If you want the change the behavior of your sales team and close more sales, you might find some lessons in the work of St Patrick who successfully changed the behavior of an entire nation
This famous Irishman brought Christianity to our land drove the snakes out of the country and is widely accredited with using the shamrock, now Ireland’s national symbol, as a tool to explain the holy trinity.
Only, St Patrick wasn’t Irish, he hailed from Wales. His name wasn’t Patrick either (his name is derived from the Latin ‘Patrician’). He never drove the snakes out of Ireland, as there were no snakes in Ireland (if there were, he also cleaned up all fossil remains). The use of the shamrock to explain the trinity was an 18th Century fabrication and Christianity existed in Ireland before he arrived here.
But of course something doesn’t have to be a fact for people to believe it is a fact.
What St Patrick did achieve is the mass conversion of a people from pagan beliefs to Christian beliefs. I wonder what if St Patrick was a Muslim, a Hindu or a Buddhist. How might we celebrate differently with a different set of beliefs?
Before we look at how we can change beliefs we need to agree what exactly a belief is.
A simple definition is that a belief is an assumed truth. Prior to Galileo’s postulation in the 16th the Earth was widely believed to be flat. Of course it is a fact that the Earth is not flat. Facts and beliefs are often confused with beliefs being treated as though they were facts.
It only has to make sense or that people want to believe it. The human mind is excellent at rationalizing beliefs even in the face of overwhelming opposing evidence.
An example of how ‘fact confusion’ operates in the sales world is illustrated by an ‘inside’ salesrep with a technology client of mine was negotiating a deal with her customer, who was based in Yemen. She had done her homework, understood the leverage she had in the sale and had decided she wouldn’t discount her price. The salesrep was told by a senior manager at her company that she would never close a deal with a customer in Yemen without a deep discount and to compound the challenge it was not in the Yemenese culture to close business over the phone. The rep was informed that she would have to visit Yemen in person.
What assumed truths were underpinning this manager’s position? Perhaps it was a ‘price is very important’ belief or a ‘you need to discount to close a sale’ belief. There certainly was a ‘you can only close a deal in Yemen if you are face-to-face with the customer’ belief
Of course the salesrep went on to close the business over the phone, without discounting.
Beliefs are not facts
The building blocks of belief
Imagine that you are a visitor from the planet Mars and your friendly host on Earth shows you an apple. You have never seen an apple before. Like a digital camera leaving an ‘impression’ of the light coming through its lens on an electronic sensor, the visual data (colour, size, texture, shape, etc.) from the apple leaves an impression or signature on your brain.
The encoding technology in the brain is made up of billions of neurons. Not unlike the sensor in your camera, neurons become electrically charged when stimulated. Unlike a camera, you are also receiving kinesthetic sensory data through your fingertips, smell through the olfactory receptors in your nose and taste data through the taste buds in your tongue. It’s an apple so you are unlikely to receive any auditory data.
All four senses leave a highly complex digital signature on the neurons in your brain to which you attach the label ‘apple’ The neurons that are involved in encoding the sensory data coming from the apple is known as a schema. The sound of the word apple is also linked with the sensory data, so that when you hear the word, you can also recall an image and visa versa.
As a Martian, the next time you see an apple, the brain schema that represents your mental model of an apple is stimulated and you recognize the object as an apple.
How are Beliefs formed?
Beliefs can come from two sources: our own experience and thoughts, or as a blind acceptance of what other people tell us. These are very different methods and are often based on very different beliefs about the world and people around us.
Positive Self Generated
Positive self-generated beliefs are productive beliefs we create ourselves. People who generally prefer to positively self-generate are often confident and curious. They seek truth over comfort and social acceptance. They may be distrusting of experts and other authorities. They prefer argument and debate to quick and blind acceptance. They are willing to live with uncertainty and ambiguity until their belief is formed.
Experience
If a small child touches a hot radiator s/he may assume that it is true that radiators are hot. Because the hot radiator hurts there is a negative emotion (pain) associated with the hot radiator the child may form a belief that radiators cause pain. As a result of this belief the child will avoid radiators.
Reflection
A variation on (external) experience is (internal) reflection and thought.
Reflection includes general thoughts and the construction of mental models that help to explain the world around you. In some ways reflection is opposite to experience in that it is internal rather than external. It can also be complementary as you either reflect after an experience or seek experiences after internal reflection.
Negative Self Generated
People who generally prefer to negatively self-generate have low self-esteem and poor self-image. They manipulate their ‘truth’ to generate a belief that protects their ego and self-image. They seek comfort and social acceptance over truth
Justification
In another article (Whiskey Pete Meets Henry Ford) I recounted a social experiment whereby a volunteer was hypnotized. Under hypnosis, he was instructed to wear a raincoat, carry an umbrella and purchase whiskey from a store 2 miles away. However, it was a warm, cloudless day, the volunteer didn’t drink alcohol and there was a store selling the same whiskey within 500 meters.
When the volunteers came out of the trance and found himself standing in his apartment wearing a raincoat and holding a bottle of whiskey, he attempted to justify his behavior – “you never know when it might rain”, “I have friends who drink whiskey” etc.
When asked why we behave in a certain way, we often give reasons that sound logical but have nothing to do with the real problem.
Manager: “why haven’t you followed up with Mr. Smith at ABC Ltd”?
