Fixing sales with behavior science. Are you asking for too much too fast?

TUNE IN TO LEARN:  

Behavior change is the foundation of all transformation, yet we often approach it backward. Instead of trying to change people's deeply-held beliefs or identities, the most effective approach starts with small, simple behavioral shifts that gradually reshape how people see themselves.

And that changes what people choose to do or not do.

Isn't this what sales are all about? An invitation to change?

Drawing from behavioral science research and personal experience as a change consultant, this episode reveals why attempting to change people's minds directly often backfires by triggering resistance.  
  
The key insight comes from understanding that our brains are wired to conserve energy - learn how the best salesmen and business owners use it when designing products.  

This perspective shift has profound implications for anyone trying to create change. Instead of asking, "How can I persuade or motivate others?" start asking, "How can I make the desired behavior easier and simpler?" Stop expecting people to leap into new ways of thinking, and instead create pathways for them to tiptoe forward with minimal resistance.  

Whether you're trying to transform yourself, your team, your organization, or sell more - this episode provides actionable tools that will start things moving.  

Transcript

Welcome to Change Wired

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired, the podcast where we decode the human side of transformation so you can move faster, lead smarter and create lasting impact by building awesome things. I'm your host, angela Shurina. Culture Transformation and Change Leadership Consultant, executive, coach 360, and today we are talking about change. Specifically, we are talking about behavior change and how to make it easier, simpler and better, and why it's not just important to change your habits but it's very much important for everything else, because when you change behavior, you change everything else. You change yourself, you change organizations, you change people around you, you change your mindset. You know, I've just finished this book, hive Mind at Work, and it's all around about transformation in organizations, in big, multi-thousand organizations. It's about turnaround of culture to become more profitable or deliver products and services more effectively.

Identity Shifts Through Small Actions

Speaker 1 1:17

What I loved about this book is that it wasn't talking about changing people or fixing people or changing people's minds and beliefs and values, especially for adults who've lived for 30, 40, 50, 60 years. Sometimes it's very hard to change people's minds. It's very hard to change who people are. They've been themselves for quite a while and probably, if they survived and thrived, quite successfully so. So the book instead talks about what is actually the easiest thing to do People's behavior and yes, it's also hard to change. But it's also what's in our immediate control and what also is the most changeable, especially when we approach it the right way. So let me dive into this a little bit deeper. So you know, my thing is behavior change. I've been a coach for 17 years. I now change teams and work with organizations to help to change culture, change teams and work with organizations to help to change culture, reshape what it means to be in that organization or to deliver certain results. And I start with behavior. I used to start, I used to try to change people or change their thinking or what they believe is right or wrong, but then you realize actually that is not the most effective way to do so and that's what behavior research shows. What behavior research shows is that when you change what people consistently do, you change their beliefs and mindsets without talking about their beliefs and mindsets, very often triggering resistance, because you threaten who people believe they are their identity, the one point of stability they might have, especially in today's fast-paced change environment. But instead, when you change behavior, and especially when you change it step by step, without leaps, you A don't trigger alarm, don't trigger amygdala, don't trigger this resistance because of threat to someone's identity. So you change people's behavior, but then those behaviors start changing people's minds and their identity, again without any resistance. So I give you an example If somebody doesn't do a lot of fitness and hasn't done that for a while, trying to persuade them that exercise is good, fitness is great, you can be an athlete.

Speaker 1 4:01

It's asking too much. Fitness is great, you can be an athlete. It's asking too much. But instead and I saw that working in real life if over a few days, weeks, months, you start asking people to just take different kind of behavior every day, maybe dedicate a little bit more time to walking day, maybe dedicate a little bit more time to walking, maybe doing a really short workout like a few squats, a few push-ups or jumping jacks, less than five minutes often, but you do it every day all of a sudden people's beliefs about themselves start changing Because, again, our identity is shaped by what we do, not by what we think, who we are or what we want to do. What we want to affect what we do is who we believe we are. And when we change how people change behavior one step, one habit at a time. Their identity is shaped by that. Their beliefs change. Beliefs change, everything about them change, and then also it's a feedback loop. So when people's identities start to shift and reshape, they want to do more and more behaviors that reaffirm this identity. And that's how you can ask a person to do five minutes of exercise and all of a sudden well, not all of a sudden, but in six months they see themselves as athletes and they want to do more. And they want to explore all the healthy eating and how they can be more faster and stronger and how they can recover better. Through small change of behavior you shape people's identity and the reason why I started thinking about that wasn't actually me helping someone or trying to change my habits.

