Oh, what a mistake! I walked into a local car dealership one bright sunny day and was greeted by a young salesman who within the first 60 seconds made an error that cost him my business. His blunder? He treated me like someone who did no research, like someone who didn’t know what he wanted, like I wasn’t familiar with the product and wasn’t experienced at buying cars. No sale!

His problem was that he was trying to sell me the same way he had sold the last guy, and the woman before him, and all the others who crept like generic white lab rats through the maze of shiny cars on his lot. He didn’t take even one second to determine where ...

Get BrainScripts for Sales Success: 21 Hidden Principles of Consumer Psychology for Winning New Customers now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.