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KOZMINSKI UNIVERSITY
Psychology in Management

Individual paper

Understanding of Customer Psychology in

Sales

Shagun Goel
39951-EX

Academic Year 2019

Semester: 2

I hereby certify that this paper is the result of my own work and that
all sources I used have been reported.

Signature _____________

© Kozminski University 2019

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It is rightly said by the legendary Brian Tracy that the businesses are the real creators
of wealth in our society, and “Salespeople are the most vital people in any business”.
I begin my discussion by putting out that the absolute importance of salesperson is
businesses and revenue generation, but the larger question that we need to reflect
upon is How?
Begin by questioning yourself: Why do you have that dress that you know that you
will never wear or the vegetable chopper that you bought but never ended up using
because it's so time consuming?
When you begin to ask these questions, you begin to form an understanding that
bridges between sales and psychology of your customer and how one can work
around with the psychology of your customer and convince them to buy what you
want to sell.
In order to bring closer, the topic of understanding of customer psychology in sales
and analyze it, it is necessary to define what exactly Buyer behavior is.
Consumer Behaviour or the Buyer Behaviour refers to the behaviour shown by the
individual during the purchase, consumption or disposal of any specific product or
services.
Consumer research enables companies and organisations enhance their marketing st
rategies by knowing problems such as-
 how customers believe, perceive, understand, and select between different
alternatives such as designs, brands, products, and retailers;
 how customers are influenced by their surroundings such as
society, families, media;
 Limitations of understanding of new technological product by customers.
 Understanding the reasons why a customer buys a product beyond the price is
a complicated problem.

So, while doing an innovative selling, the need of knowing potential customers is
incredibly high. This is because innovative selling involves arousing customers '
willingness to purchase, thus creating more and more customers. Studying their
minds is therefore very important.
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Understanding the three types of buyers

Consumer behaviour study demonstrates that there are three groups of consumers
that can be defined by the "pain" they encounter when buying something.

1. Unconflicted- average spenders

2. Spendthrifts- people who can spend more before they reach their maximum
“buying pain”.
3. Tightwads- People who can spends less than average before they hit their
maximum “buying pain”.
Tightwads customers are the most difficult type of buyer to get converted.

Brian Tracy in his book ' The Psychology of selling' talks about how if salespersons
concentrate on improving slightly in important sales fields, it will accumulates in “an
extraordinary difference in income.” He gives these 7 key areas to achieve the same
which are:
1. Prospecting
2. Building rapport
3. Identifying needs
4. Presenting
5. Answering objections
6. Closing the sale
7. Getting resales and referrals
The secret to more sales is as easy as knowing consumer behaviour and learning
what your customers needs from your business when it comes to converting
customers.
Tracy also highlights how the 'self-concept' of the salesperson has a vital role to play
in the process of selling.
He highlights the importance of setting up realistic sales goals which are oriented in
the direction of annual income goal, annual sales goal, monthly and weekly goals,
daily sales goal, activity goals etc and should make sure to achieve them.
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Tracy points to the most important question ' Why does the customer buy?'
In this, one shouldn't only focus on price and qualities of the product but we need to
realize that the customer has emotional demands as well. As humans all of us want
to be appreciated and many a times the driving force to buy a particular product
would be to fulfil the emotional and social needs that one has.
According to the researchers and psychologists, the primary customer needs are:
 Money
 Security
 Being liked
 Status and prestige
 Health and fitness
 Praise and recognition
 Power, influence, and popularity
 Leading the field
 Love and companionship
 Personal growth
 Personal transformation

Thus, the salesperson needs to engage in creative selling and give specific answers to
specific demands and should have clear goals. The salesperson needs to convince
that the product that they are selling is better than others and will bring a positive
change in the life of the buyer.

Sometimes one also has to undertake different techniques to trick the psyche of the
buyer.
It can be different sale schemes or the deadline technique which attacks on our
psyche of not wanting to miss out. By undertaking such techniques, it is easier to
trick the customer to buy a product.
Certain additional factors would also be extremely important like the body language
and the communicational skills of the salesperson. The salesperson has to be
welcoming and polite. The body language should be positive and should minimize
prospects of disruption.
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CONCLUSION
While this is a brief understanding of how one can make an effective deal, one also
has to keep in mind that each human is unique and the way to go about each
individual also has to be different. A salesperson should have excellent interpersonal
and intrapersonal qualities so that they can relate and communicate better. Thus, I
would conclude by saying that each business requires a team of good salesperson.
Business and psychology go hand in hand and it is impossible to think of them as
separate as the basic driving force for any business would be a customer! Therefore,
the knowledge and effective comprehension of the human psychology is
regarded an asset to the seller and the seller has to assess the psychology of the
clients, depending upon the values of the deal.

REFERENCES
https://www.marcwayshak.com/psychology-of-selling-13-steps/
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-psychology-of-selling
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/complexity/2019/2837938/
https://www.quicksprout.com/consumer-psychology/
https://thesisleader.com/essays/consumer-behavior-report/
https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/
https://feinternational.com/blog/marketing-psychology-9-strategies-influence-
consumers/
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/importance-of-consumer-behaviour-
to-business-managers-marketing-essay.php
https://www.helpscout.com/consumer-behavior/
http://www.shareyouressays.com/essays/essay-on-the-importance-of-psychology-
in-selling/90084