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Dennis Collins: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Connect & Convert. The only place you can get insider secrets for small business owners to accelerate their sales like lightning. Hey, I’m Dennis Collins, and my partner today is…

Leah Bumphrey: Leah Bumphrey. Hi!

Dennis Collins: You came back again. I always wonder if you’re going to come back.

When I say partner, I’m always going to wonder if you show up, but thanks for coming back. 

Leah Bumphrey: Absolutely, we have a lot of fun.

Dennis Collins: We do. And hopefully, we say some stuff that’s important every once in a while. 

Leah Bumphrey: I love this topic that we’re going into today. This is going to be fun.

Dennis Collins: The topic is called the power of priming.

What the heck does that have to do with sales? First of all, Leah, you have to explain priming to me because I’m a city boy and I don’t know anything about priming. 

Leah Bumphrey: You know, when we were talking about this, this is when I figured out what kind of a city boy you are. Because when I think of priming, I remember when we were living, I wasn’t on a farm, although we worked on one and had an acreage. When you have a pump and if you’re priming a pump – if it’s a water pump, if it’s a gas pump, whatever it is – to prime it or to get it going, you have to give it just a little bit of what it is that it’s gonna be pumping. So if you’re at a well and you’re trying to prime that pump, you put a little bit of water in so that it starts pulling up the rest of the water.

Dennis Collins: Huh, really?

Leah Bumphrey: And then when you and I were talking about priming, even paint priming, because I know you and your wife were recently painting, and the putting on of that prime, because what happens when you throw it on the wall?

That prime paint gets sucked in so that then you can put the actual coat on. So that prime is that foundation no matter how you look at it.

Dennis Collins: That’s what my wife told me. She loves to paint. I don’t know a whole lot about it, except she taught me that you have to put that base down, that prime down first, or the actual real paint won’t look so good.

And you know, she’s right.

Leah Bumphrey: We are, of course, talking about sales and helping small businesses, that’s why we’re sponsored by Wizard Academy, right? Part of our mandate is to make sure that we’re inspiring small businesses. But when it comes to sales, when it comes to business, we’re always priming ourselves for the success that comes next. It’s that little bit. Whether you’re priming yourself for an interview or you’re going in to meet a potential new client, all that practicing that you do is priming yourself for that actual moment when you’re going to be sitting in front of someone and able to explain to them what you bring to the table and how you can help them.

Dennis Collins: You know, I’ve now had an education in priming from my wife and from you. So I have a pretty good idea of what it is. So how is priming going to relate to this? I mean, what we’re talking about in this podcast is person-to-person communications, right? Primarily to sell them something.

How do we communicate? How does priming help in selling situations? I hate to have technical definitions, but let’s get a technical definition from the American Psychological Association. What do they say priming is in the communications business? It’s a form of rapid cognition or intuition exposing a person to specific words or images that create a psychological state within the subject. It’s an unconscious way to activate a specific part of the brain, so they are more likely to recognize something that’s in front of them. So the concept was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. Did you read his book, Blink, by any chance?

Leah Bumphrey: I did. I’m a big fan of his writing style and the topics that he picks. He tends to really dive deep into specific things and give you a huge cross-section of things to think about. In this one, he was talking about that study, and I hadn’t heard about it when I played Trivial Pursuit. I should have when I was on the right team, but the concept was getting people into a room and then telling them before they were playing… First of all, these groups started imagining that they were college professors, and then the other group that they were just hooligans on the football field. And I’m not saying all football players are hooligans, but…

Dennis Collins: Oh, I will.

I’ll say that. Ha ha ha.

Leah Bumphrey: No, no, I have three sons and two of them played football. They weren’t hooligans. I know they weren’t.

Dennis Collins: Alright. I believe you. 

Leah Bumphrey: You know what? Guess who did better?

Dennis Collins: Oh, well let me guess. The hooligans. Ha ha ha.

Leah Bumphrey: Well, they did better at something, but not at Trivial Pursuit.

Dennis Collins: Oh. So they were primed with the thought of what would it mean to be a professor. And the others were primed to say, well, what would it mean to be a football hooligan? Is that pretty much how it went?

