‘Psyche’ means soul or the mind. Psychology is a science related to the study of human mind or soul in its various operations. To be simple, psychology is the science which seeks to understand the working of the mind, the way the mind acts, the way human beings behave; and the nature of their thoughts, feelings, desires, actions and instincts.
Human psychology plays an important role in selling. As the selling process and salesmanship deals with human beings, it becomes necessary to know and understand the human psychology in relation to buying. A study of the customer’s mind is always useful for successful selling, or else, human needs cannot be converted into ‘wants’. Every sale is essentially a mental act.
Therefore, it is essential to know about the likes and dislikes of the customer, what appeals to him most and what type of person he is. By knowing these things, the salesman can feel comfortable while selling.
Image Source: frontview.files.wordpress.com
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Therefore, the knowledge and efficient understanding of the human psychology is considered to be an asset for the salesman. Depending upon the value of the deal, the salesman has to judge the psychology of the customers.
The need for knowing customers is extremely high in creative selling. This is so because creative selling requires arousing the desire in the minds of the customers to buy, and thereby create more and more customers. Therefore, it is highly essential to study their minds, otherwise known as the psychology of the customers.
Generally buying motive differs from person to person. There is no definite formula or uniform process to find out why a person behaves in a particular manner. Therefore, each and every customer needs to be keenly observed, analysed thoroughly and treated accordingly. The salesman has to understand the mind of the customer thoroughly for which he should be well versed in studying human attitudes and behaviour.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Whenever a customer enters the shop or the salesman meets a prospect, every possible effort must be made to understand the mind of the customer. Every action, every gesture and every word spoken by the customers must be keenly observed in order to develop firm opinion about them. Next, he has to draw correct conclusion from their behaviour about their attitude and the type of persons they are. Prof.
Davar has rightly pointed out that psychology plays a crucial role in selling. The mind of the customer must be properly attuned or brought into proper agreement to bring about sale. Similarly, another expert has opined that salesmanship is concerned with that part of human psychology which records and exposes the thoughts and feelings of a prospective buyer prior to and during the process of a sale.
The importance of psychology in selling can be known from the following statements.
‘Selling is a buying process’.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
‘Sale takes place in the mind of the customers’.