The Great
Divide in Selling:
Customers
Buy Emotionally but Salespeople Sell Logically
One
of the most difficult challenges I face with my clients is getting them
to position their products and services with an emotional appeal, as
opposed to an intellectual and rational appeal. Sales organizations,
in order to stand out, have to differentiate themselves from the competition.
So, in order to truly grab the motivating reason why customers change,
sales organizations need to reengineer their engagement style.
One
of the driving factors forcing this change is the information economy.
No longer can sales organizations rest on their laurels about the superiority
of their offering. Customers today need a more compelling reason to
change. Today, companies have to build an emotional business case for
change, as opposed to a dry rational product case for change.
In
order to do this, one can take some cues from the news media and the
advertising industry. Not surprisingly, both do a masterful job of roping
in their audience with an emotional appeal that is centered predominantly
on fear, loss, insecurity and failure. If you were to shadow 97% of
salespeople today, you’d find they do the exact opposite. They sell
gain, advantage, opportunity, progress and success; to add insult to
injury, they prepackage the whole kit and caboodle in an intellectual,
rational, and logical manner. Is it any surprise that they have difficulty
getting new accounts, maintaining margins and differentiating themselves
from the competition? Customers buy because of pain, fear and avoidance
of loss and justify their decision rationally for gain, opportunity,
success and advantage.
Selling
is all about creating imagery; anecdotes, stories and allegories are
all about creating storylines that get below the surface to emotionally
engage an audience. Ronald Reagan was considered a master communicator
not because of his intellectual grasp of complex issues, but because
of his ability to persuade and move his audiences with quips, stories
and anecdotes that simplified issues and engaged emotions. Mitt Romney,
on the other hand, arguably has a thorough grasp of the complex issues,
but his complex answers create a disconnect with his audience.
POSITIVE
PAIN
The
following are examples of statements that have an emotional appeal for
change with a ‘positive pain’ spin. To put these examples in context,
I’ll first share with you some examples, in completed sentences, to
give you a feel for the type of questions and statements you can use.
Keep in mind that these questions or statements are universal:
applicable for most companies, products and services. They are also
industry neutral. By using questions with a ‘positive pain’ spin
one is trying to demonstrate to a customer that their situation may
not be as good as they think it is. Unlike a ‘negative pain’ spin,
these questions work well for those in deep denial and who are resistant
to someone challenging the status quo. Customers in this scenario will
sometimes respond better to imperfection rather than outright admitting
directly to having problems. Here are some sentences I have found useful.
Preface these sentences with, “Let me confirm what I believe you
are telling me when you say things are going very well with your current
supplier. If in fact you are not having any problems then the following
will be what you are experiencing:
…”
- Your representative
has the clout to get things done and can expedite things when you find
yourself in a time crunch or bind.
- You’re getting
things on a timely basis without having to chase things down or micromanage
orders.
- Your supplier
is very flexible and is willing to go beyond the call of duty when needed.
- They have the
technical expertise and knowledge to understand your problem. As a result,
you are confident they will get it right the first time without your
having to re-educate and re-explain everything to them
The
following catchphrases are useful additions to mix it up and to add
emotional punch to your sentences:
-is
painstakingly thorough and accurate.
-gives
you the best of both worlds.
NEGATIVE
PAIN
The
following are examples that have an emotional appeal for change with
a “negative pain” spin. As before, I’m going to give you some
examples of completed sentences to put the examples in context.
- They do a very
good job on the easy transactions, but anything that isn’t cookie-cutter
they over promise and under deliver.
- Do you ever
run into the scenario where your vendor doesn’t own up to their responsibility
to have solid contingency plans in place so that they can nip problems
in the but before they happen and get out of control?
- Do you ever
experience frustration with your salesperson who is Johnny-on-the-Spot
when taking orders but when you need them to get you quick answers they
are either too busy, can’t be reached, or are always making excuses?
- They aren’t
bringing you innovative ideas and programs to make you more competitive.
They push the same old time-honored, tried and true ideas, and they
don’t think outside the box.
We
all know that people buy emotionally and justify those decisions logically.
You might as well appeal to the real reasons that compel them to change
or buy. The following catchphrases are useful additions, to mix it up
and to add an emotional punch that gets the customer in an emotional
mindset instead of a logical mindset:
-makes
you think you are at the point of diminishing returns.
Changing
your sales posture to an emotional one is difficult. If some of the
sentences and catchphrases resonate with you, use them. If you find
your customer doesn’t respond to the positive pain statements and
catchphrases, try the negative pain statements. Remember, customers
buy emotionally and justify the decisions logically. They must be guided
to their proper positive or negative pain level or the pain of change
will never trump the pain of the status quo.
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