Making Change Easy, Not Difficult

Speaker 1 5:50

I was thinking about sales. And why is it that, with great need and value proposition and showing people that, hey, this problem in their organization, in company, of resistance to change or of adopting new technologies not working that fast, that can be solved by doing this program together, where we learn how to make organization change capable, but sales are not falling into my lap. We would talk with people and they would agree on all the points and then they wouldn't move forward. And I was thinking why is that? And I realized that, being in my position, not having a lot of brand, not having a lot of experience working on larger projects I might be asking for people to change too much all at the same time, too much too fast. And what if I approached it as I approach change of people, of identities, of behavior, one small step at a time, asking for smaller commitment, asking to take a much smaller step forward so we could build trust, so people can tiptoe their way into this new way of thinking and doing, so they can see small wins, they can see small results, they can see and understand how it's working. But the most important point is not asking them to all of a sudden become a different person who thinks and behaves differently, but instead just asking them to take the next smallest possible step and maybe figuring out that is my challenge or the next step for me, not asking for people to leap with me into the unknown of this new system or a way of thinking and doing that they've never tried before, all the change that's happening with their eye and everything that isn't enough right Now. I'm asking them to start thinking differently about the whole process of transformation rollout.

The Brain Wants to Save Energy

Speaker 1 8:09

I realized there hey, angela, maybe you are asking too much too fast of people, and you know why smaller change and why working on making behavior easy works so well, so much better than trying to ask people to get motivated or to just think about themselves differently and to change their beliefs. You know why it works so much better? Because your brain is designed to save energy, like that's one of your brain's primary purposes, because without energy, there is no life, there is nothing. You have no energy, you die, and that's why one of the, if not the biggest, jobs of your brain is to help you to save energy through modifying your decisions about different behaviors. And so when you ask for smaller steps forward that require a lot less energy thinking energy, doing energy the brain wants to do that, especially if you make it easier than other things and you can tell people this transformation can be a lot easier if we start it this way and you ask them to take very easy, simple step, very easier than what they were thinking about, this draconian effort to transform and change everyone. So lower the barrier of entry and by doing so you make the next step, saving energy, and by doing so you help the brain to make the right quote-unquote decision, but the decision you want. And by doing that you give a bigger transformation to take place over the course of some time, gaining momentum and increasing over time Because, as people again do new things consistently, they reshape their minds, their beliefs, their identity, and then that snowballs into them wanting to take more of the same action. And it's also based on really good behavioral research done, for example, by BJ Fogg. He is a scientist from Stanford and he created this very effective behavior model that is used in so many different fields.

Speaker 1 10:35

Behavior equals motivation, ability, prompt Motivation is our desire, our want, wanting to do the behavior, which, again, is actually the hardest thing to change, especially in people. You might not be that close to right. And then ability, it's the easiness of doing the step, and so when you ask for smaller steps, you increase people's ability of making the step or making the decision that you want them to make. And then prompt is a reminder, something that triggers the thought about taking this action. And that's where also the concept of nudges that's also been written about and put into action and strategy in governments and organizations. That's where the concept of nudging comes in Nudge is a redesign of a system that makes the action that we want people to take, the decision that we want people to make, simple and easy.

Speaker 1 11:40

And when you nudge, don't force, don't push, don't ask people to leap, it turns out that people take the desired path and over time, their whole identity is changed because they consistently start doing new things. So, to sum it up, when we try to change what we do or we try to change what others do, trying to reshape organizations and governments and just simply helping our family and friends, or making sales, it's useful to ask, not how do I make them change their mind or who they are, how do I make them right, so to speak, but how can I make the decision, action I want them to take, easy and simple for them. So whenever you're trying to make a sale, or whenever you're trying to transform your team, your organization, your family, whenever you're trying to help someone, ask yourself this question. First of all, ask yourself this question Am I trying to make them leap? Am I trying to make them into a different person? Am I trying to fix their thinking, their values? Am I asking for too much here from an adult, even from a kid? Even a kid develops their identity and they're very resistant at changing that. So am I asking too much too fast? Am I asking them to leave? And then the second question how can I make what, from my perspective, is right, is a good idea for them to do? How can I make this easy and simple for them and no brainer? So there is no friction.

