Dunning-Kruger and Sales

The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, is a cognitive bias wherein individuals with limited knowledge or competence in a specific domain often overestimate their capabilities. This lack of awareness leads to inflated self-assessment and poor decision-making.

The attached graphic is instructive.

As shown, when we first learn something we gain confidence in our knowledge, maybe too much confidence.

As sales professionals, we encounter this every day “we know this is right for our prospect” and we double down “how can they not see our solution is best?”

A little bit of sales training, maybe our first training, and we feel we are ready to help our clients.

A little product or service training and we are sure it will bring our client the desired results.

But maybe we need to dig a little deeper. That is, to use more – and better – discovery questions.

Maybe we should risk skiing down the slope of Mt. Stupid and with enough momentum we can spend less time in the Valley of Despair and ascend the Slope of Enlightenment.

As Albert Einstein reportedly stated “the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know."

Enjoy the ride!

(More about Dunning-Kruger in subsequent posts)