Sell More with Science: The Mindsets, Traits, and Behaviors That Create Sales Success

ISBN-13: 9780525538738

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Publication Date: 03-22-2022

Pages: 304

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

David Hoffeld is the CEO and chief sales trainer at Hoffeld Group, one of the nation’s top research-backed sales training and consulting firms, and author of the best-selling book The Science of Selling. A sought-after sales thought leader and speaker, Hoffeld has worked with clients ranging from small and medium businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Because of the results his insights generate, Hoffeld has lectured at Harvard Business School and has been featured in Fortune, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Inc., Forbes, CBS Radio, and more.

Read an Excerpt

In the past, the factors that enabled some people to sell more than others were a mystery. Some salespeople just seemed to have what it takes, while others didn't. Thankfully, we've since learned that's not the case. Over the past fifty years, scientists have conducted groundbreaking research identifying how our brains process information, perceive value, and decide whether to purchase one product or service over another. Even more exciting, these discoveries have revealed the specific mindsets, traits, and behaviors that salespeople can embrace to achieve success. In fact, of all the innovations to the sales profession in recent years, none has the potential to make a more positive and lasting impact than basing the way we sell on science.

Though this research-backed methodology has repeatedly been proven to boost anyone's performance, many sales and businesspeople are unaware of it. Even worse, many of the most common selling practices today contradict the science. That's why I wrote this book: to provide real-world, actionable, evidence-backed insights that you can use to supercharge your selling-both on the job and out in the world.

Here's a quick overview of how I created this proven way of selling and the benefits you'll receive by adopting it.

How Science Will Transform Your Sales

If you read my previous book, The Science of Selling, you'll know that I am fascinated by the science of influence. When I was ten years old, my mother gave me Dale Carnegie's bestselling book How to Win Friends and Influence People. I was amazed at how simple words and phrases could inspire people to respond in predictable ways.

It wasn't until many years later that I experienced that in my own career. After graduating with my master's degree, I needed to get a job for what I thought would be just a few months. I naively assumed I would be good at selling and looked in the local classifieds. (Remember when the newspaper was where you went to find a job?) As I browsed the open positions, one caught my eye. The headline read "Make $100,000 a Year." Right below it were three words that made me even more excited: "No Experience Necessary." This was perfect, I reasoned, because I had no experience, and who wouldn't want to make six figures right out of school? I called the number listed and scheduled an interview. The next day I went to the company's office and was interviewed by a sales manager who asked me just two questions. The first was "Do you have reliable transportation?" My confidence grew as I answered that yes, I'd driven there in my own car. He nodded and then asked, "Do you like people?" "Yes!" I exclaimed. The sales manager smiled and said, "Great, you can start tomorrow." And with that, I was ushered into the profession of sales.

What happened next surprised me. As I began selling, I became captivated by it. What I had thought would be a short-term job turned into my life's work. What I had gotten a glimpse of as a ten-year-old when I read How to Win Friends and Influence People, I now saw out in the field every day. Salespeople are professional influencers: They inspire someone to take what they say seriously and be willing to act on it.

As I became more and more fascinated by the process of selling, I sought out training on how to do it better. But nearly all the books I read and courses I took were anecdotal-or downright contradictory-in the advice they gave and offered no objective proof that their methods were more effective than others. Dismayed at the lack of evidence, I decided to investigate. I began by looking at the research I had analyzed when writing my master's thesis on how to communicate effectively. And the more I dug into the science, the more I saw how it addressed every part of the sales process.

Now, when I say "science"-a term that is haphazardly thrown around in the profession of selling-I mean objective, verifiable research. Specifically, I examined peer-reviewed studies, some by Nobel Prize-winning scientists, in cognitive psychology, social psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. These fields explain how our brains make choices and the factors that influence what we decide to do or buy.

Best of all, as I began applying what I was learning, my sales increased. Armed with the science, I no longer needed to guess the best approach or rely on the opinions of others. I discovered that success was not due to having some indescribable quality or the gift of gab. To the contrary, science revealed the specific factors that produce heightened performance and what each of us can do to achieve it. The key is to guide potential clients through their buying process and into the decision to purchase. In fact, this is the premise of science-based selling: The closer your way of selling is aligned with how the brain creates preferences and forms choices, the more successful you will be. The opposite is also true: The further your way of selling is from how the brain creates a buying decision, the less effective you will be. The good news is that the science provides a straightforward road map that anyone can follow.

