Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
A colleague of mine calls it “assumicide” – trying to convince a prospect to say yes by offering a careful and exhaustive presentation of a proposal’s assumptions and merits. There’s a more powerful route to yes, however: using heuristics to align yourself with your prospect.
While some people systematically process the pluses and minuses of a given offering, many use mental shortcuts based on past experience when confronted with a difficult decision. Psychologists refer to the former method as “heuristics. These mental shortcuts permit us to reach quick and easy solutions to complex issues.
The prevalence of the use of shortcuts over reasoned analysis is surprisingly pervasive. Reasoned analysis may lead to superior decisions, but it is not as widely used. One study found that participants who either spoke with a person for a few minutes or sat quietly in a room with a person were more likely to agree to a request from that person than participants who had no prior exposure to the person making the request. The same study found that participants were more likely to agree to the request when they were led to believe that the other person had personality traits similar to theirs.
Trivial similarities between you and your prospects can positively impact their decisions.
Using heuristics
I'm not suggesting the merits of your proposals are irrelevant. The merits are critically important. However, make sure to spend some time exploring similarities between you and your prospect rather than simply launching into a presentation about your offering.
Here's a summary of frequently used heuristics:
Sharing a birthday
You might not think having the same birthday as a person might influence your ability to convert that prospect into a client. But trivial parallels, such as sharing a date of birth, are known as "incidental similarities." There’s ample evidence that incidental similarities are often used as heuristics to influence decision-making.
Grigori Rasputin was a highly controversial and divisive historical figure. He was an adviser to the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, in the early 1900s but was known colloquially as the "mad monk of Russia." But in one study, participants evaluated him more kindly when they were told they shared a birthday with him.
Letters and numbers
People believe the first letter in their name is more attractive than other letters. They also have a preference for the numbers representing their date of birth.
These beliefs aren’t rational. However, your prospect may refer to these connections to avoid the time and effort of a reasoned analysis. Knowing this may be their preferred way to reach a decision, you might consider reinforcing these similarities. For example, when I meet a person named “Dan”, I usually say: “Thankfully, I will have no difficulty remembering your name.”
Physical appearance
Attractive people are perceived to be better at communicating, more likable, more knowledgeable and more trustworthy than their less-attractive colleagues. These findings are unrelated to gender — people of both genders tend to believe physically attractive men and women are intelligent and good.
Our perceptions about the positive relationship between intelligence and physical beauty begin at a very young age: First- and second-graders believe better-looking teachers are more intelligent.
While, short of plastic surgery, you can’t alter your appearance, there’s a lot you can do to maximize your physical attractiveness. Start by paying attention to your clothes and grooming.
Other characteristics
When we meet another person for the first time, we are driven to find some common ground. I recall an incident when my wife and I were waiting in a long line to enter a museum in Florence. The couple in front of us were also American. They asked where we lived. We told them we were from Florida. The man (who lived in Washington, D.C.) looked at his wife and said: "Wow, honey. These people are from Florida,” with the same feigned excitement as if he was meeting someone from an undiscovered tribe in the Amazon. I'm sure you have had similar experiences with people desperate to find a basis of commonality.
The lengths people will go to find an incidental similarity may surprise you. One study found that participants who believed their fingerprints were similar to those of another participant considered that participant more attractive, especially when they were told that it was very uncommon for such a similarity to exist.
Dan Solin is the director of investor advocacy for the BAM Alliance and a wealth advisor with Buckingham. He is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. He limits his sales coaching practice to advisory firms that advocate evidence-based investing.
Read more articles by Daniel Solin
