.”

  The Buyer Who Is on Email. Change the story to, “My fault. I forgot to set the expectation that we will need a one-hour, uninterrupted meeting. I will nicely ask him to turn it off or, if he is in the middle of a firefight, to reschedule.”

Change your story and you will change the emotional response.

Step #3: Practice, Practice, Practice

When you see someone who is masterful, you can be assured there are hours of perfect practice behind their mastery. A great keynote speaker has often practiced a one-hour speech 100 times before delivering to a live audience.

There are two ways to practice: physically saying and doing the skill, or visualizing yourself executing the skill.

Physical practice requires making a decision and setting aside time on your calendar to meet with a colleague or coach. It means asking someone to role-play with you to practice different areas of the sales process. If you are making a cold call, practice. Call your voicemail and listen to your tone of voice and inflection. Would you buy from you?

If you’re preparing for an important sales meeting, practice setting up expectations for time, meeting agenda, and outcomes. Create customized value propositions for the buyer based on position and industry, and practice saying them over and over. If you know you answer questions too quickly during a sales meeting, practice redirecting and clarifying skills.

Mental practice—visualizing—is another example of the incredible power of the brain. Research shows that when a person is visualizing an activity, the same part of the brain lights up as if the person is actually engaged in the activity. Athletes have long incorporated this practice into their training regime.

A powerful example of visualizing comes from Major James Nesbeth, who was a POW in North Vietnam. During his seven years of imprisonment, he was in a small cage where he couldn’t even stand. Nesbeth used the power of visualization to keep his sanity and his mind sharp.

Each day, he would play a game of golf. He was very specific, visualizing all aspects of his game and replaying every detail in his head. When Nesbeth was finally released, he found that he had cut twenty strokes off his golfing average without having touched a club in seven years.

This is the power of the brain. Nesbeth formed new neural pathways that led to success in golf without even walking the course.

Now, let’s qualify this story for sales. As a sales professional, you will need to leave your office and play the course.

Visualization is part of pre-call planning. Create a picture of you running a highly successful sales meeting. Experience the emotions of this successful meeting. You are calm, in control, caring, and competent.

Picture the prospect being engaged, respectful, and interested. See yourself asking good questions, smart questions, in order to arrive at the best recommendation. When you do this repeatedly, you create new neural pathways for thoughts, behaviors, and skills.

It’s time to step up your sales game. Apply neuroscience and emotional intelligence to your business development and sales process. The knowledge will help you achieve and believe. Emotional intelligence is the new competitive edge for sales professionals.