Commitment and Consistency Helps People to Say "Yes"

Most salespeople would like to be more consistent at sales, and sometimes forget to use consistency with their customers. By this I mean that there is a basic psychological principal that states that most human beings like to think of themselves as being consistent.  After all, if you had a choice, would you rather be known as "Mister Wishy-Washy?" Or "Mister Consistent?"   

 My guess is the latter.

 So if I can get you to make a stand, and go on record for President X, for example, I will have set the stage to ask you to post a sign in your front yard. Once you have posted a sign in your yard, I can then ask for a small, additional campaign donation, couldn't I? Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are sbbornly consistent with the stand, and most people will agree to the request.

Commitment and consistency helps to explain why writing down goals is more powerful than just thinking about them. Because once a person takes a solid stand on an issue, they are more likely to be consistent with it - in both their thoughts and in their actions.

 Psychologists once ran a consistency experiment that went like this. They placed a poorly lettered sign in the front yard of a house that said "Drive Carefully," and found that most people didn't even slow down to notice it. Then the experiment was moved to a different neighborhood and run again. This time a full 76% of people agreed to the request. What was the difference between the two similar houses? The second group of neighbors had consented to displaying a three-inch square sign that said, "Be a Safe Driver." The second group felt obligated to honor their commitment.

 What this means to you is that any small commitment step that you can ask a person to agree to, will help with bigger requests. That partially explains why a customer who has just purchased something from you (even something small) would be an ideal candidate for another more expensive product or service.

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