What Inception can teach us about winning-over customers.
By: Christopher Hamilton
Tags: Conversations, Consulting, Sales Discussion, Sales, Sales Development

[spoiler warning]

Treading carefully through a sprawling sea-side mansion, Cobb finally locates his target. He works swiftly to crack-open the safe, and lay hands on its precious bounty: a little brown envelope. Contents half-way removed are suddenly jolted, as the dimly lit room explodes with light. Cobb turns around, gun in hand, only to confront the desperate eyes of his captured partner. The estate’s proprietor — Saito — and his army of guards savor the moment. Cobb, outnumbered and out of options, tosses his pistol across the table. Predator becomes prey, or so it seems. You see, Cobb and Saito both know something that the audience does not… we are in a dream.

The basic plot of Inception is this: the protagonist — Cobb — is a world class thief that steals intellectual property by raiding people’s dreams. Unsurprisingly, his skill in thieving is commensurate with the depth of his legal troubles. Enter Saito — an ultra wealthy industrialist — who promises to resolve Cobb’s legal issues, in exchange for the successful completion of an impossible job: inception. Saito isn’t interested in theft, instead, he asks Cobb to covertly plant an idea in the mind of his biggest rival, Mr. Fisher. If ‘inception’ works, Mr. Fisher will dissolve the dominant energy conglomerate he’s destined to inherit, sparing Saito’s fortune.

Christopher Nolan’s epic film has all the hallmarks of a Hollywood blockbuster: famous actors, mind bending special effects, trombone, and clever cinematic trickery. Keep digging beneath the surface, and you discover Nolan’s most potent signature: his playful use of time. It’s worth a watch, but I must digress, as this isn’t a film review.

I’m interested in exploring something basic and applicable in our daily lives. It just so happens to be the foundation of this particular movie: inception itself.

Persuasive ideas are cultivated, not demonstrated

“No idea is simple when you need to plant it into somebody else’s mind” — Cobb

Does this sound familiar? It is the fundamental challenge of any salesperson. We are told to ‘get people on board’ and ‘win-over customers’. Anyone that has attempted such a feat will know how difficult it is. Nobody likes being sold to.

In the film, Cobb explains that inception can only work if the origin of an idea is untraceable. In other words, the target must believe that it is they who conceived of the idea. This is a powerful insight. In a real world context, the take-away is this: to be persuasive, we must enable customers to discover the merit of a solution themselves. In writer’s parlance, they say: “show, don’t tell”.

To the inexperienced, a product demonstration might appear like an opportunity to showcase as many features in the time available… wrong. A product demonstration is the dream you build for your customer. The same inexperienced individual might think a final pitch is their chance to reveal the ‘aha moment’ to the customer…again — wrong. A strong final pitch should reflect back what you have already discussed and uncovered together, in a concise and actionable way.

Like Cobb, a good salesperson should design a journey, step back, and allow the customer to fill the void with their imagination. In the film, a good portion of time is dedicated to research, experimentation and rehearsal — this too is directly applicable in the real world. Engaging customer experiences are directly correlated with the amount of learning and preparation ahead of a meeting. Good things come to those that are prepared.

Don’t underestimate the power of emotion

“You need the simplest version of an idea in order for it to grow naturally in a subject’s mind… start at the absolute basic, the relationship with his father. “ — Eams (fellow mind-thief)

Cobb and his partners understood the power of emotional decision making. There was no rational argument to persuade Mr. Fisher to dissolve his inheritance. Instead, the group’s plan was to infiltrate Fisher’s mind, and lure him with the notion of ‘being his own man’. You see, liquidating the company’s assets would allow Mr. Fisher to build anew, from the ground-up, like his father before him. The final scene played out by actors Cillian Murphy (Fisher Jr.) and the late Pete Postlethwaite (Fisher Sr.) is both riveting, and terminal. In this tender moment between father and son, we know Inception has been achieved.

You might think, as I once did, that our big evolved brains are capable of compartmentalizing emotional and rational decision making. How wrong I was. Here is an interesting illustration: a study at UT Austin found that buyers of chicken would first make an emotional determination based on appearance, and would only later defend their position using subjective information like cost or quality. When the subjective information was swapped between chickens, the same good looking chicken was chosen, but the participants used new excuses to support their reasoning. This observation has a fancy name: post-hoc rationalization. It has been replicated many times, across many different products.

Our emotions are mostly dormant, invisible, quietly steering the sentient mind. But look carefully, and you’ll discover these same emotions can be revealed, harnessed and made useful.

Building dreams in the real world

Imagine the possibilities if we could reach into our customers’ minds and see things precisely as they do, like in Nolan’s fiction. Alas, we live in the real world, where dream sharing is not possible. Though I hear Elon is making progress on a solution — of course he is.

So what are we to do?

In order to construct an impactful journey, we must understand our subject. Ask meaningful questions and listen carefully to what they tell us about their fears and desires. Every minute you spend with a customer can and should be used to build trust. I have a detailed piece on this subject, it’s important to earn trust before proceeding to build anything. Once we have listened, built trust and received permission — it’s time to take our customers on a journey. Captivate your audience by showing them a better future that could never have been imagined without you.

Our customers’ minds are filled with grand visions, and deep anxieties. These powerful emotional drivers quietly lurk, unseen and out of mind. When our customers choose to engage with us, this is an opportunity to share their dream — or nightmare — and chart a path to a better world. One that may include your product or service in it.