Selling Products vs Selling Emotions
“Don’t sell products, sell emotions” is an excellent old marketing phrase that holds a high significance. Most decisions people make are emotional, including every buying decision. This is likely to say that selling products is selling emotion.
What was the last thing you purchased? Let’s say food. Why did you buy it? — because you were feeling hungry, and hunger is an emotion.
Thus, if you sell your products without utilizing the emotions of your target customers, you are very likely to fail because people don’t by-products, they purchase emotions.
Here is a brief guide about how can you use emotions to sell your products.
Selling with Emotions: An Overview
An article from a Neuroscience professor suggests that emotion is a crucial element to all decisions. When we are in a situation where we have to make a decision, emotions from previous experiences influence our decisions.
Sales experts explain that buying decisions are a mixture of the following six feelings.
- Greed
- Fear
- Altruism
- Envy
- Pride
- Shame
Let’s discuss each of these emotions individually.
Greed
Greed refers to emotion in which you feel that if you make a decision, you will get rewarded. It is not a bad emotion if it motivates someone. What motivates you to work harder every day — Money, promotion, luxury, etc.? Is it an atrocious mindset? No; it is just human nature. Greed is one of the most common buying emotions, and here are a few ways to tap into people’s greed.
- By emphasizing personal benefits like better looks, promotions, etc.
- In the case of B2B marketing, point out the ROI and get the dollar signs to dance in front of their eyes.
- By telling stories of other customers that got benefitted from using your product
- By using words like exclusive, reward, valuable, profitable, free, etc.
Fear
Fear is powerful, at least more powerful than greed when it comes to buying decisions. Research suggests that articles with a positive headline (containing words like best, excellent, etc.) performed 29% worse compared to articles with a negative headline (containing bad, worse, never, etc.) that performed 30% better.
You can use fear to sell in the following ways.
- By making your prospects realize the cost of not making the purchase
- Telling scary stories of prospects who went astray
- Emphasizing how not making a purchase can affect the prospects personally
- Using words such as damage, loss, harm, cost, etc.
Altruism
Altruism is an emotion in which if you make a decision, you help others. It is not the strongest of the emotions when it comes to buying, but it has turned out to be a successful strategy for many companies. Shoe company TOMS utilized Altruism as it decided to donate a pair of shoes on every purchase. However, this motivator is less effective in the case of B2B sales.
A few ways to use this motivator are discussed below.
- By emphasizing the benefits for employees (in front of a business owner or executive)
- Stressing about the benefits to its customers or partners
- Informing prospects how their decision can cause good to someone else.
- Using words like help, benefits, improvement, etc.
Envy
Envy is an emotion in which if you don’t make a decision, you let your competition win. If a company is not competitive, it will not stay for long in the business. Here is how you can use “envy” to trigger buying decisions.
- By naming your prospect’s competitor and telling your prospect how your product can help them overtake the competition
- Framing the benefits of your products enjoyed by your prospects’ competitors
- Sharing industry reports
- Using words like better, behind, best, overtake, etc.
Pride
Pride is an emotion in which if you make a decision, you will look smart. It is another influential buyers’ emotion that is easy to trigger and is very effective. You can trigger this emotion by simply telling your prospects about how using your product can help them become better.
You can use this emotion in the following ways.
- By framing outcomes in terms of self-image
- Displaying rewards that your customers have won
- Offering to feature the prospect
- Using words like respect, power, reputation, etc.
Shame
Shame is an emotion in which if you don’t make a decision, you will look foolish. It is a powerful emotion and can be easily triggered. However, make sure you don’t cross the line and end up insulting your prospect.
Here is how you can use “shame.”
- By alluding to past mistakes
- Dropping hints about a sad future
- Discussing how not making a decision can let others down.
- Using words like avoid, disappoint, and mistake.
How Can Einfach Digital Help?
Using emotions to tailor your marketing campaigns is not as simple as discussed above. It is essential to identify the right buyers’ emotions, along with devising an effective strategy to target those emotions. Tapping into wrong emotions can have adverse effects on your business and can lead to a depleted brand reputation.
Einfach Digital holds more than three years of industry experience in helping brands identifying their buyers’ emotions and planning actionable strategies to tap into the right emotion in a proper fashion.
