True or False: Buying is Emotional

Someone once wrote, "Behind every logical Need there lurks an emotional Want. If there is no emotional Want there will be no sale."

Do you believe that buying is emotional meaning that people buy to satisfy an emotional want (emotional satisfaction)? -Seth

I'd answer that but I just broke a shoelace and have to go buy a pair because I'm feeling very emotional about it. -Ace Coldiron

Dig deeper and you will find the emotion. Maybe you don't want to be hassled by stepping on the loose remainder. Maybe you don't want to trip and potentially hurt yourself. Maybe you don't want to be embarrassed for walking around with your shoes untied. Only you know the deeper reason. -Seth

Seth, this topic is bordering on graffiti. It's now on three threads, and you're reciting the same mantra. I'm recommending that this thread be deleted for as redundant. -Ace Coldiron

I did not see any threads about this topic. Which ones did you see Ace? This is BIG stuff and deserves to be discussed in a thread of its own not sidetracked or a sidetrack of a different topic. -Seth

If the shoelace purchase is based on logic...I dare you to put brown shoelaces in black shoes or vice versa....

Logically it makes no difference.

Some people just don't get it. -helisell

Many times yes... many times no.

I once worked on a deal with 42 points that needed to be rated so they could compare vendors... the vendor with the highest points got the deal. The woman involved was ruthless. I can't talk about any emotions involved but I can tell you that the attitude was perfectionism and professionalism. We got the deal.

I use a lot of psyschology in my sales. I don't like to play on fear but I do like to play on making them feel good. Making them feel in control. Validating them. Making them feel understood. Making them feel relieved. Taking a load off them. etc. That usually works for me. -Andrea

I'm with the shoelace.... sorry... I'm the only one feels that sales are not emotional. This thread is almost like a statistic, you can make anything out it you want.

Why do we buy fuel? Emotion? Do you want to say that the fear of walking is the reason for buying fuel, or can you accept that it is a calculated decision to not run out of fuel?

I think sales that happen when shopping, are emotion. You impulse buy. That to me is emotion.

A business insurance sale combines both elements of emotion, fear, and lodgic, transferring of dollars from my bottom line to an insurance company.

Other sales are strictly lodgic... they improve the way we do business.

Buying candy in the super when you went only for eggs, is emotional. Making a list and sticking to it, is not emotion, its a purchase of necessity.

I know some of you are trying to say my "mother" made me do it, I disagree. I think it depends on the circumstance we are in.

Do I call triple A when my car breaks down on a lonely highway, A) I need to get on to my destination... B) I really don't like being here all alone on a desolate highway ... emotion.

I think a sale is going to be either emotional or logical or maybe a combination.

Aloha... shds; ;bg -rattus58

How would improving the way you do business affect you personally? -Seth

Andrea said....

I use a lot of psyschology in my sales. I don't like to play on fear but I do like to play on making them feel good. Making them feel in control. Validating them. Making them feel understood. Making them feel relieved. Taking a load off them. etc. That usually works for me.

Notice the use of the word 'feel....4 times.

Feel=emotion

No logic -helisell

Absolutely... I use feelings to gain trust and create goodwill. That is why I said I use psychology in my sales. BUT no matter how much they like me or how much they want to buy my product if it is beyond their budget they won't buy it. I've had this happen to me various times. Emotions aren't the ONLY factor deciding the sale. They influence the sale greatly but logic does come into it especially when you are dealing in B2B...

I'm on the boat that says they can be part of the sale and it is in your advantage to discover what if any emotions are involved but also do a good job of delivering a rational argument for buying your product. Can't go wrong there.

I will say that if you ignore the prospects "rational" mind you risk treating them like imbeciles and offend them and turn them off... some people aren't emotional based... others are more emotional based and others are balanced.
That is why it is in your best interest to do both. -Andrea

This should clear it all up. It is the full quote: "Behind every logical Need there lurks an emotional Want. If there is no emotional Want there will be no sale. If there is an emotional Want, but it can't be justified with a logical Need, there will be no sale."

