Translation—for the most part, people don’t care a whole lot about the vehicle that gets them the benefit they want…they’re simply looking for the faster, easier, most enjoyable way to their desired end.
So, if you were selling drills, you could focus in on the features of the drill or you could focus on the fact that this bad-boy will let you bore a monster hole through concrete in 8.2 seconds. If you were a golfer, it’s not so much the graphite shaft, carborundum head and Corinthian leather grip you’re selling, it’s the 300 yard drive.
Except…that it’s not…in either case.
The hole and the drive are the benefits. They sell better than the features.
But there’s something that sells 10 times better than both…driving emotions.
If you can ferret out, then sell to the driving emotions, you make a beeline to the part of the brain that says, “OMFG, if I don’t have that NOW, I just might die!”
In the drill example, the driving emotion isn’t the hole, that the benefit. The driving emotions might be the pride or ego fulfillment that comes from all your other workers and supervisors seeing you banging out massive amounts of work in less time. It might be the sense of empowerment that comes from a bigger, badder tool. Maybe it’s the fact that it lets you get home to your family faster and be less wiped out at the end of the day. Or, oddly enough, it might even be a proxy for a lack of power in other parts of your life.
In the golf example, the driving emotion isn’t the 300 yard drive, it’s the feeling of glory you get when you stand at the tee on the first hole, the one right in front of the clubhouse where everyone’s watching, and bang the ball straight to the green while everyone around you says, “whoaaaahhhh!!!” It’s the respect that comes from being known as the guy with the 300 yard drive. And, yes, just like the drill, it may even be a proxy for a lack of respect and connection in other parts of your life.
So, if you really want to sell, don’t sell the feature, don’t even sell the benefit…sell the driving emotion.
BUT, there’s a big caveat…you’d also better be able to deliver on your promise.
Because if you don’t, you’ll end up with a whole lot of clients and customers with buyers remorse, anger, returns and bad will.
Sell to the soul, then deliver…
