Sales Training: Opening sales doors - Emotion is a buying requirement
When people talk about the transfer of emotion, I believe so much is lost in the explanation. Most people feel the transfer of emotion is a tactic that a sales person must employ to get people excited about things they otherwise would not buy. This is not the case, and hopefully this quick post will share with others my perception and use of the transfer of emotion. First and foremost, no matter how pragmatic a buyer, they will rarely align with purchasing something that they have negative feelings towards. If someone is willing to buy without a positive feeling, usually you do not want them as a customer.
The transfer of emotion is your ability to share your convictions with another in a manner that gets them to feel the same way. Let’s take a current case study and examine this. No matter if you like Barack Obama or not, when he speaks you feel his words. If you like his message, you are instantly taken to a place of better times. If you do not like what he says, you go to a place of disdain and rebel against his words. No matter your take, HE FORCES YOU TO TAKE A SIDE AND FEEL SOMETHING! Barack Obama would make a fantastic sales person, and some would argue that politics and sales are quite similar. Albiet, politics is a much slimier business, in both you have to get people to feel and align with what you believe. Also, in sales, much like politics, there is no reward for second place.
If you read my blog regularly, then you probably sell something you believe in. If not, quit your job and find one where you can get behind your product. Now examine what gets you excited about your offering. Now, write these things down and when it is time to gain clients, transfer that excitement and open more doors. Passion is a requirement for great sales people. Not a nice thing to have, but greatness requires passion. The ability to speak passionately is a requirement for champion salesmanship, period!
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June 4th, 2008 at 8:26 am
That’s the thing that makes me more mad than not, a sales person who doesn’t believe in the product but yet they try to sell it with a phony disposition.
Good post.
Heather
http://moamba.sytes.net
June 4th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I am delighted to have found your blog and will now promise to syndicate your feeds to me.
I am a business development executive for a digital agency and always love to read other people’s blogs and sites to keep up-to-date with thoughts and ethos regarding new business and sales.
Thank you very much for this helpful insight
June 4th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Heather,
Commitment is an important part of great selling. People that do not believe in their company, their offering, or their art, are people who do not last long. Thank you and Graeme for the compliments.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Hi Karl,
seems like a few of us are posting similar blog posts on need for passion and belief. Great article and loved the Barack Obama analogy. Politics and sales have a great deal in common and are both tarnished by insincerity.
Though it is possible to sell without emotional connection with the product, the greater investment you require from the client the more they are going to take your character, emotion and beliefs into account. That is where, I think, there is a close similarity with politics and sales. Politicians are selling the greatest product of all, people’s lives and livelihoods. Making the right choice matters and so one’s beliefs play a strong part in making the right decisions.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Hi Karl,
As Nesh says - passion seems to be a hot topic!
There’s an old joke about “if you can fake sincerity you’ve got it made”. I have met salespeople who can fake passion for their products - but it’s a really, really rare “skill”. For most of us we have to truly believe before people will believe us.
Rgds
Ian
June 16th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
And then there are timeshare salespeople.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:00 am
I could not agree with you more.
One of my three simple paradigms about sales is “People buy based upon emotion. They justify their decisions to other with logic, after the fact.”
There are five basic reasons people buy - RIPES:
- Risk avoidance
- Image
- Productivity
- Expenses
- Security
The first, second and last are based upon emotion but most people lead with logic - the third and fourth one.
If you have ever tried to overcome your spouses emotion with logic you’ll know how that it does not work.
Lead with emotion to get the buyer/prospect engaged and then provide the logic they need to justify their decision to their superiors, subordinates, or their spouse and watch your sales soar.
June 21st, 2008 at 7:09 am
Great post, you are absolutely right. Believing in your products is a prerequisite for success in sales. Keep up the good work.
Niall Devitt