How to Use the Placebo Effect in
Sales to Prosper

In medicine, the placebo effect is the belief that a drug or treatment will produce a positive impact.

In research, simply put, a drug is always compared to a sugar pill (with no effect) to control the placebo effect and verify if the drug is more effective than the latter.

The placebo effect is perceived negatively here, an impact to eliminate.

The real power behind the placebo effect

However, if I give you the true definition of the placebo effect, you will perceive it from a different angle. It represents a person's expectations concerning a drug, a treatment, a promise, a meeting, a natural product, and their abilities. In short, we have expectations of countless things. These expectations can be positive (placebo) or negative (nocebo).

Our expectations, therefore, influence our reactions. While medicine strives to make it an abstraction, it is a power of incredible potency that remains underexploited.

It is also often taken for granted that expectations (placebo effect) emerge from the person benefiting from the treatment. This is partly true, but they can be manipulated. Think of a doctor who enthusiastically proposes a treatment to you, explaining how your health will improve over the next few weeks, and another who barely looks at you while handing you a prescription.

The level of expectation is far from the same. The first doctor "manipulated" you in a benevolent way.

How to create expectations in sales

Sales involve creating expectations. When a potential client encounters a problem, you offer them a solution, which creates an expectation in them. It boils down to: I will solve your problem within a given timeframe.

The higher the expectations you create, the greater your chances of making a sale.

The way you present your sales proposition determines your results. You understand that it must be oriented according to the client's needs (problem to be solved). Talking about oneself, one's abilities, and achievements is of no interest to anyone. Although it may give us the necessary credibility to support our promises, most of the discussion should focus on how we will help the person solve their problem and how quickly.

This is how we create expectations. The more our promises (expectations) meet the person's needs, the greater our chances of making a sale.

Expectations are everywhere. For example, I hate hearing about accounting. But, since I own a business, I have no choice but to deal with it. My greatest desire (expectation) is to hear about it as little as possible.

Based on my profile, which of the following two offers from an accounting firm will meet my expectations?

1. I care for your accounting and free you from your worries.

2. Bookkeeping, quarterly reports, tax reports, and tax returns.

You understand correctly. Proposal number one frees me from this "problem" bugging my brain, while the second makes me want to run away.

The importance of emotional needs

It must also be understood that an expectation corresponds to an emotional need. There is nothing worse than technical language to kill expectations.

When I understand a person's psychological and emotional needs, I can explain to them, in their language, how I can solve their problem and how quickly. And it means I possess a superpower.

When it came time to take out life insurance, one advisor explained all the technical aspects of their insurance product to me. Boring to death. I had to fight to stay awake. Another one asked me: Denis, would you like me to ensure that your family will never be in need if you were to die?

Which of the two met my expectations?

The variable you must NEVER forget

Now that you understand how to create expectations, there is a significant point to consider—a variable you must never forget if you don't want to destroy your reputation. You must deliver what you promised.

Delivering more is excellent; delivering less is a disaster.

Imagine the following. You promise a person to solve their problem within a specific period. Expectations are at their highest. They trust you. They buy. And then... nothing. They get no results, or some differ from what you promised. That's the end of your reputation.

Knowing how to create expectations produces incredible sales results. Still, our clients must benefit from the results we promised them afterward.

One cannot go without the other. It's the only way to stay in business for a long time and prosper.