Focus on Fundamentals
GENERATE EMOTION, GENERATE SALES
SELLING IS A TRANSFERENCE OF EMOTION
People buy more from emotion than from a logical approach. Emotion sells, logic only supports. People buy something because they want it. Sure, you need facts, reasons, and logic. But these things alone will leave the prospect feeling cold and unmotivated to buy. Your ad must provide a value – at least a perceived value – to the recipient.
Most successful salespeople not only know what they are selling well, they are excited about it. They usually have an endless list of stories to tell about folks who have bought the product and the great things the product has done for them. Great salespeople are likeable, believable people who are comfortable about talking with factory workers, housewives, doctors, or PhD’s. Great salespeople are happy, positive people. Their optimism is genuine and contagious. People like to be around them.
Here’s an example of how emotion can sell a common, usually uninteresting product – coffee. Now, what people will tell you all they care about is, “How does it taste and is the price good?” Until recently, most coffee was sold in restaurants and grocery stores. There just wasn’t much difference in brands or in taste.
But then Starbucks coffee did something that literally exploded the market for coffee. It offered coffee drinkers, or for that matter almost everyone, the opportunity to have a freshly-brewed cup of coffee in an upscale, comfortable, cool tech-friendly atmosphere. Starbucks had tapped into the “feelings” side of the brain. The value, perceived by the customer, is the great experience surrounding the drinking of a cup of coffee.
So, how do you do this in an ad? Lots of ways.
For example, you can do it with a challenge, perhaps even vaguely insulting your prospect. Your headline could read:
“When are you finally going to get tired enough of every day aches and pains to do
something about them?”
This will certainly create an emotional response, and it might just be the right approach for selling diet supplements.
An emotional response is created by the facts, details, and the story itself.
Skillful story telling, along with carefully selected and presented details to generate emotion, will cause your prospect to pay close attention. This sets the stage for getting the order. Try it – it works!