As you already know, I base all my sales training curriculum on neuroscience and psychology. Why? Because I strongly believe that the hardwiring in our brains dictates how human beings make decisions—and ultimately, how we buy.
Even though much of human thinking is evolutionary—rooted in survival instincts from our hunter-gatherer days—it still exerts a powerful effect on modern decision-making. Just because “don’t get dead” has stopped being a daily conscious concern doesn’t mean it has stopped driving our choices.
In the natural world, survival usually comes down to two main elements: defense (fight) and escape (flight). And there is no better way to escape than avoiding detection in the first place. Because of this, nature has produced some incredibly clever methods of camouflage.
The Camouflage of the Modern Buyer
Here is where the sales element comes in. I am often asked why we have to play these “neuroscience games” instead of just having a fully open, candid conversation from the very first meeting.
The short answer is camouflage. People, like animals, hide. They hide their feelings, they hide their thoughts, and they certainly hide their fears.
To understand why, look at a recent study performed on zebras.
Zebras are pack animals whose primary predator is another pack animal: lions. Lions hunt as a highly coordinated team, with different lions performing specific tasks to execute a successful takedown. As a favorite target, evading lions is a massive priority for zebras.
Yet, when you look at a zebra’s bold black-and-white stripes, you might conclude that it’s a terrible camouflage strategy. It stands out. In fact, prisons historically used the exact same pattern specifically so inmates would stand out if they escaped.
Hiding in Plain Sight
During the study, scientists ran into a practical issue. Once they isolated a specific zebra to study, if they looked down to take notes, they would completely lose track of that zebra when they looked back up. Because all zebras look alike, the researchers decided to mark specific subjects with a dot of red paint.
Then, something fascinating happened.
Every single time they marked a zebra, the lions would immediately target and hunt that specific zebra.
This revealed a powerful truth: zebra camouflage isn’t designed to make them hard to see; it’s designed to make them hard to tell apart. Because lions coordinate their hunts, they must be able to isolate a single target. The stripes allow zebras to hide in plain sight by blending seamlessly into the herd.
The Power of Consensus in Sales
In psychology and sales, this concept is known as Consensus (or Social Proof)—one of Robert Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion.
Consensus is a mental shortcut humans leverage to make decisions safely and quickly. We look at what the “herd” is doing as a sign of safety and validation. Just like zebras, your prospects are often trying to hide within the herd.
Importantly, this herd mentality protects buyers from the social consequences of a bad choice. A buyer can rationalize a poor decision if many others made the exact same mistake alongside them. By blending in, they hide their potential failure within the crowd.
I’m certainly not suggesting that prospects are zebras, or that we should treat them like any other kind of prey. I am calling your attention to the fact that being openly candid up front in an interaction does not come naturally to most human beings. Our instincts are solidly in opposition. Our default setting is to hide in the herd, keep doing what we do, and follow what the group overall is doing. That is why change is so hard for us, and why we naturally resist it.
So, when someone asks why we can’t just be direct and 100% candid, and why we have to leverage neuroscience to open a conversation, the answer is that hiding is a pretty dominant and powerful instinct, and that we need to leverage what we know about science of communications to get past those instincts and make sure that we engage the modern, lucid, conscious part of our client’s minds, so we can quickly, respectfully, and logically establish if there is a match between their needs and our solution. You cannot assume that level of conversation. You must manage past the instinctual danger emotions to get there.
In other words, if you want to break through a prospect’s defense mechanisms, you have to understand their instinct to hide—and learn how to make it safe for them to step away from the herd.