Joe Sugarman's Triggers - Gorilla Survival Tactics for Marital Bliss
This chapter is not about marital bliss or even gorilla survival tactics. I guess one night while I was writing this book, I got carried away with my table of contents, and the resulting chapter heading popped out of my brain.
I can’t help what pops out of my brain. Sometimes things just happen. I could have changed the chapter heading. I could have come up with something a lot more serious and logical.
But I didn’t. I made the very emotional decision to include this totally irrelevant chapter heading in this serious and logical book on selling despite my better instincts.
But hey. This chapter is about emotional triggers in advertising. And shucks, I made an emotional decision to include the chapter heading. So maybe I haven’t lost all of my marbles after all.
Actually, the subject shouldn’t be as emotional as I’m making it. There are really just threepoints to remember about the subject of emotion in advertising, which relates to the subject of personal selling.
1. Every word has an emotion associated with it and tells a story.
2. Every good sales presentation is an emotional outpouring of words, feelings, and
impressions.
3. You sell on emotion, but you justify a purchase with logic.
Let’s take the last point first. Why do you think people buy the Mercedes Benz automobile in America? Is it because of the rack-and-pinion steering or the ABS braking system or the safety features? Other cars have the same features, so why spend a fortune to buy one when, for a fraction of the cost of a Mercedes, you can get an American- or Japanese-made car or even a Volvo that has many of the exact same features?
The answer: We buy on emotion and justify with logic. When I first bought a Mercedes and my friends saw it, I told them that the reason I bought it was because of a series of technical features that I found very impressive. The real reason I bought the car was not for the technical features at all. It was an emotional decision. I wanted to own a prestigious car and belong to the select group that drive Mercedes.
But when I had to explain the reason for my purchase, I ended up using logic—something that I really believed was the correct reason when I used it.
Look at a Mercedes ad. The Mercedes advertising agency knows the real motivation behind the purchase of their cars, so they focus on the reasons people use to justify their purchase.
All their ads talk about the terrific drive you get or the technical features that make the car a breed apart. In reality, feature by feature, there is nothing so revolutionary that it can’t be duplicated in a less expensive car. The car is sold by virtue of its emotional appeal and then justified in its advertising by its appeal to logic.
In a good sales presentation, often you get your prospect in an emotional frame of mind as a result of the environment you have created, and logic then becomes less important. For example, I’ve always used the phrase near the end of my ads, “If you aren’t absolutely satisfied, return your product within 30 days for a prompt and courteous refund.” Who ever heard of a refund being courteous? People automatically and unconsciously redefine the actual words to fit the emotional context: “Courteous” comes to mean hassle-free instead of polite. This is great for advertisers but not so hot for English teachers. It doesn’t matter.
What the emotion or feel of that phrase really says is that we are a very respectful and understanding company that will return your money promptly. I conveyed the feeling and emotion of being a concerned company that acts promptly with very few words. Even though the phrase makes no logical sense, it has been picked up by several direct marketers and used in their catalogs and print ads.
Often a phrase or sentence or even a premise does not have to be correct logically. If it conveys the message emotionally, it not only does the job, it is more effective than the logical message.
I used this concept in an ad I wrote in 1978 for a device that had a breakthrough digital calculator display. The new display showed both alphabetical and numeric characters on the display. And because it had such a large memory, you could use it to hold the phone numbers of your friends along with their names. Today this is nothing exciting, but back then it was different.
At the time I had two competitors who got hold of the product first and came out with
advertisements—both of which failed. There were several reasons why they failed but one of the main reasons was the way they pitched the product—on a logical level.
They tried to explain what the term alphanumeric meant in relation to a display and how much memory the unit had. The ad was filled with facts and logic and because it was such a new, breakthrough product, you would think it would sell just based on logic. It didn’t.
As a lark, I decided to sell a similar product myself through my catalog. Canon Corporation had approached me and told me that if I took their product, they would give me an exclusive for several months as long as I advertised it nationally.
I first tested the ad in my catalog and came up with the headline “Pocket Yellow Pages,” with a subheading of: “Let your fingers do the walking with America’s first pocket yellow pages.” Now listen to the emotional version of the copy.
You’re stuck. You’re at a phone booth trying to find a phone number, and people are
waiting. You feel the pressure.
To the startled eyes of those around you, you pull out your calculator, press a few
buttons, and presto—the phone number appears on the display of your calculator. A
dream? Absolutely not.
The ad was a terrific success. We eventually placed the ad in dozens of magazines and succeeded handsomely while the other competitors dropped out. But look at the emotional approach I used. There is nothing about the product’s technical advantages and nothing about the powerful memory of the unit. Given the nature of my product and my customer, I just knew that facts wouldn’t sell it—but emotion did.
