Can a joke change the course of a sale?

In Robert Cialdini’s NY Times best-selling book, Pre-Suasion, he argues that the success of persuasion often depends on what happens before the act of persuasion, as much as on the act itself.

For instance, he tells the story of a friend who was experiencing significant push-back and discontent from prospects and clients in regard to pricing. Then the friend stumbled upon a simple joke that changed the game and ended the price wrangling forever.

The joke worked because of the power of something Cialdini calls “privileged moments.”

Harnessing the power of privileged moments

According to Cialdini’s research, certain events, words, and music can create “privileged moments” in a person’s brain. A privileged moment refers to a time when the brain is particularly susceptible to saying “yes” to specific requests or opportunities.

For instance, German music playing in a wine store can create a “privileged moment” in the buyer’s mind that makes them more susceptible to buying German wine. The moment lasts only as long as they can hear the music, or for a short time after, and it works whether they consciously notice the music or not.

Another type of privileged moment is the one created when one person does another person a small favor. For instance, Cialdini tells the story of how the dean of a college got him to agree to teaching a class even though he knew it would delay production of his book. Cialdini had been in negotiations with the university over the location of his office space, the amount of his salary, the availability of a secretary, and other details. The dean called him up and told him, “We’ve arranged for all of it. You’ll have the amount you want, an office in your preferred location, and everything else is taken care of as well. Congratulations.” Thrilled, Cialdini was ill prepared to refuse the request that came immediately after for him to teach a class “as a favor” to the dean.

Cialdini admits that if the dean had asked him even a day or two later, he would have said, “No,” but in the privileged moment right after the dean had announced the “favor” he had done for Cialdini, he simply couldn’t muster the internal resources to turn down the dean’s request.

Privileged moments can also occur in the wake of a simple question. For instance, when surveyors in one experiment asked passersby whether they thought of themselves as “helpful,” participation in the survey lept from 29 percent to more than 77 percent. In this case, the surveyors took advantage of the privileged moment created by asking participants to see themselves as helpful people.

If all of this sounds a little woo-woo to you, you’re not alone. It seems improbable. But Cialdini has the academic research and the experience to back it up. Ninety pages of references, in fact, plus another 67 pages of detailed notes on his research.

How the sales process can harness privileged moments (without being cheesy or unethical)

As Cialdini’s research amply demonstrates, the power of privileged moments in sales environments has been proven out across many industries and environments, from selling wine to selling consulting contracts.

But can privileged moments be harnessed systematically in a company’s sales process? Cialdini’s work says, “yes.” Remember the joke that eliminated push-back on pricing? It worked every time, on every sale thereafter. Here’s how it went:

Right before announcing pricing (which was $75,000), the salesperson would say, “Obviously, I can’t charge you a million dollars for this.” The client would agree. They would both laugh. The privileged moment was primed for the client to be happy with a much lower amount than “a million dollars.”

It didn’t guarantee the sale, but it did significantly reduce pushback on pricing.

In a sales organization, salespeople can be trained to create privileged moments in a variety of ways. If you’ve got the right sales enablement software, the behaviors that lead to those privileged moments can be built in and reinforced throughout the process.

Throughout the book, Cialdini emphasizes the importance of using privileged moments and other elements of pre-suasion responsibly. We want to be very careful not to recreate an old-fashioned sales environment where salespeople rely on slimy “tricks” to get the sales made.

But in many instances, privileged moments can be created that benefit both the buyer and the seller, to create trust, build rapport, and call the buyer’s attention to the important aspects of the buying decision.

What do you think? Should sales departments build “privileged moment” behaviors into their sales process? Have you done this in your department? Or do you find this to be too manipulative? I would love to hear from you.

And don’t miss out on the book, which contains a great deal more interesting insights and research for salespeople, managers, and executives to sink their teeth into.