“Make sure you include how the person at your customer was experiencing problems, the actions they took to resolve these problems, and then how they gained personally from solving these problems.” – Andrew Monaghan in today’s Tip 1376
Do you sell with emotion?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Andrew Monaghan. Andrew is the CEO and Founder of Unstoppable.do and host of the Sales Bluebird podcast. He has 18 years of enterprise software sales experience both as a seller and a leader and 8 years as a consultant helping sales teams at software companies sell more, faster. Here he is:
Andrew Monaghan: Human beings buy with emotion and justify with logic, and that’s true from a personal standpoint of how you buy things, but also how people buy things in a business environment as well. It’s not called a business justification by accident. But the thing is, how do you connect with someone emotionally? How do you connect with a prospect or a buyer emotionally without being creepy, without scaring them off and making them feel weird about doing business with you? Here are six ways to do that.
The first one is perhaps when you’re prospecting and you’re thinking about framing problems that they might be experiencing. Frame those problems using emotional words and not just logical ones. So don’t say it’s common for people in your shoes to have revenue going down or flat. Don’t say that other people, just like you, have costs that are going too high. Right? Do say other people are frustrated that revenue is down and people like you are struggling with the rising costs. So add in frustrated and struggling in emotional words like that.
Number two is to label what you hear from them when you are talking with them, either in the first call, the first meeting, or further down the sales cycle. So this is a labeling tactic and a hat tip to Chris Boss for this. So when someone expresses to you that they’ve got a problem, let’s say a flat revenue, don’t say, “Okay, I’m sorry to hear that.” Do say, “It sounds like you’re frustrated with the flat revenue.” Right? So you add in the emotional you label that phrase that you’re hearing from them.
The third one is a mindset one, which is bring empathy to your conversation. So be empathetic, not sympathetic to their plight. Empathize with them, don’t pity them. So if they’re expressing to you a problem, don’t think in your mind, “God, I really feel sorry for them having to go through that.” That’s sympathy. Do wonder in your mind, what must it be like to be going through that in their shoes at this time? And that’s where you bring empathy to your mindset.
Fourth one is to understand their personal pain, not just the business pain. Personal pain that they’re experiencing right now is perhaps the biggest driver for them to change. So when you’re going through your questioning, don’t just ask, how is a company affected by this problem? Do make sure you also ask, how is this a problem affecting you and your team?
The fifth way is to understand their personal gain. So similar idea. Personal gain experienced right now is also a big driver for change. So when they’re talking about their plights is don’t just ask how is the company going to gain from fixing this? Also, ask how are you going to feel or be viewed once this is fixed.
And lastly, number six is when you’re using stories. People obviously connect with stories best they do with facts and figures but make sure you bring an emotional side to your stories. Don’t just tell them customer stories where the outcomes are business and logical impacts. That’s not an effective way to end your customer story. Also, make sure you include how the person at your customer was experiencing problems, the actions they took to resolve these problems, and then how they gained personally from solving these problems.
So there are six ways to sell to the emotional side of your buyer.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Andrew and to his Sales Bluebird book, podcast, and newsletter, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1376. Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!