If you are new to sales & marketing or even someone with some experience under your belt, emotional selling is much more prevalent than you have likely ever realized.
In fact, the more you learn about emotional selling, the more you will discover that this is a lighter form of apophenia, a condition where one has the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena… kinda like owning a Volkswagon Beatle and then seeing them everywhere. Now you perceive like you are part of a club and this is the way many successful items and services are sold & marketed.
All decisions are based on emotional selling hooks.
So, in an effort to not make this a “how to take advantage of cognitive biases to make people want what you’re selling” post, I had to examine my own language in this blog. This is NOT about manipulating your audience.
People are extremely emotional with their cognitive biases.
What is Cognitive Bias? Common in psychology, the term cognitive bias refers to an error in reasoning that causes us to deviate from good judgment and make illogical decisions. If you’re responsible for selling, you’re responsible for understanding people – so you should try to learn about cognitive bias and use it to your advantage. Again, this is NOT about manipulating your audience.
Our irrational behaviours are not random. If consumer behaviour is predictable, then success in sales comes down to understanding emotional selling and communicating accordingly.
You can’t control the final outcome, but you can influence your prospect’s decisions with confidence. We may feel like we’re making logical and rational decisions, but so many influences subconsciously affect our emotions and steer our judgment.
DISCLAIMER: With this knowledge, comes a responsibility — use it wisely (cue Star Wars theme). There is a big difference between persuading someone to buy your solution and manipulating or misleading them. You are also susceptible to these biases so imagine the situation in reverse. Treat this tactic as an ethical influence. Use it to try and overcome objections, but remember that if you convince someone to buy something they end up not finding valuable, the negative customer experience could have a nasty impact on your business!
The anchoring effect of emotional selling
Don’t you love it when you go to book a holiday and the booking site has suddenly displayed a price drop? The cost is still high, but it’s half the price it was before. That’s surely reason enough to justify handing over your credit card, right?
This is the anchor effect and we have all fallen victim to it at one point or another. In fact, 100% of our decisions are based on our emotions — the interesting part is that this is not psychological, but biological.
Us humans are more emotional than we like to admit and rely heavily on the information we’re given. However, that ten turns into an emotional response and we intuitively use that information as a base for how we feel about subsequent decisions that we need to make, e.g. buying or acquiring something.
In fact, the very first thing you say matters in emotional selling. So, whether your first point of communication involves a call or email, you should always, carefully, plan out how you want to introduce yourself and make sure the first piece of info your prospect receives about your product sets a positive tone for the rest of the conversation.
- Play to this bias by unveiling the price of your solution in stages.
- If you are offering a discount, start with the full price and follow with the discount cost.
- Alternatively, demonstrate a price comparison by referencing a competitor price that’s higher.
- When your prospect sees the second price, they’re more likely to view it favourably as they still have the initial quote in mind.
- Strengthen your case by sharing testimonials that show how customers have earned or saved far more than they paid for your solution.
The Ambiguity Effect
Imagine you had the choice between two routes to reach your destination. You’ve travelled the first route often and you’re familiar with the roads. You can plan your time of arrival down to the second. You have never taken the second route before. The roads could be bumpy, traffic could be bad. You can’t guarantee you’ll reach your destination on time.
Which route are you more likely to take? Most people are risk-averse and will opt for route one. This is called the ambiguity effect and it causes people to lean towards the familiar and avoid options that are unknown. It also causes people to shy away from making decisions if they don’t fully understand what’s involved or what the results will be.
So, before you reach out to your prospect
Emotional selling requires that you make sure to anticipate any knowledge gaps. Having the relevant information available to hand over when your prospect has questions is key to conquering this bias.
- Don’t overload your prospect with information on your first email or call – focus on the highlights and simplify what you are offering.
- Try to gauge the existing knowledge of your prospect. Don’t use jargon, acronyms or technical terms, especially if they don’t fully understand what you are selling. It will scare potential buyers away.
- Focus on results and clearly inform your prospect of what they can expect. Include case studies to share concrete examples of customer results.
- Do your research on your prospect to help anticipate questions or objections. Smart contact data allows you to find valuable insights quickly to prequalify your leads. This allows you to store key information so you can have it on hand when contacting your prospect.
The bandwagon effect of emotional selling
From Beanie Babies to Bitcoin, at some point in our lives, we have all fallen victim to the bandwagon effect. You might also know this bias as a social influence or social proof. As an example, the cool kids on Instagram have a new career path because of the human urge to compare ourselves with a peer and aspire to their position.
As such, it goes without saying that social influence can have a profound impact on how people make decisions. We like to think that we’re strong enough to resist letting others influence our decisions. But whether we like to admit it or not, we tend to trust something a lot more if we know it’s already popular with others.
- Talk about your customers.
- If your first point of contact is on a call, leverage social influence by referencing other customers in your conversation, for example: “Most of our clients use X to achieve Y”.
