A myth of modern marketing and advertising seems to have taken hold in all too many places.
This myth is that your buyers, prospects, and the uninitiated are all rational human beings that when presented with the most basic of facts will make the right decision.
Guess what?
That’s wrong.
Once and for all, let’s get this straight: all buying decisions are emotional.
Doesn’t matter if you are in B2B sales and marketing.
The buyer is making an emotional decision.
Are you in B2C sales and marketing?
Still emotional?
Even, B2G, and lord knows…who knows what they are doing…
Yes, still emotional.
The thing is, once we jump past the idea of a rational buyer, it opens up our ability to make persuasive arguments about our ideas and our products and services.
If we don’t fall back on the rational, what do we fall back on then?
Well, the easy answer is the emotional.
Our 5 senses.
Which might look something like this:
- Instead of an enterprise software talking about the speed of process, uptime, and customer service hours, the ad will talk about ability to help the enterprise prospect reach their goals, hit their targets, or open new lines of business.
- If you are selling sports, instead of selling a discount, why not sell the experience? Sports is fantastic when it comes to nostalgia. That’s an emotion. What about the smell of hot dogs? What about the sound of crowds? What about the anticipation of a big game? All emotions!
- What about a jewelry, clothes, etc.? Again, emotions. Look better! Feel better! Win a date! Whatever. Tackle the emotional connection and you will win.
Here’s the point, there isn’t any such thing as a rational buyer.
Even those clowns that tell you they are rational buyers aren’t really rational, they are playing a role and their emotions tell them that they have to do their best to make sure that they don’t mess up and make an unwise decision because they are rational.
Which presents you with the opportunity.
Once you know the emotion to target, the whole thing gets much easier.