Why your sales messages need logic and emotion

Is your sales and marketing content failing to hit the mark? It’s probably because the emotion is missing.

It’s easy to be the Mr Spock of sales - absorbed in the minutiae of pitches and credentials, looking at all the rational, logical reasons why your prospect surely must buy - only to find they went elsewhere for a seemingly illogical reason. I’ve been there, it hurts.

“Captain, to reject the best solution at the best price is not logical…”

“Whoever said buyers were logical Mr Spock?”

The painful reality is that, unlike our favourite Vulcan, buyers aren’t only interested in the logic - they have emotions too. Forget this and your sales will be heading elsewhere - at warp speed.

The emotion is missing

The scenario is often played out like this. Sellers (particularly in B2B) present lots of facts, - there’s testimonials, capabilities and perhaps even an office in Timbuktu. It’s often about them. They pitch what they think the customer needs - which is often what they want them to need. But, while the seller might think they have clear USP’s, the buyer just sees a procession of identical services. The emotion is missing.

While logic has its important role to play, it’s often an emotional trigger that created the need in the first place and, what’s more, that emotion may have been a negative emotion, a reaction to poor service issues, even embarrassment. It’s vital stuff to know - and build into your messages from the beginning. But what starts as a negative emotion - needs to reach a positive at the end to close the sale.

The ‘Logic Sandwich’

The logic is the ‘bit in the middle’, one third of a three stage process or, as described by Bryony Thomas in her book Watertight Marketing. It's all explained in this article, 'Are you serving up a Logic Sandwich?'

That’s because, as Bryony explains, a buyer’s behaviour often starts with emotion, leads onto logical considerations (the price, the deliverables) and then returns to emotion to confirm that they feel right about it all. 

Her article goes into more depth about the emotional triggers involved in creating marketing messages that create awareness and interest, and the ‘feel good’ factor that will get the buyer over the line. 

The (logical) conclusion

It’s very difficult to change human nature. We react to emotion just as much as we seek the rationality of logic but, we need to both to first realise a need and then reach a decision. Exploring emotions might be hard work for Mr Spock - but they are a great asset in winning sales - and that’s definitely logical.