The top 1% of sales professionals have long recognized that the key to finalizing a sale is based on appealing to the customer’s emotions. While making rational arguments to purchase a product or service is important as a foundation to making the sale, connecting with the customer’s emotions  is essential to “sealing the deal”.

Neuroscience has offered us a glimpse into the human brain and it turns out that the brain is highly emotional in nature. This is because emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, love, happiness and excitement are important from a survival perspective. Emotions are processed unconsciously and are the first to surface when faced with new stimuli.

Dr. Peter Noel Murray has written a fascinating blog on the Psychology Today website titled “How Emotions Influence What We Buy”. Murray writes that:

  • “MRI neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).
  • Advertising research reveals that emotional response to an ad has far greater influence on a consumer’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content – by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.
  • Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation concluded that the emotion of “likeability” is the measure most predictive of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales.
  • Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes.”

Murray adds that, “the richer the emotional content of a brand’s mental representation, the more likely the consumer will be a loyal user”. Equally as thought-provoking, according to Murray, is “for consumers, perhaps the most important characteristic of emotions is that they push us toward action. In response to an emotion, humans are compelled to do something.”

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the key to longer term, sustainable competitive advantage is leveraging the emotional nature of the brains of your customers (not to mention your employees). What are you doing to build emotional connections with your customers and employees? Murray suggests that, “another important foundation for a brand’s emotions can be found in its “narrative” – the story that communicates “who” it is, what it means to the consumer, and why the consumer should care.” It is my experience that the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of your brand’s narrative is more important that the ‘what’.

The top 1% of sales professionals have long recognized that the key to finalizing a sale is based on appealing to the customer’s emotions. While making rational arguments to purchase a product or service is important as a foundation to making the sale, connecting with the customer’s emotions  is essential to “sealing the deal”.

Neuroscience has offered us a glimpse into the human brain and it turns out that the brain is highly emotional in nature. This is because emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, love, happiness and excitement are important from a survival perspective. Emotions are processed unconsciously and are the first to surface when faced with new stimuli.

Dr. Peter Noel Murray has written a fascinating blog on the Psychology Today website titled “How Emotions Influence What We Buy”. Murray writes that:

  • “MRI neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).
  • Advertising research reveals that emotional response to an ad has far greater influence on a consumer’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content – by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.
  • Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation concluded that the emotion of “likeability” is the measure most predictive of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales.
  • Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes.”

Murray adds that, “the richer the emotional content of a brand’s mental representation, the more likely the consumer will be a loyal user”. Equally as thought-provoking, according to Murray, is “for consumers, perhaps the most important characteristic of emotions is that they push us toward action. In response to an emotion, humans are compelled to do something.”

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the key to longer term, sustainable competitive advantage is leveraging the emotional nature of the brains of your customers (not to mention your employees). What are you doing to build emotional connections with your customers and employees? Murray suggests that, “another important foundation for a brand’s emotions can be found in its “narrative” – the story that communicates “who” it is, what it means to the consumer, and why the consumer should care.” It is my experience that the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of your brand’s narrative is more important that the ‘what’.