Utilizing Emotion for Fun and Profit

Hi Persuader,

Previously in Let’s Get Emotional, I described the ‘whys’ of appealing to our clients and prospects on an emotional level. Now I’m going to give you some ‘hows’.

We all want to believe that we’re doing the right thing. We all want to believe that it makes the most amount of sense for our clients to act on what we tell them because we can back something up with logic does not mean the client will part with their money. In fact, backing it up with logic is largely irrelevant.

If you get emotionally involved with your product or service and you believe in it your odds of passing that enthusiasm and feeling onto your prospects and clients is greatly increased.

Say you’re a financial advisor and you nearly twisted somebody’s arm to buy life insurance one day, and they did, and a few years later one of them dies and the life insurance pays off and saves the family. The spouse calls you, in tears, crying, telling you that the loss of their loved one — they don’t know how they’re going to get over it, but at least they don’t have to worry about money. They tell you, ‘I want you to know, I didn’t like you very much. I told my husband I thought you were pushy when you were on us to buy insurance but I want to tell you, I was the one who was wrong and I’m so grateful that you did what it took to get us to make that happen. I don’t know how I’ll get over my husband’s loss, but financially I’m going to be okay.’

When you get involved emotionally with your product, you will most definitely pass that on to your customers, to your potential customers, to your current customers, to everybody, and they will know that they’re dealing with someone who really believes, which eventually contribute to lead scoring. That goes so far to help you sell powerfully.

On the other hand, think about what it would sound like if you were to logically argue the actuarial tables about the client being this age and by that age, odds are they’re going to die, and if they don’t have insurance up to this point, it’s a mistake. I’ll tell you, this is much, much less likely to work for you.

I heard a story about a Japanese insurance firm who hired widows to sell life insurance. It’s a somewhat manipulative tactic as I see it, but think about how ingenious that is. These women are calling secure non-widowed housewives and laying their story about — they too were once secure and had a husband and now they’re reduced to having to sell insurance to make ends meet. (Incidentally, I happen to believe that selling insurance is as noble a profession as any other and have no perception of this being something someone does when they are ‘reduced’ to do it. I am passing on the story to illustrate how one firm managed to really manipulate the heck out of emotional selling.)

Real estate agents, financial advisors, sales people of every sort — post some examples of the emotions your clients experience in the course of your interactions with them have impacted your business and think about how you can incorporate into your selling these stories for maximum persuasion.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland