When we are looking for new people to sell our products and services to, the mistake that we often make is that we pay so much attention to the features and benefits of our products that we often forget about what really matters….
Human Psychology!
You see…
We are all different and we all have different meta models – the way we perceive the world around us.
Trying to work out how to connect to different personality types can be confusing for marketers.
But, there’s one thing that remains constant about the way that all people make buying decisions…
Emotional reasoning!
So, one of the keys to converting more of the people in your marketplace into paying customers is to….
Speak to their emotions!
Here’s what I mean…
Let’s say that someone walks into a shop to by a drill.
What do they really want? Some of you well trained sales types might say …
A 1/4 inch whole!
OK, but the real question to ask yourself is what they really want the whole in the wall for?
One reason might be that they want to hang up a picture of a recent family photo. But the real question that an experienced sales person would probably ask is..
What emotional reason would motivate someone to want to hang up a family photo in their house?
A realistic answer to this question could be that the customer desires to feel an emotional sense of….
Connection!
Your success in creating customers will be directly proportional to the frequency at which you frame your sales and marketing messages around these human needs.
Now…
Let’s look at a few ways that you can increase your sales conversions by tapping into these needs and pulling your prospect’s emotional triggers.
Emotional Trigger 1 – Belonging
People have an inherent desire to belong to, or be affiliated with, a group of people who are similar to them. We are all tribal to some degree.
This explains why people often develop border-line obsessions with sports teams. Wearing their team’s colours gives them a sense of pride.
They love nothing more that to go to a bar and see other people wearing their team’s scarves and hats etc.
Now…
From a psychological perspective, we don’t like to feel that we are alone and living in a world with people who don’t have the same interests or perspective in life that we do..
In most cases, our desire to belong to a group often has something to do with what the group stands for. Take Apple for an example.
Yes, Apple makes great products and this company is at the cutting-edge of user experience and design but at a subconscious level being affiliated with the Apple brand makes people feel that they are cool, modern and forward thinking or futuristic.
So, how is this belonging trigger relevant to you and your business?
Well, if you can make it clear what you stand for and make these principles clear in your marketing, you will attract similar prospect’s who have a desire to be a member of a unique group of similar minds.
This is how you pull their emotional trigger.
Don’t just promote the benefits of your product but you communicate your business’s values, tie these values in to the reasoning behind promoting your product and by doing this you will be promoting this trigger of belonging to develop more intimate connections with your prospects.
So…
Ask yourself, what does my product or business stand for and make these qualities clear when communicating to your prospects/customers.
Trigger 2 – Control
When people feel like they have lost control of aspects of their lives, they often feel depressed. People ultimately want control over their destiny.
So…
To develop a deeper connection with your prospective customers a great question that you should ask yourself is…
“What is it about my product or service that can give my customers more control over their lives?”
Make sense?
So…
Let’s say that you are selling a stock market trading course.
Why do you honestly think that a person would buy it from you?
Do you honestly think that their real motivation is to learn the theory about, dead-cat bounces, 50-day moving averages and volume break outs?
Hardly!
Chances are, at an emotional level, someone will buy your course because they are hoping that the knowledge contained within will help them to make better investment decisions which will put them in a better financial position and given them the confidence that they will make enough money in the future to secure their financial future.
In other words, they are looking to satisfy the emotional need of control.
So… It doesn’t matter what it is that you are selling, or how many competitors you have, the reality is that s(he) who offers a customer more control – wins.
Think about what can your product can do to offer your customers more control and communicate the control that they will experience in your marketing messages.
Trigger 3 – Competence
Competence is the ability to do something effectively or efficiently. When we feel like we don’t have the knowledge or skills to achieve an important goal we feel like we have lost control of our lives.
See how these triggers can often be inter-related?
Yes, talking to someone about the benefits that your product offers your customer, will leave them feeling a sense of positive expectancy that they will have a certain degree of control over their lives.
But…
If you can speak to them about the tools that they will be equipped with, e.g knowledge about the subject area, that will help them to achieve their goal whilst selling them your products, they will feel more competent.
So… Using weight loss as an example, don’t just talk to your prospect about the specifics of your weight loss package, let your prospect know that as one of your customers, they will also gain valuable knowledge about how to resolve this problem if it occurs in the future.
Make sense?
Trigger 4 – Caring
This is one of my favourite triggers and isn’t spoken about enough as far as sales and marketing is concerned. All human beings feel more fulfilled when they experience:
- Feeling cared for
- Coming across an opportunity to care for others
It is an inescapable truth that we can not hide from.
