Elevating a Customer’s Status Increases Sales

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As a professor at Western Illinois University, sales representatives from the major publishing houses stop by and try to get me to adopt their “latest, greatest” textbook for my students. On one occasion, a sales rep showed up at my office unannounced. She knocked on my door and came into my office. She proudly proclaimed the textbook her publisher offered was far superior to the one I was currently using for my class.

Missed Sales Opportunity

I thought to myself, “This woman just told me that the textbook I chose for my students was a bad decision.” I felt the need to defend my textbook selection instead of looking at the textbook she was selling. In truth, the book she was touting may have been a superior text, but I was too focused on defending my current textbook selection. I politely told her that I was satisfied with the book I was currently using and was not interested in her product.

After she left, I paused for a moment to examine why I bristled at the opening line of her sales pitch. The sales representative’s unstated assumption was that I had made a bad decision when I selected the textbook I currently used. Once I began to defend my decision, the odds of me reviewing, much less buying, her textbook dramatically diminished. I thought for a while and came up with a simple opening line that would predispose professors to at least look at a new textbook. Then, if the new textbook was superior to the one being currently used, the odds of a sale would go up dramatically.

Status Elevation Increases Sales

Status elevation was the answer to the sales rep’s pitch. The opening line needed to go like this, “Hi, Professor [last name], I’d like your advice about a new textbook we’ve just put out if you have the time.” Now, instead of selling the textbook to the professor, the sales representative is eliciting the professor’s opinion about the product. The salutation, “Hi, professor,” is respectful and recognizes the status of the person she wants as a client. The words “I’d like your advice" allow the professor to elevate his status. The professor will tend to think, “Of course the sales representative would ask me for my advice since I’m a learned professor. The tagline, “… if you have time” reinforces the professor’s status because time for people with high status is valuable.

This opening line increases the odds that the professor will, at least, look at the textbook. Looking at the book gives the professor the opportunity to discover for himself whether the book is better than the one he is currently using. If the new text is, in fact, superior, the professor will render his opinion. In doing so, he reveals what he really thinks about the product. The elicited opinion of the professor serves as a starting point to begin the sales pitch. By using status elevation with the professor, the sales rep significantly increases the probability that he will adopt her textbook.

The next time the sales rep came to my office I asked for her advice on a sales pitch opening line I was working on. She readily agreed to hear my proposal. After hearing it, she thought for a minute and told me my sales pitch opening line was excellent. In fact, she asked me if she could use it. I agreed instantly.

Several months later, the sales representative made a return visit to my office. She happily informed me that the new sales pitch opening line increased the number of professors who reviewed the textbook and consequently, her sales increased as well.

Universal Application

This sales pitch opening line can be adapted to a wide variety of products. Eliciting the client’s opinion of a product will yield a more truthful and willing evaluation of the product without putting pressure on him or her to do it. The client’s stated opinion then serves as a starting point for the sales pitch. It turns out that using status elevation has many benefits, it can be a useful tool in the elicitation process, and it can also be used as a business tool to increase sales.