Salesperson: “Because I didn’t have enough time” or,
Salesperson: “He’s only back from his holidays a few days, I wanted to give him a chance to settle back in” or,
Salesperson: “He doesn’t like to be pestered”
Because the justification always sounds plausible, it allows us to make sense of our behavior.
You may feel very uncomfortable calling strangers to discuss business. As a result of your discomfort you’ll want to avoid making prospecting calls. Rather than face your fears head on, you may justify your non-action (behavior avoidance) by telling yourself that ‘cold calling doesn’t work in today’s market’. It is easier on the ego to hold the belief that cold calling doesn’t work, than it is to admit that you’re ineffective at it.
As you continue to tell yourself that cold calling doesn’t work you will very soon assume that it’s true. Moreover, you will look for evidence to support your new belief and you will reject counter evidence. You may point to the fact that all your sales come from referrals as evidence that cold calling doesn’t work, neglecting to acknowledge that you don’t make any calls or your calls are of poor standard and actually invite rejection.
I have found myself justifying my cold calling avoidance by trying to convince myself that cold calling doesn’t work. I read statistics that told me that the probability of a sale coming from a cold call was less than 1%. I neglected evidence that showed that most cold callers are not sufficiently skilled in the making calls that work.
However, the one piece of evidence I couldn’t ignore was that all my early customers came from cold calls and that the referrals I get now, can be traced back to many of those cold call customers.
Rationalization
The mind cannot handle two conflicting beliefs. It causes a form of mental anguish or discomfort called dissonance. In order to reduce dissonance the mind will rationalize one of the beliefs away.
Externally Generated
The alternative to discovering things out for yourself is to accept things that others have found out. People who generally prefer to accept beliefs from others have a greater need for a sense of control. They tend to seek certainty and closure. They also are likely to have a greater tendency to trust others and to seek trustworthiness.
If I trust you I may assume that what you tell me is true.
A small child will believe that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy really exists because he accepts what his parents tell him as ‘true’ (if this comes as a surprise to you, I’m truly sorry for breaking the news in this heartless fashion)
It’s no coincidence that people born to Muslim parents hold Islamic beliefs. A child born to Christian parents is likely to hold Christian beliefs. The same is also true for the offspring of Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh parents, etc.,
If you were told often enough when growing up that it’s rude to discuss money, you will accept this as a belief. Is it any wonder that you then feel uncomfortable when you have to discuss pricing or fees.
When widely held, beliefs form the fabric of cultural norms. In Japan a widely held belief is that it is rude to maintain eye contact with strangers and acquaintances. Stare at someone in Japan and you are likely to make him or her very uncomfortable. Behavior that conflicts with beliefs will always cause a negative emotional response (anger, frustration, embarrassment, disgust, etc.)
Level of intensity of belief
There is no gold standard for beliefs. The strength of our beliefs is closely correlated with the frequency and intensity with which we reinforce the underlying assumption of truth.
Beliefs levels range from loosely held opinions to deep intractable convictions
Other factors that affect our belief strength our level of ego involvement in the belief (how important is our need to be right?) and the degree of social acceptance of the belief. For example, if I am alone in holding the belief that an elderly Caucasian male with a long white beard created planet earth and the heavens in six days, I’m a crazy nut. However, if everyone holds the same belief then it’s called ‘faith’
With respect to St Patrick’s role in the history books, the question we really need to concern ourselves with is – how did he achieve the mass conversion of an entire population, without force? This was an achievement without a parallel in the western world – mass belief change without coercion.
Isn’t this what you want from your sales organization? You want different results, so you need different behaviors (calling higher, stronger relationships, focus on business problems rather than product, following structure and process,etc.). To change selling behaviors you first need to change beliefs;
• Beliefs about what best practice selling looks like…..
• Beliefs about how we see ourselves (as business owners or subservient)
• Beliefs about our products and services
• Beliefs about our company
• Beliefs about our market
For example, even if you believe in yourself and your product/service, if you hold the belief that ‘nobody is buying’ because there’s a recession (the justification) then what actions will you take? You probably will stop prospecting (“what’s the point, nobody’s buying”). The net result is that you sell less. Then you look at your results and you say to yourself “see, I was right, nobody spends money in a recession” and your belief is reinforced and is now even stronger.
What if you held the belief that ‘people will spend in a recession as long as they’re convinced that it’s in their best interest to invest’. How would your selling behavior change? Would you stop prospecting?
So what lessons can we learn from St Patrick about belief modification?
1) St Patrick was careful not to touch sacred cows, to mix my religious metaphors. Already familiar with Irish pagan traditions, language and culture from his time in captivity, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish.
In psychology this is called Social Judgment Theory; given a range of possible positions about given subject, people may have a range of opinions, but will have an anchor position. As this is often tied to people’s sense of identity, it is seldom possible to change it.
2) He targeted community by community first converting the clan chief. Once the Chief was a believer, it was a lot easier to take his message to the masses. After all, if the Chief believes it, then it must be true. This system of influencing people is called ‘social proof’. We are social and tribal beings, and what others think about us remarkably important. In our need for a sense of identity we seek to belong and so easily conform to what others are doing.
The fashion industry knows this only too well. Why do you think they put so much effort into getting fashion influencer's to wear their clothes/accessories? They are masters at identifying key opinion formers. That's how they quickly and efficiently change the behavior of entire markets.
3) Myth (brand) is might and style is more important than substance.
Slainte!
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