People buy on emotional (1) and justify with logic (2). -Seth

First off, what are you saying? Improving the way I do business, what does that mean? Are you referring to me? In general? I'd say that improving the way one does business is the goal of ALL OF US. Or are you already at your peak? -rattus58

I beg to differ... have you ever been on a job site? People by shoelaces of many colors if they need one. You might have that rare individual who has to have his jeans pressed, hair coiffed, and completely color cordinated.. I remember him in fact... :)

Emotion, Need, Value... all for one, one for all.

Aloha.... shds; ;bg -rattus58

I was quoting your previous post which I have included here. You wrote, "Other sales are strictly logic... they improve the way we do business".

How would improving the way they do business personally impact anyone who Wants to improve the way they do business? What's in it for them? More money maybe? What will that do for them? More recognition maybe? What will that do for them? Regardless of the logical reasons someone gives about why they did something in truth it always comes down to an emotional payoff. -Seth

Why do I use a cedar shaft for my arrows?

Why do I cast my own bullets?

What emotion am I exibiting when I designed a tentpegremoval tool?

It is MY OPINION, that for every emotion, there is logic. For every emotion, there is a value consideration.

I fail to see how you base that every sale is on emotion by itself. But then I've not got your PHD either.

I know that I spend hours a week finding out what goes on with a client. I spend hours a week making connections. Yes, many sales are based upon "what's in it for me". Just as many are based upon value decisions alone. If you want to say emotion drives the sale... go ahead... but value most of the time makes the sale. -rattus58

WHO are you quoting? -Ace Coldiron

D. Forbes Ley from his book "The Best Seller". -Seth

Here is one of the Positive Reviews for the book...

"Considering the book is a few decades old, it still contains merit, if you read "between the lines".

First off, the tone of writing is very straightforward, reminiscent of Ries/Trout.
One point he's got bang on:
1) Turn on the "Want" emotions and they will buy. (it's not the presentation or answering objections, if you want it badly, you'll buy, simple as that, thus selling is motivational, not persuasive) Overall, it's definitly worth your browse. But some of the rigid systemtic "prospect reading" is outdated."

I'm not sure I'm buying any of this. I've seen Church Members get totally motivated, and wind up on the police blotter -rattus58

"The #1 best business book in America!" - Success Today
"It is the finest book ever written on selling!" - AMA

"D. Forbes Ley, MBA (York '69), having spent literally decades of research into new selling techniques, is now considered the world's leading expert on sales and marketing of both tangible and intangible products and services...." -Seth

the advantages of living on a lily pad is you get to miss a lot, especially many of those "best books" on the subject.

For whatever it's worth, I've never heard of this guy, nor has he ever showed up as a life insurance guru, as I saw somewhere looking up his name...

D. Forbes Ley

The first book of how to sell life insurance
The fundamental to sell life insurance
The secret about selling life insurance

Price: $49.99




Well.... I'll take that under advisement.... -rattus58

I'm reading. How does value most of the time make the sale? -Seth

Surely you jest? What was the last thing you bought where you look at what it cost, what it quality was, what capacity it provided, would it keep the rain out, do I want just a knife or zipper knife to skin my deer, do I want ceramic brakes or just brakes... these are all value choices except in the rare circumstance. -rattus58

I wrote that buying is emotional. You wrote, "If you want to say emotion drives the sale... go ahead... but value most of the time makes the sale." So, how is it that value most of the time makes the sale, not emotion? -Seth

I done fussing around with you. Start dialoging instead of gamemanship. You've been asked a specific question... why don't you start answering questions instead of answering with another.

Further, I noticed that on the "cold calling" thread, you finally say that cold calling is part of the process... something I think everyone else has been saying, yet you also say a sale now is motivating someone to act... and motivating someone to see you for an appointment is an act. So what is it... Gamesmanship offers little -rattus58

I did not say that cold calling is part of the process. What I wrote was, "Effective cold calling only gets you into position to sell."

It appears that we are not communicating.

