To capture favorable votes, salespeople, like politicians, need to pull six key levers that guide decision-making. These levers affect the limbic system of the brain, which holds memories, emotions and many core beliefs. Messages tied to these levers stimulate us to cast a vote or buy a product or solution. Here are the levers and how to pull them:
Emotional: Excite the neurons associated with your prospect’s beliefs. Those beliefs ultimately fuel the self-preservation urge.
Visual: Create visual images in your listener’s mind, allowing his brain to immediately attach information to familiar pictures. This helps drive favorable feelings and trust — and amplifies the emotional impact.
Experiential: Combine emotional and visual levers to create a relatable “experience” in the brain. If your prospect can mentally touch and feel your message, it instantly becomes concrete.
Contrast: Demonstrate a sharp difference between where your listener is now and where he or she could be by using your product. Also, convey what sets you or your solution apart. The greater the contrast, the greater the value your prospect will place on the seller who addresses his or her important issues and beliefs.
Simplicity: Keep it simple. This will enable your prospect to relate, contrast and ultimately assign meaningful value to what you offer.
Egocentric: Clearly communicate what’s in it for your prospect, which comes down to how your solution will help him or her avoid a loss or achieve a gain.
Jeff Bloomfield is CEO of sales and marketing consultancy Braintrust and author of “Story-Based Selling: Create, Connect, and Close.” He wrote about the presidential candidates' sales skills in our March/April issue. Bloomfield can be reached at jeff@braintrust101.com.
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