Attitude and Behavior Change
Attitude and Behavior Change
Lim, Gerald Ker Yong (V00791703)
University of Victoria
Increasing Corporate Sales The biggest problem faced by businesses is the inability to maintain or increase corporate sales. One way to change this phenomenon is to leverage on the innate attitudes and behaviors of individuals. With an explicit understanding and utilization of social psychology principles, customers can be persuaded into saying – yes. In this paper, we will focus on three areas of social psychology to influence sales, principles of attraction, the foot-in-the-door phenomenon, and social influence. How many times have you walked out of a retail store, satisfied with your purchase, but more satisfied with the customer service received? What you have just experienced could probably the social psychology principle of attraction. The salesperson that you have just interacted with has subconsciously attracted you through his words and actions. Companies need to encourage their staff to create connections with customers, by emphasizing similarities. There are many ways to highlight similarities. It could be as simple as having the same cultural background, living in the same neighborhood, the joy of having kids or even the love for technology. The list is not exhaustive, and every effort should be made to try to draw customers to the business. Customers are just like us, the average human being. We like people, who are like us. It is through this fact where the Power of Relationships comes into play, and drives the potential customer to make a purchase (Colgate, 2006).
However, businesses can take things a step further, and utilize the principles of reciprocal liking. In short, it means if a salesperson presents himself as a person who is genuinely interested in customer concerns, whether is it limitations of budget or lack of knowledge of the product or service sold, it is probable that the customer might reciprocate and commit to a transaction. Joe Girard
Lim, Gerald Ker Yong (V00791703)
University of Victoria
Increasing Corporate Sales The biggest problem faced by businesses is the inability to maintain or increase corporate sales. One way to change this phenomenon is to leverage on the innate attitudes and behaviors of individuals. With an explicit understanding and utilization of social psychology principles, customers can be persuaded into saying – yes. In this paper, we will focus on three areas of social psychology to influence sales, principles of attraction, the foot-in-the-door phenomenon, and social influence. How many times have you walked out of a retail store, satisfied with your purchase, but more satisfied with the customer service received? What you have just experienced could probably the social psychology principle of attraction. The salesperson that you have just interacted with has subconsciously attracted you through his words and actions. Companies need to encourage their staff to create connections with customers, by emphasizing similarities. There are many ways to highlight similarities. It could be as simple as having the same cultural background, living in the same neighborhood, the joy of having kids or even the love for technology. The list is not exhaustive, and every effort should be made to try to draw customers to the business. Customers are just like us, the average human being. We like people, who are like us. It is through this fact where the Power of Relationships comes into play, and drives the potential customer to make a purchase (Colgate, 2006).
However, businesses can take things a step further, and utilize the principles of reciprocal liking. In short, it means if a salesperson presents himself as a person who is genuinely interested in customer concerns, whether is it limitations of budget or lack of knowledge of the product or service sold, it is probable that the customer might reciprocate and commit to a transaction. Joe Girard
References: Colgate, M, 2006. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty. University of Auckland Business Review Volume 1, 1999. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://www.uabr.auckland.ac.nz/files/articles/Volume1/v1i1-customer-satisfaction.pdf Girard, J 2006. Love Your Customers. Harvard Business Review. Herbout, Gueguen and Grandjean, 2008. Foot-In-The-Door Application in Organization: How Employees Could be More Effective? European Journal of Scientific Research. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://nicolas.gueguen.free.fr/Articles/EJSR2008.pdf Myers, D. G, 2010. Chapter 16: Social Psychology. Psychology (9th Edition) New York: Worth Publishing.