EQ of the Sale

Sales are emotional, not logical. Purchases are made based on what feels best verse what logically makes sense. Understanding this emotional landscape allows sellers to tailor their approach, emphasizing how a product or service fits into the prospective buyer's life or solves a problem they care about.

Sales relationships are based in trust and rapport between the buyer and the seller. Both of those feelings are emotional responses to a person or a situation. Sellers need to focus on appealing to a prospect’s feelings more than to the logical need for the solution.

Trying to connect with prospects can be challenging. Here are three easy steps to develop authentic emotional connections with prospects.

Authenticity

Just be yourself. It is 2024. Prospects are a Google search away from everything. Including you. In this selling environment, finding nothing can be just as detrimental as finding something unsavory.

I am not encouraging you to build a massive online presence. That is not needed. Rather, just be yourself.

If you are new to sales or a position, just say so. Prospect are surprisingly understanding as long as you are honest. Lying will destroy you. It is better to say you need to research something than to fire off a wrong answer.

Again this is an age of information. Prospects have the ability to do a lot of research on a solution without involving a seller. Chances are if the prospect feels they have a need, they are already researching solutions.

Be yourself. Be ready to help. Do not commit to something unless you know it to be true.

This applies to yourself. Do not try to be something you are not. People will see through it. You are the best version of yourself. It is a waste of time and energy to hide it.

Finally, be an advocate for your prospect. Help them solve their problems. Have the courage to be honest even if it contradicts what the buyer thinks. The customer is not always right.

Seller and Buyer Profiles

Prospects are more likely to trust you if they think that you understand them. Two easy ways to build a natural understanding for your prospect is to build out a seller profile and a buyer profile.

A seller profile is all about your product and the solution it provides. You maybe brand new to a company or a regular at the President’s Club, every seller needs to regularly deep dive on the solutions they provide. Take stalk of all the various elements that you bring to the table. Create lists. Look at sub-features that can provide value.

The more you know the better. It might seem like an obvious step. Often, this step is so obvious that it gets completely over looked. Sellers have to be the subject matter experts. Take the time to map out what you do and how it helps.

Buyer profiles are all about the buyer and what they likely care about. This is not about what we think they care about or what story we have created in our head. An effective buyer profile shows the areas that a prospect cares about, how those areas are measured, and how the buyer likely feels about those concerns.

AI can help a lot here. First identify the decision maker. For this example, I will use a CFO. Go to ChatGPT and prompt “what are the areas of focus for a CFO.” Take notes on the response.

Then prompt “how are those areas measured?” Then “what impacts those areas?” Take notes on all of the responses. Apply what you already know about your typical prospect to the thought process.

Using your knowledge and AI assistance, start to write out the top areas of focus, how they are measured and impacted. With your seller’s profile, start drawing correlations between what you provide and what your prospect needs. Go deep. The more you know this information, the more prepared you will be.

Talking Tracks

People remember how you made them feel and not necessarily what you said.

After you have your seller and buyer profiles built out, develop talking tracks or talking points to address how your product helps the prospect. Talking tracks work better than scripts because they are shorter and more versatile. Sellers can get lost in a scripts. Talking tracks are short and easily repeated.

Use what you learned about your prospect to speak to what the prospect cares about. Use language that the prospect is likely to use. Speak directly to the metrics and the KPIs that the prospect cares about.

The more closely you can mirror the prospect’s concerns the more trust will develop. Stay authentic and remember that you are not the main character in this story. The prospect is. Keep that understanding in mind as you build out talking tracks.

Once you have your talking tracks laid out, practice. Practice until you know them inside and out. The goal is to not sound scripted and keep your authenticity. These should be your words spoken in the prospect’s language.

Take Aways

Buying decisions are emotional more than they are logical. To sell effectively, seller’s need to develop emotional connections with prospect’s. The buyer needs to believe that the solution the seller is providing is going to solve the problem.

Developing emotional connections like trust and rapport starts with a deep understanding of both the seller and the buyer. Studying both and knowing what each party cares about and how the seller can help the buyer provides a foundation for the sale. Prospect’s respond better when they feel the seller understands them and can provide a viable solution.

The goal should never be to sell a prospect. The best sales are collaborations between buyers and sellers to solve a problem.