Tribalism refers to the fact that we evolved as a species in small groups – tribes. Humans have always used tribes to identify people they can trust.
So if you want to be super successful in sales, one of the things that you must understand is that tapping into your client’s tribe will help you build relationships and close more effectively.
The Purpose of Tribalism
Tribalism is all about making sure that the group survives. It was critical in humans’ evolutionary phase that we surrounded ourselves with others who would go and fight for us.
And among people in the same tribe, they started becoming more and more similar the longer they hung around each other. The routines that we lived, the foods that we ate, the language we spoke, the way we raised our children. Even our traits evolved so that we begin to wear our hair the same way or paint our face in the same way. Our similarities became a way to identify each other as being in the same tribe and being trustworthy.
Use Tribalism to Find Common Ground With Clients
Nowadays tribalism may be more advanced, but we still do the same exact things today.
For instance, we identify ourselves by the team we cheer for, the political party we support, the foods we eat and the music we listen to. So when it comes to how you apply this very basic human nature and sales, what I recommend you to do is to become very interested in your clients. Understand your clients. Use your observation skills – take notice of their home, their living conditions, what they’re interested in – and find areas where you share a common interest.
If you like the same sports team, great. Or, maybe you don’t like the same sports team that they like – that’s okay. Asking questions about their sports team that will build interest that will generate something that’s at the core of our tribalism. And what happens is it generates trust, which is critical when it comes to any selling situation.
To be your most successful, understand human nature. Understand that being part of the tribe, building a commonality and a common relationship with your client, is going to be critical. This is true whether you’re on the phone, if you’re there serving a repair item, or even if you’re selling a high ticket item.
So use tribalism today, and use the instinctive power of this technique to help you turn learning into earning!
