"Last week they gave us a verbal commitment – now everything's on hold."
"She says she wants to talk to the committee before moving forward."
"He's nervous about what's happening in the markets."
During times of economic uncertainty, sellers must understand the root causes of a buyer's heightened instincts of fear, scarcity, and delay. Transactional Analysis (TA), a framework crafted by psychiatrist Eric Berne in the late 1950s, helps us understand why buyers behave the way they do — and it's a vital tool to use when budgets tighten and risk aversion increases. David Sandler built his selling system on TA's insights, recognizing that all our decisions, including purchasing decisions, are the result of an ongoing dialogue involving the Parent, Adult, and Child ego states inside us.
Three Voices in Every Decision
TA says we all carry within us three distinct voices:
- The Parent stores messages we absorbed early on — the "shoulds," "should n'ts," "musts," and "must n'ts" from parents, teachers, and other authority figures.
- The Child holds our primal wants, fears, and longings — the emotional engine that says "I want this" or "I'm afraid of that."
- The Adult collects and analyzes data, weighs risks, and tests whether old messages still hold true.
When times are good, the Child often has a bit more room to play. But in a downturn, the Parent's critical voice is likely to grow louder, while the Adult's fact-checking can become more vigilant. Understanding how all three of these states show up in buying behavior is the key to navigating all markets -- especially tight, defensive ones.
Economic Uncertainty and the Scarcity Mindset
Times of economic challenge are likely to bring on louder-than-usual warnings from our Critical Parent, like: "Don't waste resources," "Don't act alone," and "Don't make mistakes." For salespeople, this means prospects can be expected to default to cost-cutting and risk-avoidance scripts. The Nurturing Parent can emerge too, trying to protect the team — sometimes leading to groupthink and collective decision avoidance: "Let's wait it out." "Let's stick with what we know." Notice that the focus is on scarcity, not on growth, opportunity, or contribution.
Meanwhile, the Adult ego state scans the horizon for data -- but in uncertain times, there's less clarity to work with. So the Adult can become paralyzed, looping endlessly through analysis without committing. The result? Buyers and influencers tend to stick with familiar solutions, delay decisions, and fear appearing foolish for spending money. The Child, which drives desire, gets buried under layers of caution.
The Psychology of Buying Decisions
David Sandler understood: people buy emotionally (Child) and justify the purchase intellectually (Parent and Adult). He also understood that, in uncertain times, it takes a bit more effort even to get the Child's voice heard.
To overcome this problem, the most effective sellers leverage their experience and organizational expertise to identify predictable, clear-cut emotional Pain points. These are the unpleasant situations (like cost overruns, project delays, and high churn rates) likely to provoke strong emotional responses from buyers.
Pain is the prospect experiencing the emotional reality of not being where they want to be. In tough times, effective sellers bring the art of launching discussions of Pain to a new level.
Begin with the Child
Pain is the only subject likely to rise through the noise that surrounds buyers during times of economic uncertainty; the more specific and recognizable the pain is, the better. The prospect's Child needs to feel and say things like, "I want X — I need Y — getting rid of Z will make my life safer/simpler/better."
This is the kind of discussion that unfolds during Sandler's Pain Step. Notice that it's where we begin the discovery process: with an emotionally charged discussion of what isn't working or is missing from the buyer's world. We begin, in other words, with the Child.
Once that discussion identifies a challenge or problem we can help the buyer resolve, we can expect the Parent and the Adult to weigh in with questions, concerns, and data. The Sandler System's Budget and Decision Steps were built for these kinds of discussions. In times of economic uncertainty, these two Steps become even more vital: they create a safe container for the Parent and Adult to sign off on the Child's desire. But they aren't where we start!
Avoiding Groupthink and Decision Avoidance
Economic uncertainty has a way of breeding committees — everyone wants cover for their choices. This can paralyze deals. Smart sellers use TA to break the logjam by:
- Keeping the Child invested by reminding people what problem will remain if they do nothing.
- Appealing to the Adult with clear roles, timelines, and decision criteria.
- Engaging the Parent by showing how the offering aligns with organizational values and precedents.
During times of economic uncertainty, it's critical to remember that, contrary to popular belief, sales isn't about persuasion. It's about understanding the tug-of-war inside every buyer. The Child must want, the Parent must approve, and the Adult must conclude that the course of action being examined is logical, safe, and worthwhile. It all starts with the Child.
If you, the seller, know how to start with the Child and then speak effectively to each ego state, you can become not just a vendor, but the kind of trusted guide who delivers measurable value, even during tough times. The best way to start is by getting laser-focused on the specific, emotion-producing problems that show up in the prospect's world, and then beginning a peer-to-peer conversation about the emotional impact of that problem. Launching that discussion with the prospect's Child is how you make the right deal happen for both sides-- even when the larger world is saying, "Play it safe."
FREE REPORT |
The Contrarian Contractor The breakthrough process that wins the work you want, removes the stress you don’t, and maximizes profitability.  |