Leah Bumphrey: That’s exactly what happened. And of course, the team that was primed to be the professors, they were the ones that now it’s not giving them information or knowledge they didn’t have before, but it put them in a state that they recognized, “Hey, I got this, I can do this.” They started working as a team in a whole different way. As compared to the ones that were told basically they didn’t have what it took to win a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Dennis Collins: So what you’re telling me is that the prior associations mentioned before the actual activity totally influenced their performance.

Leah Bumphrey: That’s exactly right.

Dennis Collins: Amazing, isn’t it? Hey, speaking of that, I have another little quiz I’d like to give you. Are you up for a little quiz?

Leah Bumphrey: You know I am.

Dennis Collins: So I’m gonna read off two lists of words, okay? They each have five words, and each of the phrases has five words. And I want you to describe from the five words that I give you, which one is the words of a saint and which one would be the words of a criminal. Are you ready? Number one: giving, helping, others, selfish, taking. Number two: taking, selfish, others, helpful, giving.

What’s the criminal? What’s the saint?

Leah Bumphrey: The saint’s the first one. Giving. Helpful.

Dennis Collins: Why would you say that?

Leah Bumphrey: Well, the words you were using. Giving, helpful – right off the bat I could identify those as a saint.

Dennis Collins: But you’re smarter than the average bear. Do you think most people would get that?

Leah Bumphrey: Well, the study has shown that, and we have to be honest with the people listening. You and I have talked about this before, but it is fascinating that those first words that you said, and the list that they were giving, helpful, others – that’s what you hear. And what am I thinking? I’m hearing Saint. The next group, those first couple words – taking, selfish – I’m thinking criminal.

Dennis Collins: Did you notice that it’s the same words in both phrases?  You probably noticed that right away. It’s the same exact words, but it’s a different order.

Leah Bumphrey: And we’re primed by those first words, Dennis.

Dennis Collins: Perfect example, isn’t it? So let’s jump into a little more detail about what priming means for sales. I am a huge advocate of what’s called the sales call agenda. Some people call it the upfront agreement. It is basically your effort as the salesperson to control the agenda of the call. And, to me, that’s priming. Here are the five things that I’d like to talk about today. A, B, C, D, E. Is that okay? And get an okay. And to me, that is the best way to prime a sales call. Do you have experience with that?

Leah Bumphrey: Oh, absolutely. You know what? People, when you’re coming in on a sales call, Dennis, they know you’re trying to sell them. They don’t want to be stupid. They don’t want to make a wrong decision. In those first few seconds, it’s a little adversarial. You come across as too friendly and happy, give them a hug with your voice. They’re ready. They are ready and we’ve all had that bad experience with a salesperson who just comes across like they are only out there to sell and not motivated by doing the right thing.

Dennis Collins: Well, the sales call agenda, if done properly, is about the customer. Right? And so the next step is the proper upfront discovery questions. The right questions. And of course, asking questions is only half the job. What’s the other half?  How about listening?

Leah Bumphrey: What? Absolutely. What was that you said?

Dennis Collins: Can you hear me?

Leah Bumphrey: And isn’t it funny because you can be so tragically busy talking to clients, talking to the people we work with, talking to our spouses, and we’re thinking so much about what we are saying next because we’ve got stuff that we’re getting through, whether it’s a sales call, whether it’s supper, whatever it is, that we’re not hearing what they say. And then there’s no connection that’s being made.

Dennis Collins: I’ve heard this a lot. “Well, you know, we were ready to buy from that other salesperson, the last guy we saw. But he was a jerk. He didn’t listen to a thing we said.” What’s up with that, Leah?

Leah Bumphrey: Then you have to think about what your response is to that because it’s your opportunity to prime them. It’s your opportunity to have a real connection with them. “I hate when I hear stuff like that. That’s happened to me. I will try not to do that. Please tell me if I come across the same way.”

Dennis Collins: Right?

Leah Bumphrey: You’re opening yourself up.

