The Invisible Game

Chapter 1The Forces Behind the Invisible Game

A professor at the University of Växjö asked over 200 managers at Swedish companies how they make decisions. A small majority of managers claimed they relied on their hunches, with 32% saying they decided intuitively and 19% according to their feelings. Some 26% said they decided situationally with a ‘focus on detail’, and 23% said their decisions were analytically driven.¹

These results are intriguing, because they mask a fact that helped inspire us to write this book. We are all players in the Invisible Game without necessarily being aware of the response patterns hard-wired into our brains. How actively and how well we play the Invisible Game, however, is a much different story. We cannot opt out, but at the same time, we are not powerless. Far from it! Starting with the building blocks of situational awareness, we will codify the behaviours deeply ingrained in each of us and show you how to use them to your advantage.

The foundation of situational awareness rests on a small number of vitally important behavioural, psychological, and neuroscientific concepts that every salesperson needs to master: the concept of System 1 and System 2 thinking, the concept of relativity, and the concept of anchoring. Understanding and building on these concepts is your first step to develop your own new success model for your negotiations and their outcomes.

System 1 and System 2: Partners, not rivals

Before we get to specific selling situations, ...