CAN NEUROSCIENCE

ENHANCE SALES
EFFECTIVENESS?
- Exploring possibilities under the lens
of the IT & Software Industry

WHITE PAPER 2020

© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

 INTRODUCTION
The current business landscape is most precisely described as a complex realm. With the
obsolescence of the archaic classic times wherein supply simply created its own demand,
concentrated efforts into selling are extremely vital today.
Specifically talking about the IT and Software industry, it’s safe to say that it has
become synonymous with agile innovation, cutthroat competition with very limited
product differentiation, and unending uncertainty.

Against this backdrop, effective sales people

and processes are imperative for businesses
to grow, or for that matter even stay afloat!
At the end of the day, if the conversion rates
are inadequate, the entire organization can
derail in terms of morale, revenue, and
profitability - irrespective of the quality of
the technology product or service.
In this white paper, we shall explore the
current challenges faced by the sales function
in the IT & Software business environment
and, in that light, analyze tangible
possibilities of enhancing sales effectiveness
from the view point of modern neuroscience.

© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

 2.
KEY CHALLENGES IN THE
B2B TECHNOLOGY SALES
REALM TODAY
B2B technology products and services typically form an expensive investment for
their buyers, thereby making this purchase decision a naturally complex one.

Following are the common set of challenges that emerge in the realm -

 Long durations of sales cycles

Sales cycles refer to the time gap between the first touch point and finally sealing
the deal. They are usually quite long for B2B technology products and services and
typically range anywhere between three months to eighteen months.

This makes the entire journey across the funnel quite intensive for the sales team –
whether it is the Awareness, Interest, Desire, or Action phase.

 The interplay of multiple stakeholders

Since technology purchase is a costly and long term one, the decision-making is not
centralized or restricted to just a single person. Instead, it is spread across different
functions, seniority levels or even geographies that may not examine all factors from the
same set of criteria.

 Constantly fluctuating minds

While there is plurality in both the number of months and the number of minds to convince,
an additional challenge that arises as a concoction of the two is the fluctuating minds of the
same set of people over the different stages in the sales cycle.
© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.
 3.
WHAT DENTS THE EFFICACY
OF MODERN DAY TECH
SALES TEAMS?
Even though the challenges described above are quite consequential,
the sales strategies and tactics followed by majority teams still seem 55% of salespeople
to be quite outdated. As per an article titled “6 Tips For Hiring Your lack even the basic
Next Sales All-Star” on Forbes, as many as 55% of salespeople lack set of skills that
even the basic set of skills that are demanded by the role. are demanded by
The following facets typically retard the ability of most sales the role - Forbes
people to successfully close deals -

3.1. A monochromatic approach

Majority teams in the technology sales function approach their processes as an “art”
instead of a well-rounded “science”. They either just focus on their product, features, and
benefits or only try to appeal emotionally as against giving balanced weightage to soft
skills or addressing why the brain buys.

3.2. Ignoring the superseding hard facts

The only numbers that majority of the sales teams track at the end of the day are the
absolute conversion figures that measure the “what” or the success rate achieved, without
delving into any scientific explanation of the factors influencing those numbers or the
“why” behind them. This forms a key leakage in the short and long-term efficacy.

3.3. Overlooking the intricacies of the buyer’s brain

Finally, even though some teams do formulate buyer-centric sales strategies, they fail to
address the most important component – the buyer’s brain, which pretty much forms the
core of the decision-making.

© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

Against the background of the above limitations of sales teams, a proven and dependable
solution lies in learning clearly about the complexities of human buying behavior. Science
has revealed that people make decisions as a complex function of several motivations that
are beyond just cost-benefit analysis or emotions. A deeper understanding and
acknowledgement of this reality can make all the difference in addressing the low sales
conversion cycle and can be well explained by applications of modern neuroscience.

4.
THE GROWING RELEVANCE
OF MODERN NEUROSCIENCE
Neuroscience in simplistic terms refers to the study of the nervous system and the brain,
the most complicated and intricate faculty in living organisms.