It is true that… Sociopaths and murders are the exceptions to this rule which becomes evident when you delve into the interesting field of criminology and brain chemistry.
But…
Let’s say you aren’t a sociopath and you aren’t looking for these people as customers, the first thing that you can do to use this trigger to increase your influence with this crowd is to demonstrate how much you care for them but more importantly, give your prospect the opportunity to care for you.
What do I mean by this?
Well…
If you were to say to someone how cared for you would feel if they would perform an action such as leaving you a comment on your blog or completing a survey, if they performed the desired action this would have the indirect effect of pulling this trigger and stimulating your prospect’s emotional, right-brained, caring trigger.
And…
By pulling this trigger you will leave them feeling that they have done something that has offered you value which will, at a subconscious level, make them feel closer to you and strengthen your bond.
Remember…
People do business with people they know, like and trust and if you can leave people feeling cared for and also give them an opportunity to care for you, you’ll strengthen the like part of this formula. This is counter-intuitive but powerful – just give it a go and try it.
Trigger 5 – Change
If history, genetics, psychology and biology have taught us anything, it is that human beings are driven by the need to change. It is this inherent drive for change that simulates our desire to go into that state of trance often referred to as day-dreaming.
This is what separates us (as far as we know) from other members of the animal kingdom.
We never feel satisfied if we are not progressing.
So, when you are pulling this emotional trigger, to get more sales and develop stronger bonds with your customers, your aim should be to get your prospective customer to step ahead into their future and visualise what their ideal life will look like without the current concerns that they are facing.
Conversational hypnotists and NLP practitioners do this by using a technique known as…
Future Pacing!
I’m not going to go into how to use this technique on this post but you can read about it in my eBook – Sales Letter Seduction where I give you examples of how to use this technique.
If you can start getting people to intensely think about how their ideal future will look if they take your advice, you will find it easier to stimulate your prospect’s desire to use your products and services and work with you.
Trigger 6 – Challenge
People love to be challenged whether they know it or not. Human beings are motivated by 2 main drivers:
- Fear of loss – 2 times as powerful
- Desire to gain
But… The ability to prove someone wrong is also an incredibly powerful way to motivate people to take action. People at a subconscious level also develop the belief that the person challenging is more of an authoritative figure than they are.
Remember what I said before about people buying from people that they know like and trust? Well, people trust people who appear to be figures of authority.
So, try to work out how you can challenge your prospects to do more, have more and become more, in all of your interactions with them.
The mere fact that you are doing this, will differentiate you from your from your competition because chances are your competitors aren’t doing this.
Leaders challenge people.
Leaders sell more.
Challenge people – don’t be afraid to lead!
Trigger 7 – Contribution
As selfish as we may sometimes think people are, the reality is that we all want to feel like we are contributing to something greater than ourselves.
So…
Let’s say that you are selling a weight loss product as a network marketer. When someone decides to buy your product, they are not going really buying your product are they? They are buying the product’s benefit.
They’re not buying the weight loss shake, they are buying the loss of belly fat, or at a deeper level, their perceived increase in attractiveness. So, what has this got to do with you and your products?
Well, if you can talk to prospects in terms of emotional benefits AND also focus on the contribution that they will be able to make to the lives of their loved ones or people in their social/business circles, you should find that the selling process becomes much easier because you will trigger this sense of contribution.
Just imagine, if you can get your prospect to look into the future and see themselves looking slimmer.
Now…
Imagine what would happen if you could getting this person to acknowledge the positive impact that their weight-loss/health success could potentially have on the lives of those around them.
By this, I am referring to things like their increased lifespan and also the competence that they will gain by having more knowledge about weight loss as a subject matter that they can pass to other around them.
The point I’m trying to make here is that if you can speak to people about how your products will help them to make a positive contribution in the lives of others, you will increase their motivation to work with you and use your products.
Powerful stuff!
So…
You can now see that understanding emotional triggers and applying them to your marketing messages can be the key to speaking to your leads and prospective customer’s needs and desires.
Here’s my challenge to you today…
Go into your marketplace and start framing all of your conversations, email communications, and sales videos using these triggers and when you get comfortable, start stacking them to develop deeper connections with your prospects which should result in an increase in your sales conversions, more customers and increased income.
Understanding emotional triggers that make humans react to various scenarios can be powerful tool to a marketer’s arsenal.
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Till next time…
