All things being equal, people buy from people they like and trust. All things being unequal people STILL prefer to buy from people they like and trust.
The power of being likable in sales is a huge and undeniable advantage. Anyone who tells you relationships don’t matter anymore in selling is either delusional or misinformed.
According to the best-selling book “Influence” by Dr. Robert Cialdini there are 6 immutable principles of influence and one of those is the Law of Liking. According to Dr. Cialdini, we like people, and are more open to be influenced by them, for 3 basic reasons. They are like us, they pay us sincere compliments, and we are working with them towards common goals.
When we listen intently and ask good open ended questions to ensure we are understanding things from the other person’s perspective, we are bonding at the highest level.
Flexing our communication style to match theirs and applying basic “matching and mirroring” techniques also send the signal “you are like me” to the other conversant party.
At the most basic level, the way to be the most likeable person in any room is to be the most interested person in the room. We always like people who are sincerely interested in our favorite topic… ourselves.
Sandler Training in Denver provides sales training, management and leadership training, and professional development for individuals and organizations. Let us know how we can help your team.
