People Decide on Emotion and Justify with Reason

I came across another blog written by Shamus Brown.  The blog is called “The Shameless Sales Blog”  Here is the link to the great article on Emotions and reasons. http://sales-blog.industrialego.com/sales-tips/2007/07/people-decide-on-emotion-and-justify-with-reason,  Here is the what Shamus wrote:

I read an article yesterday that talked about the power of emotion in making decisions.

The article was a about a author-shrink who has gotten popular among Democratic political activists because he is telling Democratic candidates that they got to “get emotional” if they want to win back the Presidency.

Well duh, we sales people have always known this one, right?

Major decisions are made on an emotional, gut level.

People then justify their decisions with logic, or “reason” as it’s sometimes called.

This is why you can’t just sell features.

Features appeal to logic.

Selling features requires the prospect to think through what meaning and impact of those features are. And that is something few people will take the effort to do.

Selling benefits is only a little bit better. I say only a little bit because selling benefits is like selling with a shotgun – you hope one of little bit of shot you’re your target, but you aren’t really sure which if anyone will do the job.

You see, benefits only matter if they are ones that your prospect cares about.

That’s why the real thing that people decide on – whether it’s a purchase or a voting decision – are their individual pains and wants.

Will this help me get what I want?

or

Will this help me solve my problem?

That’s what people make decisions on.

The article I read pointed out how Democrats have been essentially “feature selling” their candidates to America in the past few elections.

The LA Times said about author-shrink Drew Weston…

He writes that when Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts let a Swift-boat veterans group drag his reputation through the mud (2004), when Al Gore put a nation to sleep with his talk of lockboxes and Medicare actuaries (2000), and when Michael S. Dukakis said he didn’t believe in the death penalty even in the event of his wife’s rape and murder (1988), Democrats were exhibiting their single worst tendency: intellectual dispassion.

The lesson then is don’t be dispassionate when you sell.

Get your prospects worked up about their pains and desires. Get mad, get sad, and get excited *with* them.

Then you can get them to purchase something from you.

Sell with Pride,

Shameless Shamus

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