Introduction: Selling as a Temporal Process, Not Just a Momentary Decision
In traditional sales, the purchasing decision is seen as a logical process based on customer needs. However, in surreal selling, buying transcends necessity and becomes a deeply personal experience shaped by emotions, memories, and lost opportunities. Here, the customer is not just looking for a product; they are searching for a version of themselves that aligns with their evolving desires.
One of the most intriguing phenomena in surreal selling is “the shift in priorities”a situation where a customer enters a store intending to buy one thing but ends up purchasing something entirely different. Why does this happen? How can a surreal salesperson harness this transformation?
The Customer Is in a Constant Search for Their Buying Identity
Surreal selling asserts that every customer has a dynamic purchasing identity, they are not merely consumers seeking products but individuals whose needs and priorities evolve over time. When a customer enters a store, they are not just searching for a product; they are searching for something that resonates with their current state of mind.
Here’s where the shift occurs: A customer may be looking for a wristwatch, but suddenly, they come across a leather bag they had once desired months ago but couldn’t buy at the time. Now, with changed circumstances and the unexpected reappearance of the item, their purchasing priority shifts from the watch to the bag.
“Surreal Time”: When the Past and Present Collide in the Customer’s Mind
The moment a customer sees a product they once wanted is not just a coincidence, it is a temporal intersection between their past and present desires.
• The present: The product they initially came to buy.
• The past: A desire that was previously unmet due to financial constraints, timing, or other circumstances.
What happens in this instant is a subconscious reprogramming of the buying decision. The brain retrieves the emotions attached to the past desire, and the customer feels that rejecting the product again might lead to intensified regret.
The result? A complete shift in priorities!
The forgotten product suddenly takes center stage, while the original product becomes secondary or is forgotten altogether.
How Does the Surreal Salesperson Handle This Shift?
A traditional salesperson sees this transformation as random and ignores it.
A surreal salesperson recognizes it as a golden moment of opportunity and seizes it with skill. How?
🔹 Embracing the shift instead of resisting it
If a customer starts showing sudden interest in an unexpected product, do not try to bring them back to their original choice. Instead, help them explore this new interest, making it feel like a destined moment rather than a mere impulse.
🔹 Using body language and voice tone to enhance the feeling of inevitability
Rather than asking, “Are you sure you want this instead of the other product?”, try saying:
• “Wasn’t this something you were thinking about before? It seems like it has returned to you at the perfect time!”
• “This is a fantastic choice! Maybe the timing wasn’t right before, but now it feels just right for you!”
This kind of phrasing makes the customer feel like they are fulfilling their personal journey, rather than being influenced by a salesperson.
🔹 Creating a sensory experience to reinforce emotional attachment
Once the customer transitions from one product to another, use tactile engagement to strengthen their decision:
• Encourage them to touch, hold, or try the product.
• Share a story about another customer who had a similar experience.
• Make them feel like this product is part of their own story.
Why Do Customers Buy Things They Weren’t Planning To?
In reality, the customer is not just buying a product, they are buying the moment they couldn’t have it before. This is an unconscious psychological compensation, where they feel they are rewriting their past decisions and correcting a “buying mistake” they once made.
This is the essence of surreal selling: You are not selling a product; you are selling an opportunity for the customer to feel that they have completed something that was left unfinished in their personal buying journey.
Conclusion: How to Master the Shift in Priorities in Selling
• Observe the sudden changes in customer interest, as these shifts indicate that a “dormant buying memory” has been triggered.
• Do not try to bring the customer back to their initial choice, instead, help them explore the new interest as if they have discovered a hidden treasure.
• Use language, tone, and body gestures to reinforce the idea that this product has reappeared at the perfect moment.
This is how the surreal salesperson transforms from a mere sales agent into a maestro, guiding the customer through a journey where they feel they have made the decision themselves—when, in reality, it was the result of a carefully orchestrated, surreal psychological shift!
🔹 Featured Research
Want to transform your sales approach? Read our exclusive study on Surreal Selling: A New Paradigm in Sales Psychology and discover how psychology can drive sales success.
Uniqueness, lies in being different despite our similarities, and similar despite our differences
Zouhair Mahmoud
Creator of the Surreal Selling Theory
Redefining how professionals approach sales through creativity and psychology
