Module 3 Influencing strategies – Reflection upon the principles for persuasion, week 2

This week´s assignment:
Blog: Reflect upon the principles of persuasion, and relate this to how you view and work with customer satisfaction/experience in your business/organization

I will follow Malin Egharts example and treat “the 6 universal principles of persuation” one by one. J

1. Reciprocity =  Our distributors sometimes bring customer and potential customers on customer trips to visit our factory. We present our company philosophy and show them the company facilities and the industrial set up behind the vehicle manufacturing. The basic thought with these customer trips are of course to  trigger more sales, build up the confidence for the company as such but also with a hope to create loyalty to our brand and influence future purchase behaviour. (building relationships)


2. Scarcity =  Don´t know about this one in our business… But I think “Scarcity-syndrom” can occur:

·          …if we for example plan to phase out a gearbox or engine in the middle of a customer delivery – if  the customer has ordered 100units he would like to have same specification on all 100units. This might rush a purchase decision.

·           …if the customer think that the new engine or gearbox is less good than the earlier version

·          .. if a new emission demand will happen at a certain time – then it´s usually a pre-buy effect in the markets.

Otherwise I must say that it´s the opposite – it could be hard maintaining sales of “old” vehicle model if a new one is in the pipeline. The customers are usually keen on having the latest models and technology.

3.  Authority = Our company has a long history in the commercial vehicles business and we have sold vehicles to many parts of the world. The brand is strong and well known and we also have one of the biggest research and development centers for heavy vehicles in the world. At the distributors sites, it´s important to have a well educated sales force. When needed, for example in deep technological issues/question, these guys/girls have back up from experts in different areas at the factory in Sweden. That creates credibility.
Our company also offers vehicles with engines running on alternative fuels. It´s of course helping sales and credibility  that these alternative fuels are supported by what different experts around the world are talking about – the importance of changing from fossil to renewable fuels… All certifications and- validation issues for engines, vehicles etc. are made by external companies, this also creates credibility and trust.

4.  Consistency = Every distributor and country have their own CRM-systems and are constantly working on their customer relations. Of course, a successful former business including a well functioning after sales is more probable to lead to new customer orders than a less successful case. Probably the customer feels a bit obliged to purchase vehicles in the future if the business and relations has been successful. A good customer relationship and customer support is the key!

5. Liking = People prefer to say yes to people they like! A good customer relationship are the key! Of course, the quality of the offer and the product as such,  matter. And of course – if you succeed in creating a good customer experience, the world of mouth will spread to others.


6. Consensus = People will look at the actions of others to determine their own. Very often our customers ask for reference customers or reference customer cases. We have experienced that a presentation of a real customer case in real life “hits higher” than the general product offer presentation, therefore we often share our “success stories” with our customers.
The fact that the company have been in business for many years and have sold to many customers in many different countries, also creates trust and reliability.


//Anki