Applying Behavior Change to Business

Speaker 1 13:19

And when I listened and read from different entrepreneurs, business owners, when they talk about sales, they would often say that, yeah, you might be pumping up your offer, making it the next best thing ever, but actually what works a lot more effectively and that's coming from their experience is making things easy and fast. And the more they experience they got in business, they realize that that thing is actually the most important thing Making it easy, making it fast Because the brain works this way. It wants to save energy, it wants to do the easiest, the fastest thing, and so if that is your thing the easiest, the fastest that produces the result that your customer or people you're trying to change want, then they're going to do that and you don't need to persuade them. You don't need to fix them. You don't need to change what they think or what they value or their identities. No, you just give them the easiest, simplest option to move them in the direction where they already want to go. That's it for today, guys.

Speaker 1 14:31

I hope this podcast episode was useful. It's definitely been a mind changer for me. So, as I'm working on my offers and on my sales, I was walking today and thinking like why isn't that working exactly? The offer is there, the pain is there. I talk to people, why aren't people saying yes? And then I thought about this concept that I just read in the book and I'm like huh, maybe I am asking too much, too fast.

Speaker 1 14:59

Sometimes for us human beings, it's harder to translate the experience that we have in one domain, like in coaching. I know this works, so why don't I know that it works in sales as well? So sometimes it's harder to see how the same experience or the same truth or the same method applies in different domain of our life. And very often, guys, it's also very useful. We're almost done. So bear with me for a moment.

Speaker 1 15:29

Very often you need to look at the areas of your life where you are already successful. So I thought to myself you know, I'm very successful at changing my own behavior and habits and sticking with it and changing is like whatever I need to change, right, how can I apply that to sales and business? And the more I learned to transfer that skill set into this arena, the more success I see. And so today I learned huh. So when I'm trying to change myself or helping other people to change, I learned that I need to ask for little steps first, like learning my Italian five minutes a day first, making consistent first, or changing nutrition or exercise program just one thing at a time. Or working on my offers, or working on my public speaking, like five minutes. What can I do in five minutes? Five minutes if you don't have five minutes for what you want, right, you don't have a life, but anyhow. So now I'm transferring that to sales.

Speaker 1 16:34

Okay, so people are not saying yes, maybe because I'm asking just for them to become a different person, and they don't even know me and I don't even have that big of a track record in this new industry, in this new endeavor. So why should they? Right Now? It it sounds very obvious, but when you're in it and you don't pull yourself out and you don't look into a bigger picture or different perspective, it's very often you just get stuck, running in loops. But the good way to understand that you're stuck and you're running in loops if you're not seeing change in results, and that's where you know you need to stop, pull yourself out and ask yourself what am I doing wrong here? So let me test it out and I might get back to this topic. But I know that it works in behavior.

Call to Share and Grow Together

Speaker 1 17:22

Now I learned in this book that it works in big companies when leaders are trying to turn them around and to reinvent the business to survive and to thrive. So it works there. It might just work in sales, because I also learned from leaders in entrepreneurship in business that I look up to that they focus on making it easy, on making it simple, not creating the best thing out there. To sum it up again, again, the next time, maybe ask not how can I change them, how can I persuade them, how can I motivate it or influence them, but ask how can I make it easy for myself and for other people?

Speaker 1 18:03

Folks, don't forget to share this podcast episode with at least one other person who you think needs that and would greatly benefit from hearing this advice. Maybe they're also trying to leap and take people with them. Maybe it's worse for them to hear that they need to start smaller. So please do share at least with one other person that's how we change, how we grow together, and then maybe discuss what you learned on this podcast and how you can apply to different domains in your life where you might be struggling or you might be stuck. So please share. Rate review. It helps this podcast to reach more ears and change the world faster. Let's be the change we want to see in the world. Thank you, guys. Stay in the grow and until next time, take smaller steps, make it easy and see what happens.