Each product has an inherent nature, as you’ve already learned from Chapter 2, and
understanding that inherent nature and its emotional appeal will help you sell it. I realized that the calculator I was selling would appeal to the gadget-motivated person who would want to show it off to his or her friends. The ad copy reflected this emotional appeal. Later on in the ad I justified the purchase with the facts and the technology, but not in too much detail.
The final point on the emotion of selling relates to the words you use. If you realize that each word you speak has an emotion attached to it—almost like a short story itself—then you will also gain a very good understanding of the effect some words have in the sales process.
For example, instead of using the word “buy,” you might suggest that somebody “invest” in your product. Wouldn’t you rather invest in a product than buy it? How about when handing a contract to a prospect to sign? Wouldn’t it be better if you said, “Please sign the paperwork,” instead of saying, “Please sign the contract”? These tested words, both in print and in the sales process, are as different emotionally as night and day.
What emotions do you feel when I mention the following words: Cleveland, rip-off,
consumer, farmer, lawyer, Soviet? Cleveland may have evoked a little laughter as a place you might not consider moving to—unless you live in Cleveland, and if you do live there, please accept my apologies. Cleveland is a very nice city. But every country has a famous city that everybody makes fun of. The Russian comedian, Yacov Smirnoff, says that Russian comedians also make fun of one city: it’s called Cleveland.
And then what do words like consumer and rip-off make you feel? The word farmer may not only indicate what he does for a living but also bring to mind words like honesty, integrity, earthy, hard-working. Think of all the feelings the word farmer conjures up, not only from your experience but also from what you feel and your emotions. The word Soviet sounds more sinister to me than Russian. What thoughts come to mind with the word lawyer?
Webster once was quoted as saying that if you took every one of his possessions away and left him with just his words, he’d get all his possessions back. The power of words is enormous.
Here’s some copy I wrote that points out the emotional differences in words. Which sounds better?
Example 1: The old woman in the motel.
Example 2: The little old lady in the cottage.
I was writing an ad on some rubbing oil I had discovered in Hawaii and describing how I had discovered it. Example 1 was in my first draft, but example 2 sounded much better.
I’m not suggesting that you materially change the facts of a situation to suit an emotional feeling or expression. In the example, the motel office was in a small cottage, and use of the word cottage gave the copy a better emotional feel. What do you think? Do you feel the difference?
Sometimes changing a single word will increase response to a mail order ad. John Caples, one of the legendary direct marketers, changed the word repair to the word fix and saw a 20% increase in response. That is what is so great about direct response marketing. You can actually test the effect of every major word you write.
Don’t feel that you have to have a total command of the emotional context of words to be a great salesperson. It takes common sense more than anything else and it comes with time and experience. It also comes from the experience of others. There are a number of good books on selling that will give you many examples of powerful words to use in a sales presentation. This chapter is intended primarily to alert you to the fact that selling is an emotional experience and that your words have a lot to do with the effectiveness of your sales presentation.
People buy on an emotional level and they justify the purchase logically. That is why focus groups or consumer panels that evaluate products are often a waste when it comes to getting solid advice on whether a product will sell or not sell. Sure, you can get valuable insights from these groups, but when it comes time to make that emotional decision to buy, that is when you get a true reading on whether your product will be a success or not. In a focus group, the participants are guessing how they would react in making a buying decision, but it is often a logically based decision and not one made with emotion.
In my seminars I taught my students that writing copy is an emotional outpouring of words and feelings onto a sheet of paper. At its most effective level, it is a mental and emotional process. Why shouldn’t selling follow the same pattern as copywriting?
Can you be more emotional in your sales presentation? Can you express the emotion in your product and recognize the emotional benefits to the prospect? That’s what selling with emotion is all about. It’s not sitting in front of your prospect and crying your eyes out just before the prospect asks you to leave the room—although, come to think of it, what a wonderful way to save a sale. As a sales professional, you need to know the difference between selling from an emotional angle and selling with logic. You’ve got to know your prospect and your product and know what the emotional triggers are that will motivate your prospect to buy. But the main purpose
of this chapter is for you simply to recognize the fact that emotion is the single most
important motivating factor in why people buy. It is the underlying basis of every buying decision.
People buy on an emotional level, using logic to justify the purchase, and use of the correct emotional words will enhance that selling process. So to survive in the sales jungle, act like gorilla, learn the tactics, and go home and experience some marital bliss.
Trigger 11: Emotion
[Via - Triggers]
Who Is Shawn Casey? Is He For Real?
Four Cool Things You Can Get Free From Online Sweepstakes
Seven Markets That Can Make You A Millionaire
How To Make Money With Photostamps
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