The Powerful Psychological Principle ALL Salespeople Need To Use More
Restaurant servers rely on tips to supplement their hourly wages. Not surprisingly then, numerous experiments have been carried out in the realm of social psychology to determine how and why customers leave the tips they do. In one such experiment, researchers explored the impact of giving customers a gift at the end of a meal; a small candy along with their bill.
The study found that when servers gave their customers a single candy at the end of their meal, tips increased by 3.3% compared to leaving no candies.
When servers gave their customers two candies, signifying a greater sense of appreciation, tips increased by 14%.
Then the researchers tried something different. Instead of increasing the amount of candy offered, they varied the manner in which the gift was delivered. At first, servers would give customers a single candy but then, after a delay, provide a second one as if to imply “I don’t do this for everyone but I’ll give you an extra candy because you’re special”. Their tips increased by 23%!
Experiments like these illustrate one of the most powerful psychological forces in life and in business; reciprocity.
What is Reciprocity?
Reciprocity is the practice of responding to an often unsolicited, positive gesture, action, or behavior in kind — essentially, rewarding someone for their thoughtfulness with a similar act of your own. You’ve likely experienced this phenomenon when someone did something nice for you out of the blue. Even if the gesture was small.
Maybe your friend happened to be walking by your neighborhood bakery and picked up that special treat they know you love. Maybe you arrived home after work to find your spouse or partner made a special mid-week dinner. Or maybe the cashier at the supermarket complimented you on how nice they thought your glasses were. In each case, the gesture made you feel indebted to the other person and gave you the urge to pay them back with a similar gesture of your own.
Reciprocity can be a powerful force in everyday life. But in the world of sales, reciprocity is exceptionally important when it comes to engaging and converting buyers!
5 Ways to Use the Power of Reciprocity in Sales
There are many ways, both direct and indirect, to add value as a seller.
1. Do Your Homework
Most of us have been subjected to horrible, drive-by pitches that left us ignoring the seller at best, and at worst, developing a decidedly negative impression of their personal and corporate brand.
But when a salesperson demonstrates that they did their homework and invested time to research us, our company, and craft a highly contextual and relevant outreach message, we actually feel slightly indebted to them. And while your investment may not land you with an immediate sale, at a minimum you’ll get a response and have a much better sense of how to navigate the deal.
2. Listen
As I discuss in, Sell The Way You Buy, listening is arguably THE most important factor when it comes to success in modern selling. In his popular TedX talk, The Power of Listening, Getting to Yes author, William Ury explores why listening is so powerful as it relates to the power of reciprocity. When we listen to people and demonstrate an interest in their content and consideration of their feelings, it makes it more likely that they’ll want to listen to us. It also demonstrates empathy towards the other person.
It’s not surprising that in a recent Salesforce State of Sales Report when salespeople were asked to list factors that they felt had an extreme or substantial impact on converting a prospect to a customer, listening topped the list.
3. Share Helpful Resources
Helping your customers deepen their knowledge of their industry, role, or business problem is one of the most powerful acts of reciprocity you can perform. So instead of hitting up your prospects with the all-too-familiar “Just checking in…” or “Do you have 15 minutes?” message, send them an article, white paper, or even a book that’s relevant to their business, a challenge they’re likely experiencing, or a recent conversation you had with them.
The key here is that the content you share should ideally be arms-length from your company, brand, or product and add legitimate value. That means it’s best to avoid resources that scream “Look how great we are!” like customer case studies or testimonials. Instead, use Google to easily find a relevant article from Harvard Business Review or a study from Gartner or McKinsey and send it to your customer with a note like, “Hey, I just caught this article about [ABC] and it reminded me of that conversation we had about [XYZ] where you mentioned [123]. Thought you might find it interesting.”
That’s it! No ask in return. Simply “thinking of you”.
4. Invite Customers to Valuable Events
As you might expect, inviting your customers to sporting events, concerts, dinners, and other experiences are all great ways of adding value. They also provide amazing opportunities to introduce them to like-minded customers and connect with them on a personal level. There’s only one catch. You CANNOT use the event to explicitly pitch your product or service! To be clear, that doesn’t mean events involving product or solution pitches are off-limits. There is definitely a time and place for them. Rather, they do not promote the same levels of reciprocity as events solely focused on adding value outside of your solution.
Back when I was a VP at Salesforce, we ran tons of customer events, from intimate dinners to large-scale blockbuster conferences. But when it came to measuring the return on our investment in those events (measured as; customers who went on to make a purchase within 90 days of attending the event) there was one type of value-added event that stood head and shoulders above the rest! (and it wasn’t our massive Dreamforce conference)
If you’re interested in learning more about what type of event it was and how we ran them, check out this video!
5. Provide Insight into THEIR Company or Team
Sales expert Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of fifteen books, including New York Times bestsellers The Sales Bible and The Little Gold Book of YES! Listening to him speak at a conference one year, I heard him share a high-impact and relevant insight when it comes to building reciprocity.
“Don’t tell your customers something they don’t know about you. Tell them something they don’t know about them.”
A great example of this came from an entrepreneur who prospected into me in my last VP Sales role. He was selling a solution that alerted companies when your key customer champions left their company and went to another one. Rather than talk about what his solution did, he did his homework (see #1) and brought me a gift; a real example of a real champion of ours who in fact, left their company (unbeknownst to us) and went someplace else. The one-two punch of 1. reciprocity and 2. demonstrating the value of his solution in a bespoke way was very strong.
Cultivating a Reciprocity Mindset
Have you ever heard the philosophical question that asks, “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer is easy. 30 years ago!
In other words, if you want to enjoy all the benefits a tree provides, you need time to nurture and cultivate it.
Leveraging the powering reciprocity in sales is no different.
You might really want to make a quick quarter-end sale. Or quickly line up a 5-star customer reference call to close that big deal. But doing something “nice” for your customer right before you make an ask isn’t the way to do it. That means it’s best to think about reciprocity as a mindset instead of an action. In other words, look for every opportunity to add value to your customers.
Like deposits in the bank, the more of them you make over time, the more value will flow your way later. After all, to drive your sales forward you need customers to engage early and often throughout the sales process. This includes:
- Responding to your outreach
- Granting access to key decision-makers
- Sharing their true feelings and objections
- Feeling comfortable enough to give you hard news
- Disclosing important information about their business and problems.
In sales, reciprocity can be a powerful psychological force when it comes to engaging and converting buyers. The key is picking the right behaviors, engaging in them early and often, and ensuring the customer understands there are no strings attached.
Did you find this approach helpful and want to learn more like it? Check out the popular Cerebral Selling Sales Academy training program.
