In this series of emails, we have looked at the importance of excavating the emotional need in sales. Last week we looked at an example of emotional marketing in television commercials. This marketing approach reveals an important sales principle: people make decisions based on how they feel.
If selling to the emotional need of the client is something that we all agree with, then why do we still practice appealing to our prospect’s logic?
One common mistake that sales agents make is sympathizing with the client as a buyer. Many agents know what it is like to be a buyer and remember their unpleasant interactions with salespeople. They look through the lens of how they would like to purchase and build their sales presentation around that idea.
In most cases, these agents tend to lean on their own stats, facts, graphs, and figures to sell for them. They do this to avoid appearing pushy. Their goal is to make the buyer comfortable above all else, not realizing that the buyer has an emotional need that needs to be realized, addressed, and solved.
Addressing the emotional need should be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, many agents never learn this important lesson and end up leaving the business.
Here is some perspective to help you shift your focus to solving the clients’ emotional needs:
Antonio Damasio, one of the world’s leading neurologists set out to prove that emotions are the drivers of our decisions. Damasio studied people who had been diagnosed with damage to their limbic system, the emotional center of the brain. The rest of their brain was in fine working condition.
He discovered that people in this condition had something in common. He found that people with this type of damage were unable to make even a simple decision. They were able to objectively discuss the logic and rationality of different choices but when asked to make a choice they found it difficult and sometimes impossible to choose. Without their emotions to guide them, they agonized over the simplest choices like whether to have a ham or turkey sandwich.
Logic on it’s own will never move the needle in sales. Logic only allows clients to weigh the pros and cons of buying your life insurance product. Without emotion it is like a perfectly balanced teeter totter. What tips the balance? Emotion. People will only choose to buy from you based on how they feel about you and your products and services.
What do people feel when you present your life insurance products? What do they feel when they purchase from you?
We have asked these questions before in this series. We are repeating them for a reason. It typically takes seven touches before someone takes action. I want to help you sell more. Take action, and take a moment to answer these questions.
