# The Science of Selling **David Hoffeld** | [[Action]]  --- > "The study of persuasion no longer exists only as an ethereal art. It is now a science that can reproduce its results." Most salespeople are taught to sell based on selling activities and behaviours, then make buyers conform to their model. It's the exact opposite of how it should work. Effective selling aligns with how the brain naturally formulates buying decisions—understanding the mental processes that drive purchase decisions and structuring your approach accordingly. **Value is always defined by buyers.** Value creation isn't something you do yourself but something done with your buyers. This is the foundational flaw of feature-benefit statements: they assume every buyer benefits the same way from a feature. Buyers don't care about your features or benefits—they care about their specific needs and how you meet them. The breakthrough: behavioural science has identified predictable patterns in how people make decisions, evaluate options, and commit to action. When you align your sales process with these patterns, influence becomes systematic rather than intuitive. --- ## Core Ideas ### [[Two Routes of Influence]] The brain processes influence through two interconnected pathways simultaneously (parallel processing). **The peripheral route** refers to factors outside the message itself: building rapport, presenting compellingly, enhancing trust. This route operates through heuristics—mental shortcuts that function below conscious awareness. Heuristics aren't always rational, but they're predictable. They are the rules of influence. **The central route** is the influence of the message itself: the logic, evidence, and arguments for why buyers should commit. This produces strong loyalty but requires more cognitive effort. Both routes matter. If you fail to leverage either, your capacity to influence is severely diminished. The goal: guide buyers to commit to your message (central route) whilst using heuristics (peripheral route) to convey it effectively. ### [[Six Whys Framework]] For the brain to construct a buying decision, it must make commitments to six foundational questions. The entire sale is built on answering these sequentially: **Why Change?** Help buyers fully understand the problems that make change necessary. Finding problems is a hallmark of successful people in any profession. The discovery of problems, more than any other skill, enables heightened achievement. Challenge the status quo with insights, identify cause and scope, then ask questions that help buyers feel the painful outcomes of allowing problems to continue. **Why Now?** The more time it takes to obtain a decision, the lower the probability it will happen. Help buyers realise that embracing change now rather than later is in their best interest. Build urgency without causing reactance—the intrinsic desire to push back when we perceive our freedom to choose is being restricted. **Why Your Industry Solution?** If buyers can subvert your entire industry and craft a solution on their own, you must answer this. A competitor is anything or anyone competing for the buyer's business, including solutions outside your industry. **Why You and Your Company?** Trust makes a decision feel safe. Without it, buying feels hazardous. Generate trust through expertise (share insights, showcase experience) and confidence (the brain struggles to place confidence in someone who doesn't display it). **Why Your Product or Service?** Communicate distinct value—something that matters to buyers and that competitors cannot replicate. Built on the heuristic of scarcity. **Why Spend the Money?** When you ask buyers to purchase, you're asking them not to do something else. Understand dominant buying motives: desire for gain (what they want) and fear of loss (what they'll lose by not acting). ### [[Questions as Selling Tools]] Questions have extraordinary influence on decision-making. The mere measurement effect: just asking people about future decisions significantly influences those decisions. Questions prompt the brain to contemplate a behaviour, which enhances the probability it will be acted upon. > "Studies in neuroscience have shown that the human brain can only think about one idea at a time. So when you ask buyers a question, you are focusing their minds on only your question." When presenting, you don't know what buyers are thinking. When you ask a question, you commandeer their thoughts. Questions are structured in three levels, mirroring how the brain naturally discloses information (social penetration theory): **First-level questions** reveal thoughts, facts, behaviours, and situations. They open up topics. **Second-level questions** guide buyers in assessing and explaining first-level responses. These increase neural activity in areas of the brain associated with reward and pleasure. **Third-level questions** excavate dominant buying motives—what buyers desire to gain or fear losing. This reveals how they'll benefit from investing in your product or service. ### [[Closing as Sequential Commitments]] Closing isn't one large commitment at the conclusion of the sale. It's a series of small, strategic commitments throughout the sale. When a person makes a public commitment, the intrinsic desire to be consistent with that commitment is so intense that their belief in what they committed to strengthens. Commitment changes self-perception—buyers begin to see themselves in light of their commitments, which guides them into making deeper commitments consistent with previous ones. Use commitment trial closes to generate active, verbal commitments that predictably change future behaviour. These differ from involvement trial closes (which guide buyers in envisioning ownership) by demanding action rather than just imagination. **The brain uses emotions to assign value and mark something as good or bad.** Emotions distinguish between what matters and what's irrelevant. Since emotional assessments are the basis of decision-making, the role of emotions cannot be ignored. Buyers don't have to be captive to their current emotional state—you can change it through emotional contagion, voice inflections, discussing topics that trigger positive emotions, and shifting nonverbal behaviour. **Everyone has certain topics that naturally stimulate good feelings.** Talking about family, hobbies, or holidays causes positive emotions to flood the brain and instantly increases receptiveness. Research shows that when sales calls begin with casual chitchat, favourable outcomes are more likely. This boosts rapport, and when focused on topics attached to upbeat emotions, the impact is amplified. **Heuristics provide predictable shortcuts.** Single-option aversion (always give buyers options), asymmetric dominance effect (introduce an inferior third option to make one choice more appealing), likability bias (show buyers you like them), social proof (reference satisfied customers to reduce perceived risk). **Information confirmation statements enhance trust.** When servers verbally confirmed guests' food orders, tips rose 68 per cent. Confirming decision criteria shortens sales cycles and increases effectiveness. **The inoculation theory neutralises competitors.** Expose buyers to a weak, easily defeated version of a competitor's argument, then disclose its flaws. The same technique prevents youths from joining gangs, stops minors from smoking, and protects voters from political attack ads. --- ## Connects To - [[Influence]] - Cialdini's principles of persuasion (reciprocity, social proof, commitment/consistency) run throughout - [[Thinking, Fast and Slow]] - Kahneman's System 1/System 2 maps to peripheral/central routes of influence - [[Never Split the Difference]] - Voss's negotiation tactics share the focus on questions and emotional intelligence