Cold Calling is approaching, better yet grabbing the attention and securing interest of, prospects who weren't expecting the contact. Selling begins once you've grabbed attention and secured interest. -Seth

If you were actually saying that our core values drive our actions then I would agree. Instead it appears that you are refering to value as it relates to cost, quality, etc. or to put it another way, "Which is the better value?" Ironically, which option is a better value depends on each person's "Values". -Seth

Yes.... many times in the initial approach. -rattus58

I think we can all agree that a helluva lot more people have heard of Dale Carnegie than D. Forbes Ley.

That said, I want to again refute Seth's fettering on the Cold Calling stuff which now overlaps onto this thread.

The ENTIRE Dale Carnegie SALES TRAINING course was constructed around the AIDCA model of SELLING. That's right...SELLING.

The AIDCA model of SELLING referred to ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, CONVICTION, and ACTION.

Seth puts Attention and Interest into a non-selling category.

Notice ALSO, that both emotional AND logical is congruent with that acronym. (Desire, Conviction) -Ace Coldiron

Ace you have the most amazing source of abilities I've seen.... :)

I was about 12 or 13 when my Dad took me to a Dale Carnegie Course. Of course then it was more to see if I could learn to talk my way out of a thrashing on my way home from school more than selling papers....

AIDCA... Like that girlie magazine stuff... you know it when you see it... It's like trying to remember my kids.... they seem darn familiar and know where the kitchen is....

Thanks for that remembrance..... thmbp2;

Aloha... Tom shds; ;bg -rattus58

It might seem off topic, but it really isn't, because revealing the sources of our knowledge or beliefs or statements on a topic is never off topic.

I was a graduate of the "Dale Course" and later a Graduate Assistant, back when I was in my twenties. I pursued the other course--the Carnegie Sales Training, largely due to the effect Frank Betttger had on my early success and career. (I read Bettger's great book at age 11.) As you may know, Bettger was somewhat of a protege of Dale Carnegie. I first learned the AIDCA construct then, and I retained it. You also may know that AIDCA was a construct for advertising originally. It's interesting that the legends of advertising have said that advertising IS salesmanship. Back in the 90's, I wrote a white paper on the use of AIDCA for Web content, when a lot of Web designers and business owners were struggling with what a Web is actually able to do. A few companies took my idea and devised info sheets and web planning tools using the construct.

The fundamentals stay with us, Tom. -Ace Coldiron

"Almost everything we have ever bought, even impulse items, we've bought because of some compelling, emotional reason. Our primary interest pushes us toward the buying decision. But the ultimate decision to buy is driven by our emotions." - Dale Carnegie -Seth

$100 income over 5 years, $50 today? What emotion are you using to make this decision?

Assuming emotion is the root of all decision for a minute, it then becomes fabric from which specific emotions are harnessed to make decision.

If air is necessary for life, then by extension, it is necessary for emotion. If emotion is necessary for decision then by extension individual emotions are now driving the decision, requiring specificity to each act of decision making... now bringing such things as value decisions back into the mix...

Of course the foregoing is my opinion, owned by me and myself severally... :) -rattus58

Yes--I'm obviously familiar with that. Carnegie wrote that before an age of discovery took place that did not reveal that human behavour was changing, but did reveal the more insight as to the nature of human behavour.

The fact that men like Heisenberg took physics to a more advanced understanding with their investigations of Quantum science does not negate the phenomenal value and contributions that men like Einstein, and certainly Newton, had made towards that science.

Carnegie taught human relations and public speaking, and is less known for instruction is sales. AIDCA was a tool the organization used to teach selling. They did not invent the Acronym.

In that regard, Carnegie did make a great contribution to sales and I will forever hold him in high esteem.

The word, "logic", has been tossed around these discussions quite a bit, with perhaps the illogical reasoning that if people don't buy emotionally, they must buy logically.

My purpose in this discussion is not to prove Seth wrong. As long as he doesn't work for me, I couldn't care less how he tries to sell. My purpose is to present information that was not available during Carnegie's era, and perhaps not available when the valuable concept of the Unique Selling Proposition came to light. The ESP--Emotional Selling Proposition, advanced knowledge in selling. Valuable--YES. But not so valuable as to fetter there and not advancing along the learning curve to the OBVIOUS Selling Proposition.

