Welcome back to the story of how a door-to-door salesman sold me a six month supply of frozen chicken breasts in twenty minutes.
In Part 1, I analyzed what happened using Robert Cialdini’s famous Influence framework. It turns out that our salesman used all six techniques. And, they worked like a charm. If you missed that post, you can check it out here.
But, that post was only half the story. There was one reason we bought that wasn’t covered in Cialdini’s book. And it was by far the main reason. If it weren’t for this one thing, we wouldn’t have a freezer full of chicken.
What was it?
We Were Hungry
We were hungry. That is by far the main reason we bought the frozen chicken breasts. Let’s look at the situation again and see how our hunger played a role in the sale.
He Came at Dinner
We were half way through cooking dinner when he knocked on our door. I had some turkey burgers cooking on the stove. We were hungry – literally.
Do you think that increased our interest in what he had to say? You bet it did. We were all ears. It was just like going to the grocery store hungry – everything looked more appetizing.
What if he had come at breakfast? There is no chance he could have sold us those chicken breasts in the morning. We’re just not in the mood for that kind of food. Eggs or pancakes, maybe. Not chicken breasts.
We Had Nothing in the Freezer
Not only were we cooking dinner; but, we were out of food. We had just gotten back from a trip to Utah. Our freezer was empty. We planned to restock in the next couple days.
But, our door-to-door salesman saved us the trouble. The answer to our problem was right at our doorstep. I remember thinking, Why go through the hassle of going to the store?
Now, if we had just restocked our freezer, we wouldn’t have bought. We didn’t need it. We didn’t have a problem. We probably wouldn’t have listened to his sales pitch at all. If we did, I doubt it would have much affect on us.
We Were “Frozen Chicken Breast Eaters”
To complete the picture, we routinely bought this exact kind of product – individually wrapped frozen chicken breasts – on a regular basis. We were already in the market for this kind of product.
When our salesman told us he was selling the exact product we already buy, all we cared about was two things: How much does it cost? and What is the quality? If we could pay roughly what we pay now and get at least the same quality, we’d do it.
That’s all that really mattered. That’s all he needed to do to influence us. In contrast, if we were vegetarians, nothing he could have said would have worked.
A Motivated Customer Is Easier to Influence
The moral of the story is this- a motivated customer is easier to influence. Much easier. So, finding the hungry customer should always be at the top of your list of sales priorities.
This doesn’t mean that influence techniques are not important to making the sale. Many customers won’t be as ready to be sold to as we were in this situation. That’s when these influence and persuasion techniques can really make a difference in your close rate.
But, if you don’t want to spend the time convincing people to buy, find the ones that have already convinced themselves.
