Content Marketing Guide for Beginners (with Examples)

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Sales psychology draws on what we know about social behaviors and how the brain works to influence a purchasing decision. By making your sales process customer-centric, you can help your prospects get something they need but don't have, or get rid of something they have but don't want.

According to Brian Tracy, author of the classic sales book "The Psychology of Sales," sales resistance is normal. The challenge is breaking through that natural barrier by understanding what's behind it.

There's a psychological principle known as reactance that's triggered when we feel our ability to freely choose is being restricted by another person. In other words, if you try to push someone into a purchase, their natural reaction will be:

Backing out with an even firmer “no”

Back out of discussions and stop responding

Take a completely different direction, potentially in the direction of your competitor

At the same time, says Brian Tracy, every action we take is motivated by improvement.

We buy something because we believe it will improve our lives in some way. At the heart of that belief is a desire for gain (increased productivity, praise from the boss) or a fear of loss (losing potential income, losing to market competition ).

In his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” psychology and marketing professor Robert Cialdini describes six principles that guide human behavior in terms of seeking gains or avoiding losses.

Reciprocity: Feeling obligated to give back to someone who has given us something.

Scarcity: Our desire to have more of something that is less abundant or in short supply.

Authority: Tendency to follow the example of credible and gambling data turkey well-informed experts.

Consistency: The drive to be consistent in what we say or do.

Liking: Our preference for saying “yes” to people we like.

Consensus: The tendency to adjust our actions and behaviors based on what others do when we feel insecure.

You can use Cialdini's behavioral shortcuts, along with the other sales psychology techniques we'll discuss here, to guide, rather than push, your prospects in the direction of "yes."


Sales psychology takes many forms. However, it's not how these practices influence your customers' decisions that makes them good or bad, but how you use them.