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You may have read and heard that buyers make their purchasing decisions based upon emotion and they then back those decisions up with logic. This is absolutely true, but how can you use this knowledge to help you generate more sales?
When people make a purchase they predominately buy because of a feeling or emotion that they associate with the decision. Logic supports our emotions and is used to justify our decisions after we have made them. Whilst logic plays a part, emotion is the main player at work with purchasing decisions.
MTD Sales Training example
What kind of car do you drive? You might have chosen your car based on status, looks, safety, confidence - lots of personal reasons.
When your prospect buys your product or service what emotions are they buying? The decision, or motivation, to take action is based on how they feel. Put simply, things that make people feel good sell and they sell very well!
However, when that initial feeling subsides, the original decision must be justified - hence there has to be some logic to back it up. How can you apply this?
We know that people take action based mostly on emotion and then back it up with logic. In your sales interactions you should use enough emotion to help your prospect make a decision whilst conveying enough logic to help your prospect back up that decision.
Sales people talk all the time about their products' USPs - their unique selling proposition. These are just logical benefits and features. Where is the emotion?
Think about you products ESPs too. The emotional selling proposition.
What feelings will your prospects get from owning your products or services?
Take the time to identify your ESPs because in your interaction you will need to bring to the surface the pain and the hurt that your prospect is feeling and hence create the desire and the need for your solutions. One way to do this properly is to focus on your prospect's problem.
In every sales interaction you must do 3 things:
Your objective during the pain discussion is to help your prospect to make the decision that they need to solve their problem - to end their pain. Stir their emotions and remember that the fear of loss is a far stronger emotion than the desire for gain. Uncover how and what the prospect is losing. Then, as you move to the close, you'll want to offer the prospect some logical reasoning to support the decision.
For instance, if you sell widgets and your widgets help the prospect to save money then the prospect must be losing money due to the fact they are not yet using your widgets. You need to expose that loss. Who much is it? What does that mean? What could they be spending that money on?
Then, as you close, you'll want to include the logic and the facts: if the prospect moves forward to buy your widgets, they will solve the problem of losing money. Detail what they can expect to save and tell them what other companies have saved and when the pay off will be.
When preparing for a sales meeting, consider these points:
Your presentations should be a mix of emotion and logic to the tune of about 70-75% emotion and 25-30% logic.
In closing, please remember that your prospects will take action based mainly on emotion. However, they will back those decisions up and support their decision with logic so make sure you cover both of these areas in the right amounts when you sell.
This article was written by Sean McPheat, who is regarded as The UK's #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling. Click here to find out more about Sean and to get hold of some more sales tips.