Dennis Collins: You couldn’t say it better. Accept that as a moment to prime what’s going to follow by agreeing and saying, “Wow, I am sorry you had to go through that. I hope that didn’t color your opinion of me because I avoid that at all costs.” I will prove to you by repeating back to you and summarizing that I listened to everything you said. How’s that? Boom. Prime. You primed them to the fact that you’re going to listen.

You shared with me that you want a solution that is long-lasting. Our solution is the most durable on the market. Would that be a good prime?

Leah Bumphrey: Absolutely, because you’ve listened to what they said, you’re repeating it back, showing that you are on par with them. Every sales call, anybody that you speak to about a product, I don’t care what the product is, I don’t care what the business is, price is going to be a consideration. But depending on how they say it, if they’re saying that they want good value, or they only have so much money, or they’re concerned about price, or they’ve heard prices have gone up, this is an opportunity, again, to prime the conversation and say, you know, whether the product is the best value, whether you have the best financing solutions, you heard what they said, and so, dot, dot, dot.

Dennis Collins: So what you say first determines their response to what you say next, right? That’s the prime. That’s what I’m hearing. 

Leah Bumphrey: Yep, absolutely. That’s the prime.

Dennis Collins: Because words matter, but more importantly, as we’ve learned here today, their order, the order of your words matter. How are they used when you prime your prospect?

Either they’ll be primed to buy or be primed to run for the hills. Have you ever had a customer run for the hills?

Leah Bumphrey: I hope not. I gotta think about that. I live on the prairie so it’s pretty nice and flat, but yeah, there’s hills in the mountains.

Dennis Collins: Well, I have, unfortunately. What is the way to prime in this area? What is your solution going to do, right?

Leah Bumphrey: Yes, exactly. Because again, it’s got to be prospect oriented. It has to be oriented to what they’re thinking. If you didn’t hear them say what it is that they’re after and you’re offering them the absolute lowest or the absolute highest option that you have, but you don’t know that the sweet spot is here, totally unrelated to either of those. You’ve lost that opportunity to prime. You don’t know how it’s going to impact them.

Dennis Collins: So to that point – impact, how do you like this question? Would you advocate asking questions? How’s that going to make you feel? That’s a question that a lot of salespeople think is too touchy-feely, squishy. What do you think about that question? How does this solution make you feel?

Leah Bumphrey: I think everyone has a gut reaction, and if you’ve had enough of an introduction and a bit of a conversation so that you know how they are relating to you, it shouldn’t be an awkward question. How do you feel about this? How does this line up with what you were thinking? Am I out to lunch? Again, keep it real. Talk the way you talk.

Dennis Collins: I like that. Am I out to lunch?

Leah Bumphrey: I would ask that question.

Dennis Collins: It acknowledges the fact that most of us human beings buy emotionally and justify with facts. So yeah, the feeling comes into this and that’s a prime for sure.

Here’s a big one. I get this all the time. Price priming. How and when you present your price matters. Price priming alone sometimes backfires, but how do we price prime?

Leah Bumphrey: Again, questions. We want to know where they’re at. The worst thing in the world is to make an assumption, “Yeah, I know you’re not interested in that one.”

Never, ever make that call.

I’ve told you about my dad who sold cars for years and years there was a gentleman who came in and nobody would talk to him because he had a braid that was all the way down to his knees. And his shoes were not the fanciest shoes. But my dad sold him three of the most expensive vehicles on that lot over the next couple of months and his manager said to him, and this was a story my dad told me, “How are you doing this?” “Well, because I talked to him. This is a person.” Like, you can’t make the assumption that they don’t have the cash. This guy had more money than anybody working in that dealership.

Dennis Collins: If I had just a dime. You don’t have dimes in Canada.

Leah Bumphrey: We have nice dimes. Yours are skinnier than ours, but we have dimes.

Dennis Collins: So you know what a dime is. I don’t mean to use jargon on you, but if I had a dime for every time that I have coached, or worked with a salesperson who made assumptions. “I know what this guy’s going to say. I’ve been down this road a hundred times.” We would be out on my yacht today doing this podcast. Somewhere in the Caribbean. But anyway, that’s another story.

