Yesterday, we discussed the first four principles to influence a sale from the book, “Rain Making Conversations,” written by Mike Schultz and John Doerr. Today, we will cover the next 4 principles.
5. Emotional Journey – As we pointed out in the blog, “Stories to Create a Great First Impression,” a goods salesman is a storyteller who can trigger deep seated emotions and images in the other person. You need to be able to deliver a story that will create a lasting image and emotion in your prospect. As an animal lover, I am deeply moved by animal cruelty commercials. This commercial exemplifies how to create an emotional journey for your audience. CAUTION: This YouTube video is deeply moving to any pet owner. It will make you stop what you are doing and hug your pet.
6. Belief – The customer can’t remain skeptical on whether or not your product or service will work for them. They have to believe your product or service can and will do what you say it can. They must believe in you. To reinforce this, you must show them that you consistently do what you say you will do and that your brand has a history of success. One way to accomplish this is to provide demonstrations so your customers can see that your product does what you say it will. Another way is to provide testimonials from others as proof of the quality of your services.
7. Justification – People make decisions on emotion and justify them with logic. Even if your solution makes logical sense, it needs to be tied to an emotion. The promise of their ROI is the reason the customer listens you. It is not the ROI of making more money that will get them to buy; it is the image of how much happier they will be with more money that is the emotional key.
8. Trust – The customer must trust you. He must know that you know what you are talking about, have a history of reliability, and are not a risky bet that will come back to bite him. Finally he must know that you will not take advantage of him if it suits you.
Which of these four principles do you use to influence a sale?
