What’s really driving decisions?

So why did your competitor win that work when you didn’t? There are often many potential rational reasons a prospect could give you – lower price, functionality differences, service, experience, etc. Sometimes though, if you question a prospect hard enough after a sales loss there seems to be little substance to their reasoning. They can’t back up their thinking or you just get the feeling that they’re plucking reasons out of thin air to get rid of you.

I recently read a fantastic book unrelated to sales, that had as one of it’s core concepts the idea of decision-making by “head” and “gut”. “Head” is rational decision-making. “Gut” is, for want of a better phrase, emotional, primeval decision-making, unconnected to the rational mind. It’s why, for example, you get that feeling that you just don’t like someone, even if you can’t explain why.

The world of business is ostensibly highly rational. So now is sales, with the widespread adoption of sales methodologies like Solution Selling. In trying to make sense of our world, have we swung too far towards seeing it as a solely rational place? The prospect who cannot give you a solid reason for the lost sale gives us the prime example of “Gut” decision-making. As we try to unravel why we lost the sale, are we prepared to entertain the possibility that the reason may be ridiculously trivial and irrational? It’s not something we want to do, as it doesn’t fit into our supposedly highly rational world.

“Gut” may be driving the decisions that impact your success.