- If you are reaching out to your prospect via email, include case studies that demonstrate how your prospect’s peers are using your offering. Don’t be afraid to show your prospect what their competition is doing.
- Why not run a split test to see which customer stories are most effective to create interest and close deals.
- Social proof is powerful – when you hit a customer milestone, broadcast it on social channels, your email newsletters and whenever you can drop it into the conversation!
The halo effect of emotional selling — first impressions matter.
Nicholas Boothman claims when you meet someone, you only have 90 seconds to make an impression. If you don’t spark a connection within that time, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever trigger their interest, and the timing is critical. If your prospect likes you, they are more likely to have positive associations with your business and product.
The opposite is also true, so it’s important to set a positive tone from the very beginning of any relationship or customer conversation (on email, over a call, and in a face-to-face meeting).
- Pay attention to your facial expressions, eyes and body language. It’s essential for all three to convey a sense of warmth and openness.
- Position your body with your heart facing towards your prospect and avoid crossing your arms.
- Don’t be afraid to make eye contact – it is an effective way to gain trust.
- Smile! It shows that you’re enthusiastic. Like yawning, it’s infectious so it won’t be long before your prospect is smiling back.
- Make sure your voice, body language and expressions match. Lack of consistency can make you appear ingenuine and compromise your credibility.
- Mirroring your prospects’ mannerisms also brings synchronicity into the conversation. As human beings, we do this quite naturally and it helps to build rapport. This can include posture, the volume of speech and facial expressions. A mismatch in communication styles can destroy a deal. If your prospect is particularly softly-spoken, loudness certainly won’t work in your favour! Focus on what you want to get out of your conversation. Ask the right questions and actively listen. Truly understanding your prospect and where you can bring value is key to building a genuine connection.
- You can also use this to your advantage when pitching your solution. Focus your pitch on your best skill or product benefit first – then let the Halo Effect shine onto your other products and services too.
The Ikea effect of emotional selling
Have you ever assembled a shelving unit by hand? It may be a little wonky, however, I bet it means a lot more to you than the superior antique shelf that you had delivered. The pride you feel in your creation is described by the IKEA effect! People value something significantly more if they feel they have played a role in building it (regardless of the result).
Work with your prospect to customize your solution to cater to their specific needs.
- Make them feel like they have a hand in shaping the solution. Offer them a free trial and ask for feedback.
- This can also work nicely when it comes to customer retention.
- Get your customers involved in BETA trials for new products. It makes your customers feel important and shows you value their opinion. In return, you receive valuable feedback to enhance and refine your offering.
The sunk-cost fallacy
We instinctively want to finish what we start. We are often irrationally, committed to finish and stick it out when we have already invested time, energy or money into it. Think about a game of monopoly that goes on for hours and hours. Everyone’s starting to get tired and there is no end in sight, but you feel like you have to keep playing. Otherwise, it all would have been for nothing, right?
- Encourage your prospect to agree to small commitments. This is similar to the IKEA Effect – you want your prospect to get involved.
- Send questions for your potential buyer to consider before your next meeting. This is also a useful technique to frame how your prospect thinks about your offering.
- Email some reading materials and useful resources to your prospect. This not only works to increase commitment but shows that you are helpful and want to add value.
- If your prospect has cooperated with the requests so far, it’s likely that they’re interested in your solution. Why not offer a free trial to dial up the commitment levels?
- This also plays nicely into the Hyperbolic Discounting Effect (yes it’s a real thing!) – we are more attracted to immediate wins, than long-term rewards. Delayed payment terms are an effective way to satisfy your prospect’s desire for an instant pay-off.
Use cognitive bias to create urgency and increase your conversion rate
Research shows that if you know your prospect before you reach out, your chance of a deeper connection is 200-300% greater! Match prospects against lookalike customers to anticipate any possible objections, challenges and preconceptions.
Are you ready for a one-on-one copy-boarding session to identify your emotional selling points? It is currently only $95.; schedule now.
To help your cognitive biased copy, actively listen and ask open questions and give your prospect the opportunity to express their opinions and needs. Active listening establishes rapport. Try to truly understand your prospect’s values, pain points, and wants, and most importantly, what they already believe.
First impressions matter
Carefully plan your opening line, how you want to present your solution, and how you present yourself. You need to be likable, confident, and positive immediately to build a strong connection.
Emotional selling focuses on the prospects’ needs and creates value
Focus on something your prospect really cares about, like a personal desire or individual career goal. Look at your solution from their perspective. Think about the person, not the business. What problem can you solve for them? How is your product or service going to make them more successful?
At the end of the day, when selling, you must remember, you’re not selling a product, you’re selling outcome.
“Sell the problem you solve, not the product you have.” ~ Mike Serulneck
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Everything we do in business is surrounded by the messages that we put out, however, most of us — if not all of us — did not get into business to write about it. I’m William Dickinson, owner of Cortex Marketing and I specialize in creating compelling content and engaging marketing when business owners find it difficult to create it themselves.
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