Close Your Bickering Customers By Following the Passion

In sales, it is fairly common to have more than one person involved in the purchase decision.  It could be a husband and wife buying a house, parents buying a car for a child, or a million other scenarios.

Whatever it is, when there are multiple people involved in the buying process, it can get complicated.

If there is more than one person involved in a purchase decision, more than one set of factors will go into the decision-making process. The chances that a buyer and a co-buyer will agree on everything are roughly zero percent.

So what do you do when she likes it and he doesn’t – or vice versa?

Here is a psychological hack that will help you guide your clients through this difficult situation: follow the passion. In general, you will find that the person with the most passion wins.

This is true in any relationship. If I want to have dinner with my friend, Tim, I might say, “Hey Tim, let’s go to Maria’s for Mexican food.” But he might reply, “Ummm… I really want to go to Mikuni’s for sushi. I’d much rather go there.”

His passion for sushi will trump my passion for Mexican food. And that’s the way it works. Follow the passion and you’ll find the winner.

So how do you allow the more passionate person to win without the other person feeling like a loser?

Try asking this question to the less passionate person: “Jack, I know you would have preferred to have this feature over that one. Let me ask you this: is this something you’d be willing to give in on in order to make Barbara happy?”

Jack is now the hero in the story. Barbara (the more passionate person) gets what she wants, and Jack feels like the one who made that possible. Win-win.

It’s not easy. In fact it’s downright tricky. But if you follow the passion you eventually find another sale!