Neuroscience in simplistic terms refers to the study of the nervous system and the brain,
the most complicated and intricate faculty in living organisms. In this division of science,
the impact of the brain on behavior and cognitive functions can be measured. Even though
the field has traditionally formed a part of biology, today it has relevant applications in a
wide range of disciplines ranging right from mathematics, linguistics to computer science,
philosophy, and psychology. As an industry at large, the global neuroscience market is
expected to exhibit a CAGR of 3.9% between 2019-2027, to surpass US$ 38.9 Billion by the
end of the forecast period.
© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

HOW DOES NEUROSCIENCE
INFLUENCE SALES RESULTS?
Essentially, its prime application lies in
acknowledging that effective sales
persuasion is not just a standard constant
function of ‘perceived’ charisma, luck,
timing or product features but a variable
scientific process that has quite a bit to do
with the anatomy of the human brain.
applications in terms of tangibly influencing and increasing sales conversions.
5.
Social neuroscience, under its umbrella, lends
scientific backing to the traditional art-based
approach towards selling. It helps to
systematically and accurately decode how
different sets of buyer’s brains work in a real
purchase situation and what a seller can do to
successfully influence the interplay of
prospect(s) towards the desired action. As a
result, the discipline has garnered many proven

The first step towards enhancing sales effectiveness with neuroscience is acknowledging
that closing any deal is all about connecting with and influencing the array of human
decision-makers involved. The next step is getting inside the workings of their minds and
understanding the cocktail that gets triggered during the different stages of the sales cycle.
Thereafter, leveraging this understanding to navigate across the layers of the sales funnel.

© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

 6.
A PEEK INTO THE
HUMAN ANATOMY
As per neuroscience, the parts of the human brain that are actively involved in any purchase
decision making process can be divided into 3 broad areas – the Logical (Neocortex),
Emotional (Limbic), and the Instinctual (Reptilian) brain.

The logical brain analyzes information from a rational perspective. The emotional brain
provokes an individual to bend towards a particular decision. On the other hand, the
instinctual brain assumes responsibility for protecting and guides the so-called gut feeling
about people or situations. Any well-rounded sales pitch needs to appeal to each of these
divisions of the brain to enhance the chances of conversion.
Your actions
Traditional sales practices revolve only around are not your own
catering to the logical processing area of the brain, Your three brains
disregarding the emotional and instinctual brain. This
makes the process incomplete and retards the
effectiveness of sales pursuits – no matter how good
the product or service is.

A study discussed in the Harvard Business Review

titled “Vision Statement: Do You Really Know Who
Your Best Salespeople Are?” stated that, as many as
63% of salespeople regularly behave in ways that
dampen the likelihood of a conversion. This pretty much proves that there has been a key
component missing in most sales strategies and processes.

Neuroscience based selling, on the other hand, advocates for a full circle. It gives equal
importance to the emotional and instinctual brain in addition to the logical brain.

© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

 7.
THE HOLISTIC NEUROSCIENCE
BASED APPROACH TO EFFECTIVE
TECHNOLOGY SALES
Given the fact that multiple decision-makers have a role to play in a technology purchase
decision, it’s intuitive to appeal to each of the groups involved.

That’s because the motivations of saying yes and no could

KILL THE
vary quite a bit across functions and seniority levels. For DEFENSES
OF THE
instance, a CFO could be more concerned about Return on INSTINCTUAL
BRAIN
Investment, whereas a COO could be evaluating the product
from the efficiency of a process standpoint. On the other
hand, someone lower down the hierarchy could be more
concerned about the instant benefit or reduced effort they
can achieve by implementing the technology. TRI-FOLD
NEUROSCIENCE
FRAMEWORK
Hence, it’s wise to begin with basic research, identify the
different groups involved, and then apply the
PULL THE
holistic Tri-Fold Neuroscience Framework CONVINCE RIGHT CHORDS
THE LOGICAL IN THE
to win at technology sales, which is BRAIN EMOTIONAL
BRAIN
described below.

 Kill the defenses of the instinctual brain

The killing of instinctual defenses can be achieved by investing time and effort to make
each of the stakeholders in the buyer organization like you as a seller.

© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.

