We have new ideas on how to train salespeople to sell most any product. We think we have figured out how to apply the 16 basic desires of human nature to selling.
First some context. Four generations of Harvard University psychology professors correctly realized that certain goals are deeply rooted in human nature and common to everyone. Some called these universal goals “instincts,” while others called them “needs.” They then struggled to delineate these universal goals. Some looked at animals and speculated about evolution; others studied the unconscious mind; and still others took the values of left-wing politics and declared they are universal intrinsic motives.
The Harvard professors failed to construct valid measures of human needs, eventually turning to a story telling technique called the “Thematic Apperception Test” (TAT). As Professor Leonard Eron and more recently Professor Scott Lilienfeld correctly argued, the TAT is scientifically invalid.
By 1970 needs theory was in decline. There were many lists of needs, none of which could be demonstrated to be scientifically valid. There were no comprehensive, scientifically valid measures of needs. Further, psychologists had applied needs theory mostly to an invalid system of psychiatric diagnosis called DSM I and DSM II. When DSM III came along, the disuse of needs theory accelerated.
Meanwhile a small group of social psychologists claimed that certain needs associated with capitalism – such as competition and status – are “extrinsic” motives, which is bad. They made multiple mistakes in logic and scientific method, and then ignored scholarly critics.
My colleagues and I delineated 16 needs – which we call 16 basic desires – based on scientific surveys of what people said motivates them. Our work is not based on animals nor introspection nor political ideology. We have constructed the first ever empirically derived, scientifically validated list of human needs, defined as universal needs.
The 16 basic desires have been applied broadly with significant success. We have, for example, opened up to the public, websites for sports ( www.iaimtowin.com ) and wellness motivation ( www.16desires,com ).
Brunello Gianello is a creative business consultant based in Switzerland. He came up with the best ideas for how to apply the 16 basic desires to selling. We have been too busy to move in this direction but we hope to do so in the future.
According to our current thinking, salespeople have personality blind spots like all of us, and thus they are suited to sell some products better than others. We have found, for example, that timid people make better life insurance salespeople than courageous people because they better understand the subjective experiences and values of fear of injury/ death.