We rarely venture outside of the ‘familiar’, especially for such mundane things as the route to the office, or where we buy our milk, to what we eat. We constantly make decisions based on the ‘familiar’. As for more the important items such as a car or a home, the ‘familiar’ factors become increasingly more important and the degree to which we will pay is premium because ‘familiarity’ is virtually unlimited.

How important is familiarity?

It’s everything. We instantly and consciously (sometimes unconsciously) seek to satisfy our need for familiarity. It’s almost primal. If you don’t think so then why would a giant brand like Disney release blockbuster animations using familiar actor’s voices? The main reason is because it sells. It sells because we are enamored with the familiarity of the voices and the story. It’s a one-two punch that’s for all practical purposes, we find irrestable. This one-two formula works really well in the endorsement world as well. I hazard to guess what portion of the retail price Nike budgets on their endorsement athletes, but whatever it is, it’s huge and nobody is complaining about the results. More than that, it keeps one brand, Nike, ahead of all others by using the personal (and big) brands of the athletes.

Does familiarity breed content or contempt?

Familiarity may breed contempt in some circles but in selling it only creates confidence. If you doubt we buy everything based on the level of familiarity, then put this example into perspective. You get a call to pick up a half-gallon of milk for your kids on the way home. Now on the way to your car, a person unknown to you, dressed in dingy clothes and definitely in need of a shower proposes to you that he has some milk for sale, unbranded of course, and it’s only a buck.  If you’re like most people, this simple product purchase is made only where you trust the vendor and perhaps even the brand. Naturally you will pay five times the strangers price and like Elsie the cow, you feel contented. Whether it’s milk or scotch, or a toothbrush, everything has its ‘contented’ price for the simple reason that we strongly relate to the things we know.

How does a customer decide?

It’s no mystery how most people make their decisions. If a machine made the decision then that’s a different story. However, you are dealing with a human being and most of the human race can’t avoid the emotional side of the buying equation. Get ‘familiar’ with these parameters because we all make decisions based on these factors: 

• Customers prefer to choose familiar things
• Customers rely on the familiarity of relationships

Why? That’s easy. We want to minimize or even hope to eliminate our risk. And besides, customers are only interested in themselves.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

The bigger the decision, the bigger the ‘familiar’ factor comes into focus.

We rely on ‘familiar’ relationships to satisfy our needs, either physical (logical) or emotional (feelings), to minimize our risks. The most pointed ‘familiarity’ example is ‘brand name’ choices. With brand names and ‘known’ references, there usually is little to decide about from a buyer’s point of view.

• With the advent of CRM tools like routine contact scheduling, key date tracking and automated personalized marketing, becoming familiar has become a straightforward job even for the most junior sales member.

Brand yourself. Maximize the risk doing business with anyone else.

Don’t have a billion dollars and a little shy on a $100 million endorsement account? No problem. As a sales person, manager or executive, you can accomplish a level of ‘brand’ familiarity to achieve the one-two punch.

• Try maximizing the risk of doing business with your competition in your customer’s mind. Your prospect must develop confidence that you’re the best choice. Your customer wants the confidence that they should continue to do business with you and not just at the ‘close’ of your sales cycle, but at each point in the sales process.
• This means that you can’t shortcut the business rapport development (familiarity of relationships) or forget about properly designing your CRM database as an information base (familiar things) from which you can then be ‘more familiar’.

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Pipeline Triangulation

Triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end. In MosaicCRM terms, triangulation is the process of determining the points that make up your pipeline and its ability to hone in on opportunities that have a high probability of closing. Click on the Icon for more information on how this works!

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Written by Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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So began Rod Sterling’s eerie narrative that prompted the viewer to mentally visualize portraiture of the fantasy, horror, or sci-fi of what was to follow next. What’s important to note here is the impressive power of visualization.  The technique wasn’t new either. It worked for decades in radio and was equally effective for the power of television. Today, even the medical establishment has watched the power of mental imagery assist patients in their healing process.

Visualize Your Competition and Relationships.

Great sports competitors have realized for decades that developing their power of visualization is a valuable means to improve their performance.  Sports psychologists agree that to do something successfully; we must first be able to visualize doing it in our own mind. The reason why visualization is so effective is that our brain is not able to distinguish between the real event and the imagined one. When I visualize an event, it’s has a powerful effect of reducing what I am looking at. It’s like any race. There’s a lot of people on the track but in reality, very few are actually in the race.  Visualization has that tendency to focus you on one or two competitors that are truly in the race with you.

Selling provides some unique ways to visualize your competition.

On the literal level, it can very well be the named competitor. How do you visualize the brand competitor and just as important, can you visualize what’s in the mind of your customer? Can you visualize the problem or problems? On the practical level, what does the product look like, how does it perform? Can you visualize your customer using it? If so, how do they look?

On a personal level, can you, like athletes, run through a demonstration or sales presentation? How about dreaming up a few closing scenarios? These mental rehearsals can prove invaluable as preparatory tools.

From a CRM perspective, we spend a lot of time and money ‘visualizing’ our customers.

These visualization tools can be as simple as a standard street map to the complexity scrubbing demographics and target market data. These ‘business geographics’ help visualize what the customer looks like. And everybody does it. The one’s who do it best, like Wal Mart, not only know what their customer looks like, they have intimate knowledge and experience with any and all competition.

Visualization could well be your sixth sense.

Visualization provides you with that sixth sense when it comes to the real thing. It only stands to reason that we can gain a heightened sense of familiarity and the confidence that ‘been there, done that’ promotes. Use these mental dress rehearsals to enhance your skills and improve your ability to better judge business situations. Not so unrelated is the power of positive thinking that results from being a skillful visualizer.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner –

Visualizing your database goes beyond just metal images. To be practical, CRM is the best way to take a large number of disparate data streams and convert these into a very clear picture of your customer, and how and when they buy. To make that happen, here are a few suggestions to follow:

•  Pipeline design and management is clear, concise, easy
• Automate everything that manages the customer buying cycle and sales cycles
• Optimize activity planning with strategic business processes

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Sell More With 100% ‘Real’ Visibility!

Unlike most CRM’s that organize data into lists and simple ‘recording functions’, MosaicCRM AccountPro provides incredible visibility of accounts. This effectively converts prospects into customers with uniquely designed sales processes that match your style, culture and customers.

• Customized business processes that drive successful sales operations
• Highly automated management of Pipelines, Key Activities, Closing Dates, Revenue Streams and Contract Renewal dates
• Strategic activities and objectives that match client buying cycles and preferences
• Maximize sales with structured activity and sales opportunity tracking for New Leads and Accounts

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About AFDB’s: Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

Visualization has often been related to many forms of mind control. If you are concerned that too much visualizing will leak out of your head and into that of your competitors, or you’re just a little paranoid of the whole Rod Sterling thing, I draw your attention to this product. I know this appears to be just cheap commercialism but it’s not. It’s billed as ‘An Effective, Low-Cost Solution To Combating Mind-Control.’ Still not sold, read on:

“An Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB) is a type of headwear that can shield your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers. AFDBs are inexpensive (even free if you don’t mind scrounging for thrown-out aluminum foil) and can be constructed by anyone with at least the dexterity of a chimp. This cheap and unobtrusive form of mind control protection offers real security to the masses. Not only do they protect against incoming signals, but they also block most forms of brain scanning and mind reading, keeping the secrets in your head truly secret. AFDBs are safe and operate automatically. All you do is make it and wear it and you’re good to go! Plus, AFDBs are stylish and comfortable.” What are you waiting for, order yours today!