As a child, did you ever find yourself bargaining with your parents to get your way? Maybe you presented all the positive aspects of your request first, and then quickly rushed over the inconvenient details before listing more positives? In doing so, you probably thought that your parents would see how significant the positives were and give you what you wanted. We can do the same thing in selling.
Loss Aversion is a technique that has shown very positive results in corporate sales. You might assume that corporate executives know all the tricks by now, and that they won’t be swayed by typical sales techniques, but that is simply not true. They are human, and empathy can still get the best of them.
In a study performed by DecisionLabs, two framing techniques were used on executives. In the first test, they told a group that a plan had a 1/3 probability of success at saving 6,000 jobs and three plants at their company, and the other group was told that there was a 2/3 probability of a loss of 6,000 jobs and three plants. Though it is risky, 70% of executives selected the 1/3 story due to its positive framing of loss aversion. By making them think that risk could be adverted, they found relief and accepted the plan.
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