*Psychological Reactance*

It has a terrible name, but “psychological reactance” is one of the most important concepts for sales people to understand. In popular culture, this is what we refer to as “reverse psychology”. The basic principle is that when you tell someone what to do they often react by doing exactly the opposite of what you are asking.

As Andy explained to me, when someone feels like you are threatening their autonomy or reducing their freedom, they push back in order to prove to you and to themselves that they aren’t being controlled by you. Of course, this is a critical factor in sales, where it often seems like the harder you push a buyer to say “yes”, the harder they resist you.

*It’s All About Identity*

One important key with psychological reactance is that people will resist much more strongly if they feel like the topic is central to their identity. Whereas if it’s a topic they don’t care about, they might not resist at all. So if you sell used cars to little old ladies who don’t know anything about cars, this might not be an issue for you. But if you’re in B2B sales and your buyers actually work in your industry or even if you’re selling to amateur enthusiasts, you absolutely need to avoid triggering reactance.

*How to Avoid Buyer Resistance*

On this episode, Andy and I reveal some specific things sales people to do trigger reactance and we discuss what you can do about it. Asking the wrong questions at the wrong time is one of the biggest problems I see. We talk about what those questions are and why you should avoid them during this episode.