Where Does Emotion Fit In?

Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector

I never met Zig Ziglar.

I must admit I had the chance when I attended one of his presentations in Sydney, a number of years ago, but, no I never got to meet him. 

Who’s Zig Ziglar? Well I think he’s a genius. Before he passed away in 2012 he was America’s most influential and beloved “encourager,” believing that everyone could have more and be better at what they did. He reached and influenced millions of people with his 33 books, videos and live presentations. His best-selling book See You at the Top is a mainstay for anyone seeking personal or professional success while Secrets of Closing the Sale is one of the great sales books on this subject. 

But no I never met him.
One of my favourite Zig Ziglar quotes is “People don’t buy for logical reasons – they buy for emotional reasons” 

And that is what many media sales people seem to forget. 

They believe that potential clients need “education” on their medium, or perhaps should be provided with the latest audience statistics and then listen to a long winded explanation of how their station is superior to the competitors….  “look at our cumes, our audience profile, our personalities etc etc” 

Hundreds of studies have shown that emotion is a huge part of the sales process and the best sales people know that if you want to move the sale through its various stages a key component is to demonstrate benefits; benefits that focus on the self-interest of the customer. Satisfying their needs and focussing on genuine and achievable solutions. 

And all of these are in the emotional zone. 

Exceptional sales people use phrases such as “how does this feel so far” or perhaps “you can see where this would make a difference” or “I can show you how this works” and “others have felt this way too.” 

Too many times sales people forget to really connect – one great tool to do this is the VAK model. We all receive messages differently some prefer visually (V), others like to hear it (A) while others are more tactile and like to “feel” it (K). Without getting too technical we also have primary and secondary preferences. 

Bottom line is that when you are presenting to more than one person use all three ways to communicate – you can’t know what their message receptors are, so keep everyone involved and interested with visual cues, audio activity and handouts for those who need to feel the message. 

It all comes back to emotion and how the customer perceives you, your company and your product. Thanks for your advice Zig. 

 

About the author 

Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.
He can be contacted at [email protected]

 

 

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