Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Seven Principles of Persuasive Selling (part 2)

1. The Principle of EMOTION

One of the reasons people make purchases is because of emotion.

Emotions like...

* FEAR:

Fear of gaining weight.
Fear of missing an opportunity.
Fear of unemployment.
Fear of death.
Fear of a future price increase.
Fear of what others think about them.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of growing old.
Fear of being alone.
Fear of being cheated.

There are hundreds of different PHOBIAS that DRIVE people to make purchases.

People buy life insurance because they fear dying prematurely and leaving their family financially strapped.

We buy exercise equipment because we fear gaining weight or getting out of shape.

We buy alarm systems because we fear we are going to be violated in some way.

KEY POINT: We make a lot of purchases because of our fears, on things that are supposed to ease our fears.

* PASSION:

Passion for food.
Passion for money.
Passion for our children.
Passion for our partner.
Passion for our career.
Passion for success.
Passion for fame.

You and I have those things in our lives that we are passionate about. Whether it is a relationship or a recreation, a possession or a position, we all have those things that we long for.

We all have those things that we "love." And we spend a lot of money in pursuit of those things.

I began reading voraciously as a kid. And everywhere I went, people told me more and more of the different kinds of books I could purchase. I bought thousands of books.

Why?

Because my passion for reading triggered an emotional response... I wanted to KNOW as much as a human could...and I was as good as sold long before walking into Barnes and Noble.

(To this day I have and have read everything possible about Biblical Archaeology, Religious Literature, The Historic Jesus, Decision Making, Illusion of Consciousness, Consumer Behavior, Evolutionary Psychology, Strategic and Critical Thinking, Motivation, Rejection, Relationship Research, well...and a few other ...dozen areas of interest....)

You and I make a lot of purchases based upon passion or love.

Things that make us happy, that bring us joy...that increase our pleasure. People buy food in many cases not because they are hungry, but because they love eating.

People buy self-help books not because we need to improve our reading skills, but because we long to improve our lives. People buy roses because they love their spouses.

Passion - it fuels a LOT of buying decisions.

I touched on fear and passion because those are the two biggest emotional buttons that cause people to make purchases.

There are plenty of others:

Sorrow, reverence, hate, sadness, surprise, anger, joy, excitement.

We make purchases for all of these reasons.