Beware
the Sixth Sense
by Frances
Cole Jones
Real
estate agents often tell sellers to have bread baking when potential buyers
come calling—the idea being that this “grandmother’s kitchen” smell makes “a
house a home,” thereby stimulating fantasies of the picture perfect life
you’ll have once you live there. Cinnabon and Subway do the same thing by
leaving the doors of their business open and blasting fresh-baked bread smells
into the street: they want their chain store to seem more like a neighborhood
bakery just waiting to hand you your picture- perfect treat.
While
many of us believe we are motivated solely by the price tag on our sandwich
or sweater, we are, in fact, heavily influenced by all our senses. And
while most of us have noticed the rock sound track playing in the store with
the $150 T-shirts (thereby motivating us to believe the purchase of such a
T-shirt will give us a rock star life) we pay less attention to the
manipulation of our remaining senses : our sense of smell, our body
temperature (hence the icy air blasted out onto sidewalks in the summer) and-
finally, our little discussed “sixth sense”. No, I’m not talking about seeing
dead people—I’m talking about our sense of shame.
Yes,
shockingly enough we are often being manipulated by this infrequently discussed
“sense.” What’s an example? Well, many high-end restaurants have a
practice of decanting expensive bottles of wine at the table, despite the fact
that the vast majority of high quality wine served in restaurants doesn’t need
to be decanted. Why do they do it? It seems their research revealed that the a
ritual/performance not only makes those paying the big bucks feel better about
it, it makes those at nearby tables feel the, too, need to spend heavily to
keep from looking like a schmuk in front of their date-- their sense of shame
has been activated.
Other
industries in which I frequently see this sixth sense being activated are,
sadly, the wedding and funeral industries. We all know people who judge the
quality of the love between two partners by the size of the diamond in the
band; less talked about is the choice made by funeral parlors to display only
their most expensive coffins (there are more in the back, but they’re rarely on
display) The idea, again, being that love is measured by the choice you make--
after all, “everyone you know will be there.” (Should you think I’m being
cynical, please note, when my father died we went ten rounds with our funeral
director for refusing the $750 makeup charge—despite the fact that his casket
was going to be closed.)
How
do I recommend you handle a situation in which you sense shame-based selling is
in play? By asking frankly, “How much does that cost?” when presented
with the wine recommendation/the 4-ply cashmere sweater/the one-of-a-kind piece
of jewelry. Though it seems counter-intuitive, it’s the ultimate power
question as it shows you’re not intimidated by the ‘theatre’ of the moment
– you’re in places like this every day, and you know how much things SHOULD
cost, just not how much they cost in this establishment.
Do I
recommend manipulating this sixth sense when you’re on the selling/producing
side? I do not. We’ve all heard of ‘reverse psychology,” I’m
into reversing shame: making every customer feel like a king no matter what
they’re wearing, how much they’re spending, or how busy your business might be.
How
do I recommend you ensure you aren’t consciously or unconsciously activating
this sixth sense? Well, in an office/conference environment, you
might look at the shape of your conference room table. One of the things
President Lincoln did was to insist on a round table, thereby sending an
unspoken message that he didn’t think he wasn’t necessarily the most important
person in the room—and he certainly didn’t need to control the conversation.
In a
sales environment, I recommend having scripts, tools, and routines in place
to make each customer with whom sales staff comes in contact feel recognized,
understood, and respected. For example, if a number of customers come
in simultaneously, the script salespeople might use could be, “Sir, I
apologize, but I just need to finish assisting this customer. It looks
like it will be another two minutes. If you’d like to have a seat over here
while you wait, I’ll I’d be happy to help you in a moment.”
The
tool in this situation would be the chair in which the customer could be seated
while he or she waits, and the routine way the sales person might summon back
up if the client they’re with runs over two minutes.
Thinking
through the scenarios that work toward equality and unfailing courtesy will go
a long way toward ensuring you never lose a customer by making him or her feel
less than a priority—and will likely win you many more as your
customers move through the world talking about the service you provide.
Reposted
with permission from the Author Frances
Cole Jones
Precision Recruiting
Web: www.PrecisionRecruiting.ca
