The Prison Experiment

Last year in management with Kelley we briefly went over some stuff about psychology and how crazy that stuff can be. Well, in class, Kelley brought Last year in management with Kelley we briefly went over some stuff about psychology and how crazy that stuff can be. Well, in class, Kelley brought up this idea of perceived power and how it pertains to the example he used of the Stanford Prison Experiment. This was a study done in 1971 where a group of young men were split up randomly but were told that they were split up based on merit. The purpose of the study was to explain how perceived power and authority affected behavior. The young men who were picked to be prison guards were told that they were picked because of their qualities, however, they were simply picked at a random draw. The guards were also told that what they say goes, essentially giving full control of the prison to young men without checks and balances. The study was supposed to last for 1-2 weeks but ended at 6 days due to the decreasing mental stability of the inmates and the increasingly sadistic commands of the prison guards. You may be asking, Nathan, how does this relate to sales? Well, it doesn’t fully, except to paint the picture of the importance of humility and as a good example of the antithesis of what attunement looks like. Pink’s ABCs of sales are slightly different from Always. Be. Closing. They are as you know, Attunement. Buoyancy. Clarity.
To focus on attunement for a moment, I would like to remind the reader that the point of attunement is to bring one’s perspective and actions into harmony with the context of the people you’re working with. In a sales scenario, if a salesperson is trying to claim some kind of high ground or authority position they will most likely not do very well at maximizing the amount of sales they desire to complete. As Sweet taught, you can use your apparent weakness as an actual strength- Persuasion Jujitsu.

I think it’s important to remember in the sales world that we are not chosen and that we are not better in some way than those we are trying to sell. They too are human and are just trying to satisfy their needs with their scarce resources. Our job as salespeople is to help them achieve that goal without becoming milk toast.
Your homework if you choose to accept it, is to watch the Stanford Prison Experiment trailer, and if you are brave and want to have a better picture of how perceived power can be dangerous, watch the full 2015 Stanford Prison Experiment movie.