The Power of Stereotypes, Contrasting, and Reciprocity in Sales
I’m currently reading the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. Robert strategically breaks down the reasons behind why people say “yes” — more specifically why people willingly pull out their credit cards.
As a young professional looking to break into a career in sales, I decided it would be beneficial to me to dive deeper into the secret weapons of influence and persuasion used by sales professionals around the world today.
As I break down the first two chapters of the book, I’ll further explore how stereotypes act as a sneaky sales tactic, the contrasting strategy, and how human nature–in the form of reciprocation–can lead to greater odds of winning a sale.
How Stereotypes are Used in Sales
In the first chapter, Cialdini captures his readers attention by explaining an intriguing story about his friend’s jewelry store. Cialdini’s friend–we’ll call her Jane for the retelling of this story–owns a boutique where she was trying to sell an assortment of turquoise pieces. Her store received a high volume of tourists due to the location and the turquoise was priced fairly for the quality. However, the standard sales tactics were failing and the turquoise remained unpurchased.
Jane tried better displays.
Her sales staff pushed the product harder.
Nothing worked.
As a last resort, Jane decides to reduce the prices to half-off the original in an attempt to get the jewelry off the shelf. While she’s away for a business trip, all the turquoise pieces sell out as expected.
But not at half the price.
One of Jane’s sales associates misread the ½ off instructions for the case and mismarked the turquoise for double the original asking price. And each piece sold.
Why? Who would buy something at twice the price?
Jane’s customers were mainly wealthy tourists who used a common stereotype to guide their purchasing decisions. With little knowledge of turquoise, the vacationers categorized expensive jewelry to automatically mean good quality. When these tourists came into the store, they immediately trusted that a higher price meant a higher quality of jewelry.
They bought into a stereotype and left with a laughable deal.
Price alone became a trigger feature for these shoppers based on their full belief in the phrase “you get what you pay for”. Overtime, the translation of this saying turned into the “expensive=good” rule, leaving the naive tourists with an average piece of turquoise for a ridiculously inflated price.
This shortcut to betting on an item’s merits based on price alone is a behavior many consumers make. The busier life gets, the more shortcuts our brains crave. It’s human nature to more often than not rely on stereotypes when making decisions.
Cialdini says it best “In today’s world, we need the first advantage to handle pocketbook strain; but we need the second advantage to handle something potentially more important — brain strain.”
As consumers in an ever-evolving world, it’s important to understand the vulnerability in our nature and as sales professionals, to not exploit this weak spot if the true objective of a company is to benefit the customer.
The Power of the Contrast Principle
In another powerfully simple example, Cialdini explains a useful sales tool that takes a deeper look into the chronological order of a sales pitch.
Suppose a man enters a men’s clothing store to purchase a nice suit and a sweater. As a salesperson, there are two ways to present the offers to this customer.
Common sense would say to show the least expensive item first and work up to the $500 suit.
Psychologically it’s more effective to sell the most expensive item first. If the shopper is presented with the $95 sweater before he is provided with the price for the suit, he may be less willing to purchase the sweater. However in reverse, if the man is shown the $500 price tag upfront before the sweater, the $95 then becomes nothing when put side by side to the $500 black-tie suit.
Utilizing the contrast principle as a salesperson, it’s much easier to sell the add-ons or accessories (like the tie and collared-shirt) after the large price tag has been swallowed and accepted.
“It is much more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first, not only because to fail to do so will lose the influence of the contrast principle; to fail to do so will also cause the principle to work actively against them. Presenting an inexpensive product first and following it with an expensive one will cause the expensive item to seem even more costly as a result — hardly a desirable consequence for most sales organizations.”
The trick involves presenting the add-ons independently of one another so that when put beside a larger, predetermined price tag, the additional numbers will look insignificant on paper. Making use of this clever principle leads to utmost transparency for the customer and increased sales for the seller.
Rejection-then-Retreat Technique
Similar to the contrast principle, the rejection-then-retreat technique involves a large request (one that is often and easily refused) followed by the retreat to a smaller request. This sequence of asking is strategic since the smaller request is what the seller is interested in all along. The second request is viewed as a concession to the first one and typically results in compliance to the smaller ask.
Reciprocity: The Salesman’s Gift
In chapter two, Cialdini explains yet another perfect example. One holiday season a university professor decided to send out Christmas cards to a group of perfect strangers as part of an experiment.
The response he received was unexpected.
Christmas cards came flooding into his mailbox from people who had never heard of the professor.
The automatic human reaction was to send a card back to the person who sent one first. It didn’t matter whether they knew the sender or not.
“While small in scope, this study nicely shows the action of one of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us — the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.”
This developed system of indebtedness shows a unique side of human society — and is present in every culture.
The rule of reciprocity can be an effective sales device, when understood properly. This rule often overpowers other determinants that cause people to comply with a request such as a sales ask. The force of this rule can help lead to a “yes” response to an ask that would have otherwise been refused.
However, the rule also enforces uninvited debts. Indebtedness can easily be triggered by an unwanted favor.
Take for example the soliciting techniques of the Hare Krishnas Society. The Krishnas position themselves in high-traffic spots such as airports, where they hand out flowers to unsuspecting flyers. Their strategy looks like this:
The Krishna solicitor steps out in front of the average flyer and hands them a flower.
The flyer tries to hand the flower back.
The Krishna member ensures them it’s simply a gift, but that a donation would be appreciated.
Immediately, the flyer is met with the social pressure of reciprocating the gift (even though unwanted) or walking away without giving anything in return. The flyer tries to break away, but the guilt of not contributing threatens to haunt him as soon as he does.
Without a second though, the flyer fishes his pockets for a few dollars. After the donation is made, the flyer resumes his route–and trashes the flower as soon as the nearest wastebasket appears.
The ability of using uninvited gifts to solicit overpowering feelings of obligation has been around for a while and is used by many organizations today. It’s also found that small first favors have the potential to stimulate larger returns. The social pressure that exists when attempting to violate the reciprocity rule is weighed heavily enough that it’s rarely ignored. Individuals who fail to accept the stipulations of the reciprocity rule run the risk of being disliked by others.
Weapons of Persuasion in Everyday Life
I’m currently in the thick of apartment hunting for the first time. It has become apparent to me that once I accept the leasing agent’s tour, I feel obligated to either accept further information on the unit or provide my contact information to the leasing agency when we return.
Today, I toured an apartment complex that was beautiful on the outside, but disappointingly outdated interiorly. When I got back from the tour, the leasing agent asked how I liked it and if I would like to take steps to apply for the unit. Given that I knew I wouldn’t be back, I gave in to the agent’s second request, simply to take a folder with additional information about the complex.
Why couldn’t I just walk out of the leasing office without taking the papers I knew I wouldn’t look at once I got home?
The influences of reciprocity and contrast principle act as a powerful force when working together. After the tour, I felt obligated to at least take a brochure since the agent took her time to show me around– a classic consequence of the reciprocity rule. The contrast principle was also applied since filling out an application involves more than taking a pamphlet home.
There are several powerful sales tactics covered in Cialdini’s Influence’s first two chapters that buyers are exposed to everyday, as well as strategies that sellers can take advantage of. As I continue to look for an apartment and read the rest of the book, you can be sure I will remain aware of stereotypical thinking and the reciprocity rule moving forward.
