We must “find and solve the pain,“ to be told by traditional sales pontiffs.

Sellers who leverage behavioral science in their methodology know that two equal and powerful motivators are at the core of every buying decision. Loss (pain) is one. Gain is the other. However, getting to the real reasons that motivate a buyer requires that you meticulously plan your encounters, develop powerful questions mapped to how the brain reveals information, and listen to both the verbal and non-verbal language of the buyer. Going into a sales conversation with only “find the pain” and your agenda on your brain destroys your situational awareness by blocking your ability to:

1. Hear any perceived gain communicated by the buyer
2. Hear any perceived loss or its sibling – aversion to risk
3. Clear your head of your language, agenda, and perceptions.
4. Build rapport
5. Build Trust

Loss v. Risk

Loss is a powerful motivator. Empirical research shows that loss can be twice as appealing to people as equal gain. When you hear loss leaking through your buyer’s language, resist the temptation to jump to conclusions. Go deeper to discover if you are dealing with a sibling of loss – risk aversion. While they share the same traits – they can both stall or derail a deal – they are quite different and require that you adapt your approach.

Behavioral science is unequivocal on the differences between aversion to loss and risk. So let’s look at some of those differences.

Loss aversion

Refers to people’s tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains.

In other words, if your buyer is loss averse, they believe it is better not to lose $100 than to find $100. Loss aversion is hardwired into people.

Our early years of daily struggle shaped this behavior and connected it to our sense of ownership. People valued having enough food for the day more than venturing into the wilderness to find twice as much.

Loss aversion was first identified as a behavior trait by the premier researchers Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who also found that losses are twice as consequential as gains.

The power of loss aversion is easy to pray for the purveyors of traditional sales speak who tell us to look for the pain or loss. The only problem with their pontifications is that they lead us into the trap of narrow thinking. That thinking sends us down our agenda’s dark, dead-end alley, spewing the scripted version, “here is my solution to your pain.”

Risk aversion

We encounter this behavior when faced with uncertainty. When faced with uncertainty, if we are risk averse, we will work to reduce or eliminate the risk. When risk aversion is at play, your buyer will not trade the certainty of what they are doing now or using now for the uncertainty of an unknown – even if the unknown promises to be better. A new or paradigm–shifting solution often encounters risk aversion. You typically hear, “who else is using your product or service?” Risk aversion can show up for those selling known solutions as unreturned calls and emails or sudden disinterest – a.k.a. a stalled deal.

 Addressing the Emotions

Here are a few things you can do to address loss and risk aversion:

Don’t Assume

In every decision, there is a balance of gain, loss, and risk. Your buyer is looking for equilibrium. To gain insight into the balancing act, you have to listen. Listen to the buyer’s language with all your senses – hearing, seeing, and intuition.

Be Curious

Go to the deeper levels with your questions. Ask for clarification, meaning, and explanation. Call out what you think you hear. Don’t be overly committed to your perceptions. Let the buyer confirm or deny what you believe you have listened to.

Qualify the Emotion

Know what you are dealing with. Is it a loss? Gain? Risk Aversion? Remember, loss aversion is twice as powerful as any perceived gain. Don’t mistake loss aversion for risk aversion. Risk aversion is easier to overcome depending on the type of risk aversion you are dealing with (variations of risk is another topic we will discuss during a future Insights article).

Guide the Buyer’s Decision

In their decision process, your buyer will encounter deal-killing emotions. Your job as their partner in their decision process is to provide guidance. However, you can give advice only after you have established Trust. You only establish Trust after you have been granted admission to those deepest levels of information where the buyer reveals their real buying motivators, which are emotional. You gain access to those emotional motivators by questioning, listening, and demonstrating your knowledge, insight, and judgment. Once you know what emotion you are dealing with, then and only then can you guide your buyer.

To aid you in your guiding, try the following:

For Loss Aversion – Since any gain will be perceived as less than the loss of what is owned, you will work harder to communicate your product’s or service’s potential perceived value. You might want to try using a trial period to allow the buyer to integrate your offering into their status quo. Once used, your solution and its outcomes are “owned” by the buyer. Once “owned,” we will resist losing it. (This is the power behind those “free trial” offers we see). The outcomes can also be compared and contrasted against the incumbent product or service to provide more guidance to the buyer.

For Risk Aversion – Getting the buyer to reveal their risk aversion will help you guide them around the emotion. To assist in the decision process, you can deploy social proofing through testimonials or reference calls with current users. Additionally, you can leverage the familiarity bias by providing examples of existing users closely aligned with the prospect and their company. Finally, up your trust-building efforts by sharing your knowledge, insight, and judgment. Trust effectively reduces perceived risk.

Part of the Whole

Loss and risk aversion are part of a larger body of research that we have integrated into Perfecting the Sales Conversation. These behaviors do not operate in a silo. They are used as part of a continuum of work to move selling from the old traditional ways that no longer work to an enlightened mindset that realizes selling is very human. It is understanding and leveraging the power of the human element that separates the high-performing, elite sales teams from the rest of the crowd.

When you think about sales effectiveness at your organization, does it seem like you are close but just missing those unique elements that give you that competitive edge? Looking for a way to understand how your buyer thinks, decides, and reveals information? At The Nova Consulting Group, we believe that professional selling is a craft. With the Advanced Sales Conversation©, you have those missing elements that move your salespeople from competency to mastery. With our deep understanding of what makes and sustains high-performance organizations, we provide integrated solutions that do not replace your sales methodology and yet advance a progressive selling mindset. Be bolder, more insightful, and get results. To learn more about how to master the craft of sales and encourage sustainable high performance, call  (617) 933-7249 or email info@novaconsultinggrp.com.

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