People buy feelings, and not products or services. It’s a bit counter-intuitive because the product or service a business offers is tangible and a feeling seems so wishy-washy. But studies have shown that people make their purchasing decision based on the emotion they feel. Then they use the facts to support their decision.
I attended The Arts of Sales conference last Friday, spending the day with 1300 people listening to five sales experts. One of the ideas I heard over and over again from all the speakers is the fact that people buy because of how they feel. It’s important as a business trying to sell a product or service to figure out how you want to make your customer feel.
This article from Psychology Today reports on research that supports the importance of emotions in consumer behaviour:
– Neuro-imagery shows that people primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts) to evaluate brands
– Research shows that a person’s emotional response to an ad has a greater influence on a person’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content (3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads)
– The emotion of “likeability” is the most predictive measure of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales
Think about what you are trying to sell and ask yourself these questions:
– What is the emotional context of my customer?
– What causes my customer anxiety?
– How does my customer feel before they experience my product?
– How do I want my customer to feel after they have used my product?
– What does my customer care about?
– What is the change they are hoping for?
– How will my product help my customer become more of who they want to be?
I went to the conference with a friend who works at a security company that installs security systems for businesses. We discussed this idea on the way home. Sure his customers wanted to know that the video surveillance system records in high-definition whenever someone breaks in through the door. But what his customer really wants is a peace of mind knowing that if someone breaks into their building and steals something, they have the video evidence to give the police to catch the bad guy. It’s not the features of the security system they are buying, it’s the feeling of a peace of mind.
In the end, everyone is trying to be better versions of themselves. Remember that next time you create a marketing campaign, write a social media post, or talk to a potential customer.