Break Bread to Curb Breaking Bad

When you and your customer eat sweet foods together, the potential for mutual persuasion can grow as fast as your waistlines, according to consumer researchers at University of Chicago. For it to work best in keeping sales negotiations from going wrong, the researchers add, you and the people you want to persuade should be eating the same sweet food.
     Many explanations for this effect come to mind: People are more open to being convinced when they’re feeling good, and sweet foods are pleasant. The act of eating slows down time, so there’s more opportunity for you to make your sales points. And psychologists working in fields called “embodied cognition” and “ideomotor action” might propose that the action of chewing food potentiates a desire to talk things over. After all, we think of family dinners as places to share experiences.
     It’s the shared experiences which form the core of the Chicago researchers’ explanation. In this case, it’s the shared experience of having eaten the same food. Shoppers are more likely to trust and then purchase products and services from providers who they believe are similar to them.
     Putting this into action when it comes to eating the same foods could take the form of you serving snacks to your shoppers and, when they partake, you taking a bit from the same serving dish and chomping down. But there are loads of situations and a number of reasons this won’t always work. Fortunately, the Chicago researchers found it to be nearly as effective for the salesperson to talk about having eaten the same sorts of foods a shopper says they eat.
     Or you could talk about other commonalities. Researchers at University of British Columbia and INSEAD Singapore set up a study in which a personal trainer offered a fitness program to prospective enrollees. Participants who believed the fitness instructor was born on the same day as them became more likely to rate a sample program highly and to sign up for a membership. And dental patients who believed they were born in the same place as their dentist were more likely to rate their care highly and to schedule future appointments at that clinic.
     Let shoppers know the birthdays and hometowns of your sales staff. Many hospitality retailers include hometown information on their employees' name badges, and some retailers announce the birthdays of floor employees loudly and proudly in the store.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Relax Customers of Negotiated Price Items
Limit Mouth-Watering Evaluations
Push Shopping Baskets’ Pull for Sweet Items
Announce Commonalities with Shoppers