Adriana González Gil –
Persuasion is one of the most important topics for any sales or marketing professional and that’s why in Sales Management Academy we integrate the perspective of neuroscience to help increase the effectiveness of our techniques with the help of science.
Each day we participate in or create persuasive arguments we hope will change people’s views or convince them to buy a product or solution. Unfortunately, few of these messages have a real chance to grab people’s attention, generate memory, shift their perceptions, and lead them to act, and that’s why the game of persuasion is often a waste of time and money. This is critical both for the marketing departments that invest in ads that fail to grab attention and for the sales teams and leaders that fail to produce the desired results.
And if we use conventional research to investigate why people like or dislike our messages, we will not get closer to the truth. We need to understand how the brain works to start shedding light on the unconscious mechanisms that can really explain and predict the impact sales messages have.
On our “How to sell to the brain” module we take a deep and very practical approach to the decision-making systems of the brain, the kind of stimuli that trigger our buying impulses, and how to generate emotions that turn into action. But before all that, we can start by following 4 critical steps that have been developed by experts such as Roger Dooley and Patrick Renvoise:
1. Understanding what are the top PAINS of your target:
In neuromarketing, a “Pain” is something that really unsettles the consumer and causes unease or need. This is the reason why the most primal part of our brain (which is the one that makes most of our decisions, is focused on our survival, and is very visual and selfish) acts on something. For example, it may be hunger, safety or group recognition, among many others. Each case is unique and we need to know the real reason why our consumers buy to be able to offer an “effective relief” to that pain.
2. Differentiate your CLAIMS:
This is one of the most important tasks for any company. If you don’t know what makes your product or service unique and are able to communicate it properly, your sales efforts work for your competition too.
Take the top 3 pains that you have identified in your consumers and describe which unique feature of your product or service offers to eliminate that pain. Describe the resulting benefit in short, simple, and organized arguments touch the Primal (reptilian) Brain.
3. Demonstrate your GAIN:
The Primal Brain is skeptical and if you can’t make it “feel” the benefit of buying your product or service, the persuasion process will be more difficult. Most books about sales focus on accelerating the buying decision, but the neuromarketing perspective tells us that it’s more effective to solidify the commitment to buy by presenting strong “proof of gain”. If you do this, you don’t need to create an artificial sense of urgency because it will be implied in your message. Why would your consumer delay a decision if you have proven the GAIN they get from your unique CLAIMS, that will relieve their PAINS?
You have to take into account that the gain has to be understood by the primal brain and this brain doesn’t understand about the future. Reasoning and logic are processed in the neocortex, not in the primal brain. You need to make the demonstration of your gains simple enough that it’s understandable immediately even by non-experts. Customer testimonials and demos work very well in this regard but each case is unique.
4. Deliver to the Primal Brain:
Even if all the previous steps are met, now you have to deliver the message effectively and the most solid and logical message will still not trigger a buying decision unless the Primal Brain understands quickly and effortlessly what you say. To be able to build and deliver a message with maximum impact to influence the real decision-maker (the Primal Brain) we invite you to join us at Sales Management Academy, where we will show real examples, tricks, and tips to “sell to the brain” that are backed by science and show you live how we can measure and optimize all kinds of communication efforts to increase sales.
To know more about Sales Management Academy and its modules you can click on the following link or contact ioana.hincu@sferabusiness.ro.