The Psychology of Selling

Did you know that understanding the psychology of selling can help you to win more work? Are you responsible for winning work but not a salesperson?  On the Questas Academy’s Professional Selling programme, we work with candidates to equip them with the tools and skills required to win more of the right kind of work from the right kind of clients.  As part of this 12 week programme, we explore many aspects of how to grow sales, with an entire course module dedicated to focusing on the psychology of selling and how by having the right mindset we can all motivate clients to buy from us.

Understand Emotions To Win More Work 

Facilitated by emotional intelligence expert Alison Coates, the Psychology of Selling module introduces us to the science behind emotions. As Alison explains, “It’s such an important concept because when we can understand that our emotions, our decisions, and our behaviours, we can start to see how we might be able to influence performance.”  Once we understand how we can influence people through our own behaviours, we can help clients to makes decisions in the right direction. If you are a little bit reluctant as a salesperson or if it’s not something that you would normally do every day, this can be a really powerful tool to learn. It is a really great way for us to be able to understand how to take steps and influence conversations with clients that can lead to more positive outcomes. 

High angle shot of a group of businesspeople shaking hands during a meeting in an office

Practical Learning & The Psychology of Selling

As part of the Professional Selling programme, each cohort takes part in group practical sessions to bring learning to life, as explained by our expert Alison:  “We do a wonderful exercise in module one, where people actually get to experience the science of emotions through doing an interactive exercise. And with that understanding, we can then move into the conversation around what kind of mindsets a person who takes on a sales role be most likely to have. It really gives you that understanding around mindset and how the brain works in helping us to make some of these decisions and to motivate others.”

Positive Outcomes

The aim of the programme is to leave students with skills that they can immediately put into practice into their work. We share tools that candidates can apply in their relationships, (both personal and professional )which will really help to motivate people to take the right decision towards a positive productive outcome, and hopefully, as sale!If we have more of an understanding of how we are engaging with people and the psychology that is going on in our clients minds, we can adopt behaviours that help us to reach more successful outcomes and will motivate people to want to want to come towards us and work with us.

Key Takeaways on the Psychology of Selling

• Somebody who is good at selling is usually just someone who is good at listening. It doesn’t matter your background or skills, because if you can listen and build relationships, you can sell.
• Listening is a skill that can be learnt. It can be improved and perfected. There are varying ways to do this. Alison’s favourite way is to recognise and own our own distractions. One way to do this is to try and to maintain eye contact when the other person is speaking.
• Having an awareness of self is the first building block to emotional intelligence and growth.
• There is a common myth that to be a good salesperson you need to be an extrovert. But this is simply not the case. Often introverts have a high level of authenticity and emotional intelligence. These are great skills for selling.

Want to win more work? 

If you want to understand more about the psychology of selling how it can help you to win more work from the right kind of clients, contact us so we can talk through your requirements and how we can help.

Head to our YouTube channel and watch our video of Questas founder and CEO Gary Williams and Alison Coates talk about the psychology of selling and how we approach it on the Professional Selling programme.