As I continued studying and applying this science in my career, my performance continued to grow, and as a result, the organizations I sold for asked me to explain my techniques to their salespeople. When I trained them how to base their sales behaviors on science, they too experienced significant results. It was just as the behavioral scientists Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin, and Robert Cialdini explain: "Everyone's ability to persuade others can be improved by learning persuasion strategies that have been scientifically proven to be successful."

The reason science predictably improves outcomes is that it provides transparency regarding what occurs in a given interaction and accurately predicts what behaviors will positively or negatively influence the decision-making process. Some even described the clarity that science brings as being similar to what people with poor eyesight experience when they put on glasses for the first time. Suddenly everything becomes clear.

At this point, I realized that science could empower sellers to truly serve buyers by helping them feel confident about making decisions in their best interests. So I launched my own sales training firm, Hoffeld Group, which become the leader in science-based selling. Over the years, I've trained some of the most successful companies in the world and helped them sell more by aligning how they sell with how the brain buys. When salespeople embrace a science-backed approach, the outcomes are always the same-client satisfaction goes up and sales skyrocket. They also gain a serious advantage over any competitors who use traditional, anecdotal-based selling methods.

The Number One Benefit of Selling with Science

When I first began reading scientific journals and applying what I learned, I was merely looking for insights that would help me deliver a more compelling sales presentation. However, over time I realized that my point of view was shortsighted. The biggest benefit I experienced was that science gave me a new way of looking at the process of selling that was accurate and predictable and that made a profound, lasting difference in my results. This perspective is best summed up by the words of the late Carl Sagan: "Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking." That is the power of a scientific approach. It provides evidence-backed frameworks to guide you in becoming professionally nimble and productively adapting to each unique buyer and situation. In other words, it reveals how to think about the act of selling in the right way, which is the key to long-term effectiveness and results.

For instance, imagine a friend who is the CEO of a small company comes to you and asks for help deciding between two potential candidates for an open position on her growing sales team. The right person will be highly resourceful, have strong problem-solving abilities, and be able to navigate difficult selling situations. She wants you to interview each candidate for these skills and recommend which one to hire.

During your interview with the first candidate, you ask some prepared questions and then present him with the following dilemma to test his adaptability and capacity to think on his feet: Next door, there is a church with a steeple, which he can clearly see through the office window, and you'd like him to determine the approximate height of the steeple. Without a word, he stands up, walks over to the window, and looks out at the church. After a moment he states, "It's around forty feet." You respond, "That's very close. It's forty-two feet. I'm curious-how did you figure that out?" He smiles and says, "I just looked at the steeple and thought it looks about forty feet tall."

The interview with the second candidate begins much like the first. You pose your questions and then ask her to figure out how tall the steeple is. However, unlike the first candidate, she asks to go outside. As she walks out the front door, she notices that the sun is casting a shadow on both her and the steeple. She crudely measures her shadow, compares it with her height, and develops a simple ratio. After measuring the shadow of the steeple, she uses the same ratio to identify its height. She walks back into the office and states, "The steeple is around forty feet tall," and explains her process.

Assuming everything else is equal between the two candidates, which would you recommend for the open sales position? If you are like most people, you know the second candidate is the better choice. Why?

The answer, of course, is because of her approach.

Even though both arrived at the same answer, the second candidate's science-backed perspective gives her a considerable advantage in the long term. By taking a thoughtful, systematic approach to problem solving, versus going on a hunch, she's more likely to consistently reach accurate conclusions. The way she responded to the steeple challenge also gives you insight into how she'll handle complex and challenging sales situations, leaving you with the confidence that her mindset will empower her to adapt effectively, which, in turn, will increase her probability of earning the sale. This is the opportunity we each have today. We can choose to embrace the science that discloses the specific things each of us can do to improve our sales results. In other words, we can set ourselves up for success by "measuring steeples," while our competitors try to guess their way to more sales.

What you'll discover throughout this book may transform more than just your sales. Over the years, I've witnessed how those who've learned these science-backed insights naturally apply them to other parts of their lives and experience greater enjoyment, effectiveness, and fulfillment as a result.