How about customer experience priming? How would you prime for customer experience? What would you talk about?

Leah Bumphrey: Well, think about the product and think about the customer and what does experience mean, right?

Is it going to be convenient for them? Is it going to be something that’s going to be very satisfying for them to go home and tell their spouse about it, or let their brother-in-law know? What’s positive? What kind of experiences? And Dennis, I’ve learned so much about social proofs from you, but, what kind of stories can you tell them about other people that have had a great experience so that they can start living that, so they can start feeling it?

Years and years ago, we used to call it the puppy dog close. You know, you take this home, once you get that puppy dog in the the door, it’s not coming home.

Once you get that car in the driveway, once someone is emotionally attached to the decision, what does Roy Williams say? The mind’s going to go where the heart is. And the heart is the one that we want to influence so that we will justify it, we will make the reasons to make a buying decision. Similarly, if I decide I don’t like you and I’m not going to buy from you, I don’t care how badly I want that. It’s not going to happen.

Dennis Collins: It ain’t happening. Being a dog lover, I can’t not comment on your dog reference. There have been at least three dogs in my life that were not supposed to live with us. They were fostered, right? They were coming for a brief period of time and they all left 15 or 16 years later when they passed. So there you go.

Leah Bumphrey: I love it.

Dennis Collins: The puppy dog is close, but it still works. So, I’m glad you brought up Social Proof as well.

We’ve done a couple of episodes on Social Proof back in the archives. If you’d like to catch up with that, you can check that out. It is one of the least used and most powerful primes that you could ever possibly use. We look to other people when we’re not sure what to do, not sure whether to buy this or buy that, we look to other people. What they did, we do. to make up our minds.

I have a bunch of recordings here in my computer of actual real sales calls. And I defy you to listen to those like I have and find a social proof story. Come on guys, you got to use that. 

Leah Bumphrey: You know, people have to remember that priming is not a trick. This is not a bait and switch. This is not a, “Ooh, this is a way for me to trick somebody into buying from me.”

Priming is the most professional, the most legitimate way of showing a firm foundation as to why someone needs the product that you’re selling. The very fact that you’re having a conversation means that they’re considering that they need your product or a product and service that’s similar so all you’re doing when you’re using social proofs is showing them legitimately that other people have benefited and why. And that prime gets them ready to be raving customers who absolutely love working with you.

Dennis Collins: You said it right, and just like priming this wall in this room, it’s not a trick. Priming a pump is not a trick. It’s required to get the result that you want. Think of that in sales. It’s not a manipulation or a trick. Without priming, you’re not going to get the water to come out of the pump, and you’re going to have a lousy paint job. Without priming in sales good luck on making your close.

Leah Bumphrey: That’s right. It’s not going to stick.

Dennis Collins: It’s not going to stick. So, I hope this was helpful to our listeners. Prime with positive images, associations, and stimuli, before presenting your product. Positive images sell. Create more favorable attitudes. Predispose them to buy. Enhances their receptivity. In closing, how would we do a prime for our Sales Rx? I mean, gee whiz, what’s a good prime?

Leah Bumphrey: What’s a good prime?

Well, you know what?

Every time you tune in to our podcast, our information, you are getting a foundational bit of information that you’re going to be able to grow your business. It’s not product-specific. And think about the best salespeople you know. They didn’t start out as experts.  I don’t care if it’s radio sales or selling vehicles or even selling vacuum cleaners. It’s the right person who’s open to learning how. So if you’re open to learning how, wow, there is so much information out there. And Dennis, I learned so much from you. And I think it’s just a matter of how to present it and a vehicle to get it. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible.

Dennis Collins: What a great prime!

Jeez, you’re hired! Good show! Leah, this was fun. I enjoyed priming. Thanks for all your contributions on this. You are so spot on. I think we need to close out this episode of Connect & Convert. But never fear, we will be back soon.

Leah Bumphrey: Excellent.

Dennis Collins: Stay tuned. Bye.

Leah Bumphrey: See ya, Dennis.

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