 Unfortunately, as per Forrester Research, as many as 8 out of 10 executive buyers feel
that their meetings with sales reps are a sheer waste of time, with their preparedness
level appearing as poor as F. Starting out with this kind of a negative impression is
exceedingly damaging for the end result. The statistic clearly indicates how
important it is to get to know prospects well enough first.

Next, what needs to be understood is that nobody likes to be sold to. Getting any
prospect to feel so in the early stage can immediately compel them to pull up their
guards, and derail the whole process. Given this reality, what is important for sales
teams is investing in effort to build a real rapport with each of the different
stakeholders involved in the decision-making process.

Exploring common interests, sharing personal information, behaving like more of a

consultant than a seller, along with using the right choice of words is some of the
ways that could help with this. For striking meaningful conversations, broad areas to
know about well beforehand include industry basics, key pain points, and individual
psyche across different levels of the corporate ladder. A generic understanding of the
different groups of people, ideally combined with specific individual insights works best.

While basic research and industry knowledge can guide with respect to the generics,
uncovering individual insights is tougher. A combination of deeper research and
technology tools could be deployed for the same.

 Pull the right chords in the emotional brain

Next, if the stakeholders have a sense of
basic trust in place, the proceeding step is
invoking the right mix of emotions that
can motivate them to be attentive and
move ahead in the buying journey.

Usually, if you can get the prospect to

imagine and fall in love with how they
think they will feel after using the product
or service, the most difficult part of the
job is done. However, a word of caution
here is that this needs to be done in
non-intrusive ways throughout the sales cycle at regular intervals. The idea is to stay on
top of mind without forcefully targeting people when they’re tired, stressed or simply not
interested.
© 2020 All rights reserved by TalSmart.
 What is also important is being particular about not over-promising or abusing the
emotional aspect with tactics such as invoking too much of any negative emotion
such as fear, frustration, or creating a sense of false urgency as this kind of abuse
creates a negative impact in the long term. It is key to understand that the whole idea
behind all emotional foreplay should only be to get attention at different steps but
not force any kind of instant decision-making.

 Convince the logical brain

Finally, once the different stakeholders trust and are attentive, the only link in the chain that
remains is to prove your credibility and rule out the logical objections to the purchase!

Statistics suggest that as many as 58 percent of buyers feel that sales representatives are
simply unable to respond to their questions satisfactorily. Knowing and explaining the
product or service features well, and establishing credibility with testimonials, statistics and
references can help negate the problem and help in successfully convincing the logical brain.

A word of caution: In some individuals, the order of the occurrence of the above three steps
could be interchanged. However, the underlying principle towards addressing each of the
areas of the brain remain unchanged irrespective of the sequence.
 8.
CONCLUSION
With increasing competition, limited product differentiation, and dynamism in the technology
business environment, sales form a key metric for survival and growth.

B2B Technology sales cycles are typically quite long and are characterized by the interplay of
multiple stakeholders who tend to keep changing their minds at the different stages of the
buyer journey. This reality necessitates the elimination of outdated monochromatic strategies
that just stick with the intuition of what works without any scientific backing behind it.

What needs to stop is the focus around selling without the understanding of why the brain
buys! The truth to acknowledge instead, is that human motivation behind making
decisions is complex and multi-dimensional. Understanding the very intricacies of the
human brain before attempting to influence it to take a particular action is what modern
neuroscience can help with.

The discipline offers a holistic approach to addressing the 3 broad areas of the brain that
get triggered during a sales cycle – the instinctual, emotional, and logical brain and
influence individuals effectively. Applying the tri-fold neuroscience framework can help
measurably empower sales professionals to achieve greater conversion rates.
Talsmart is a global player that imparts industry relevant
practical sales competency using industry experts, and
principles of neuroscience. Our training is highly
contextual, extremely sticky and enables the development
of muscle memory that creates lasting changes in key sales
person attributes of courage, compassion and
commitment. TalSmart is headquartered in Dallas, TX.

TALSMART
Dallas, Texas, United States
MAIL : pk@talsmart.com
js@talsmart.com
PHONE : 1-469-360-2160
www.talsmart.com