People buy Emotions.
Out and about recently I saw a tremendous example of emotional selling, and it reminded me of the second lesson I ever learnt when starting out on my sales journey. People buy emotions. It’s a really simple concept but one that so many salespeople get wrong, still languishing in the world of product features and benefits.
It’s worth highlighting the example here to give context. Of all the places that I thought I would see an example of wonderful emotional selling it probably wouldn’t be in a gent’s toilet on the M5, but, low and behold that’s where it was. I found myself rather awkwardly taking a photo of it with this post in mind.
The product in question is flatulence filtering underwear for men, unless this is a massive hoax these really are out there. I have checked them out, a nice range and great site to go with there expert marketing message. I’m sure we can all think of a time when something like this would have come in handy!
So how do you go about selling fart reducing products? Emotionally in this case. Shreddies have moved away from the product, moved away from the benefit and focused straight in on the emotion attached to their product as their headline message. Shreddies sell ‘FREEDOM’. A wonderful message.
In order to sell emotionally we need to clearly understand and define our market of who we are speaking to, this is the subject of “People buy emotions – Part 2, the first lesson I learnt in selling.”
For now, let’s continue on the theme of emotions with another simple example that will help shape your sales messaging and scripting.
Sell me the hole not the drill-bit.
We’ve heard the expression, sell me the hole not the drill bit. I heard a very expensive sales and marketing agency preach that to me once, and, whilst I agree, there are further steps to take here to really sell emotionally. No-one really wants a drill-bit, no-one really wants a hole in the wall for that matter. There is another layer or two here that we need to uncover. What’s going in the hole? What’s going on the thing that you put in the hole? Why do you want that thing, on the thing in the hole that you just made? Understand the answers here and we are on the right track to emotional selling.
So, in this case, don’t sell me the drill bit, don’t sell me the hole, don’t sell me the screw that goes in the hole, don’t sell me the picture that hangs on the screw that fits in the hole. Sell me the emotion I will have looking at the picture of my wedding photo, a sunset from my honeymoon, an amazing holiday, a child’s first steps, an awesome night out. The emotion here will override any feature or benefit of a drill bit.
Now you don’t want a drill bit, you need one.
If you need some help, guidance or support in your sales messaging, understanding your market, isolating the emotions relating to your product range. We have some processes and tools that will help you uncover these elements to make your sales function more effective.
Feel free to get in touch and we can chat it through.
If you would like to know a bit more, we have put together a short online courses to support your selling techniques.
