Mimicking In Sales

I find the idea of mimicry as a sales technique to be very interesting. Often times when I think of mimicry the first thing that comes to mind is an annoying little brother or sister, mimicking your every move. This, or course, is very annoying and not the most flattering first thought on the subject. However, when it comes to sales mimicking customers is thought of as a “good” technique for selling.

In his book entitled “To Sell is Human” Daniel Pink discusses the idea of using mimicry of customers in order to sell. He discusses how we as humans mimic each other naturally without even realizing it. We mimic our friends and they mimic us. Mimicry, as Pink says it, “…serves as a social glue and a sign of trust” (Pink 74). Many salesmen today use the technique of slight mimicry of customers to create trust and assurance. This type of mimicry however is not as obvious as a younger sibling doing every little thing that you do, this is slight mimicry that goes completely unnoticed. These things could include crossing your legs when a customer does, or even speaking in a way that a customer is speaking.

Furthermore, looking further into this sales technique it is absolutely no “fluke”. According to studies it does in fact work, “When customers approached salespeople for help, nearly 79 percent bought from mimickers compared with about 62 percent from non-mimickers” (Pink 75). When salesmen mimic customers it causes the customers to feel more trust toward the salesman, and this, in turn, makes the customer more likely to buy something. When customers trust you and feel a connection, things will often run much smoother even if you don’t end up making a sale

I think that this all goes to say that trust between a salesmen and a customer is key. If the customer doesn’t trust the salesmen, then the salesmen really has no chance of selling anything. The customer must be the priority in any sales situation, and therefore having their trust is of utmost importance.