The Universal Buyer’s Journey
When it comes to outbound leads, most prospects are in the unaware stage of the universal buyer’s journey – meaning they haven’t even acknowledged their problem yet. If they had, they would already be in your inbound funnel. This is why it’s so important to qualify your outbounds on the basis of the three criteria listed above: problem, impact, and willingness to change.
Most salespeople resort to using ROI, USPs, and customer evidence in their outbound messaging, but this only triggers the neocortex – the logical thinking part of the brain. It does very little to trigger the emotions of the prospect, which is what you need to do if you want to become an elite seller.
So how do you engage emotions when selling?
The key is to provoke an emotion – any emotion – because sales is about them, not you. Revisit any brand’s content or messaging that you’ve been able to connect with and you’ll find that they were only able to do so by evoking the right emotions within you.
If you’re trying to evoke the emotion of pain, for example, you could highlight a shrinking market share, low average deal sizes, or long sales cycles as a result of something directly under the control of the customer. This could make them question their ability as a decision maker, and their limbic brain will fire an emotional response making them more willing to explore what you have to say.
So stop using rationality in your sales messages and start engaging emotions if you want to become an elite seller.
Don’t forget to catch the one-year anniversary special of Rambling Sessions where we bring back 3 of our favorite panelists from the year gone by. It’s packed with tons of actionable sales insights and experiential tales from some of sales’ biggest names, so you don’t want to miss it!
Can You Predict the Choice People Make Before They Do?
We all want to be able to read our customers’ minds and know what they are going to do before they even do it. It’s a superpower that would be invaluable to any salesperson. But is it really possible to predict the choices people will make before they make them?
The answer is yes! A recent study found that it is possible to predict a person’s choice up to 10 seconds before they make it. This is called “pre-choice prediction” and it’s based on research into how the human brain works.
The brain is divided into three main parts: the neocortex, the limbic brain, and the reptilian brain. Each part of the brain plays a different role in making decisions and can be targeted by salespeople to help them optimize their sales messaging.
The Neocortex
The neocortex is the part of our brain responsible for rational thought, sensory perception, and conscious decision-making. If a customer is trying to make a decision, the neocortex is the part of the brain you want to target if you want them to make the right choice.
The Limbic Brain
The limbic brain is the part of the brain responsible for emotional responses and memory-based reactions. It’s the part of the brain that controls our instinctual behaviors like caring for our young, or linking smells and sights with pleasant memories or emotions.
The Reptilian Brain
The reptilian brain is the oldest part of the human brain, and is responsible for putting us in a “survival mode”. It’s responsible for our fight or flight instinct, and other automatic self-preserving behaviors that ensured the survival of our species.
These two parts of the brain – the limbic brain and the reptilian brain – work together to stir up our primal instincts. As a salesperson, this is the part of the buyer’s brain you want to target if you want to become an elite seller.
The Universal Buyer’s Journey
When it comes to outbound leads, most prospects are in the unaware stage of the universal buyer’s journey – meaning they haven’t even acknowledged their problem yet. If they had, they would already be in your inbound funnel. This is why it’s so important to qualify your outbounds on the basis of the three criteria listed above: problem, impact, and willingness to change.
Most salespeople resort to using ROI, USPs, and customer evidence in their outbound messaging, but this only triggers the neocortex – the logical thinking part of the brain. It does very little to trigger the emotions of the prospect, which is what you need to do if you want to become an elite seller.
So how do you engage emotions when selling?
The key is to provoke an emotion – any emotion – because sales is about them, not you. Revisit any brand’s content or messaging that you’ve been able to connect with and you’ll find that they were only able to do so by evoking the right emotions within you.
If you’re trying to evoke the emotion of pain, for example, you could highlight a shrinking market share, low average deal sizes, or long sales cycles as a result of something directly under the control of the customer. This could make them question their ability as a decision maker, and their limbic brain will fire an emotional response making them more willing to explore what you have to say.
So stop using rationality in your sales messages and start engaging emotions if you want to become an elite seller.