Had Einstein lived long enough he might have grasped the new science of physics. Had the great Dale Carnegie lived long enough, I feel certain he would have grasped the Obvious Selling Proposition no matter where the Seths of the world want to pitch permanent camp or no matter how long or hard they want to air their perspective. -Ace Coldiron

Deleted...accidental duplicate post. -Ace Coldiron

sn; and it's all too deep fer me.....

I love Carnegie, Savage, Feldman, Bettger, Peale, Stone, and then he more conventional that I spent a lot of hard earned cash... Hopkins, Ziglar, Tracy, Girard, and there is a host of others I've read as well over the years and I never seem to tire of reading any of them... timeless stuff thmbp2;

Aloha... shds; ;bg -rattus58

Same for these guys?

• "Every decision, every thought, decision you take is based on an emotion" - Brian Tracy

• "Emotions drive buying decisions." - Zig Ziglar

• "Buying is not done logically. It is an emotional decision that is made, then rationalized." - Tom Hopkins

• "I'd say that more things are bought through emotions than through logic." - Joe Girard

• "When people make decisions, they either move toward pleasure, or away from pain. People make decisions intellectually but they buy emotionally." - David Sandler

When was "more insight as to the nature of human behavour" revealed and to whom? -Seth

That's a silly question. Silly questions end conversations, Seth.

I don't know if you're sleepwalking through life or not, but the content of my posts was centered around the Obvious Selling Proposition--not your obsession for logic versus emotion. Cut and paste to your heart's delight. I'm schooled in the works of all those you mentioned.

In any event, I don't want to play your very silly games here. Play them with somebody else. -Ace Coldiron

I was under the impression that the discussion was about whether or not buying is emotional. My error and I apologize. -Seth

Let's say that people buy with emotion ONLY as you seem to adopt. Fight or Flight, seems to be your mantra... towards plreasure or away from pain... simplistic but recognizable. We buy what we want! To say that all sales are emotional... is to say that all of human life and interaction is in itself then a carreening about and collision of emotions... Emotion then is the DNA of life. The nucleus of experience.

Ok... I'll accept that.

Manipulation. The proper stringing of an instrument. The proper note and tone that one plays of emotions till they are bound up in the sweet melody of song or orchestrated purchase. Emotions must be marshalled in accordance with experiences. Emotions must be plucked, picked, and strummed for proper effect.

There must be literally dozens, hundreds maybe of emotions. The eskimoes have about 11 different words for snowflake. How many shades comprise an emotion?

Behavior, how does behavior affect emotion? How does our preparedness implicate ones emotions when we maneuver one through tugs and pulls of a fitted out assault on ones emotions. Tempo. How does the tempo of the flow of emotions become so lulled, aroused, or delerious that we assume agreement?

I'm a simple man, Seth, I don't have Gold's or Ace's, or Andrea, or even your own grasp of sales, in the manner of which you all live it. I'm more of the pornographer, I know it when I see it and can distinguish it from art, which I also know when I see it. I can't follow the lines of the abstract. I'm the pilot that could feel buoyancy developing as he pulled back on the stick for landing or takeoff, rather than being able to recite pitch angles in degrees of angle of attack.

I recognize a sale as a process, not a nuance. I don't see a sale a game of checkers or chess. Many might, but it's not me. I see a sale as a strategy I think. My process is my strategy, does that make sense? Anyway... sales may be all that you say, but I don't see it the way you do. I am a pilot, not an engineer. I fie the flight plan, fly the route, and bring you to your destination. I don't lay out the airways, beacons, and routes.

Sales happen in much bigger chunks. The Titanic rests at the bottom of the Atlantic because of the emergence of an iceberg, not just an unfortunate conglomeration of microscopic molecules.

I ask you for an appointment in order to get your help in determining if our worksite program would have positive impact on your business or not. I might use words that affect you emotionally in one way or another by design, but that is part of the strategery, not to invoke a particular emotion, but to evoke acceptance of my offer.

One can get bound by the minutia. I don't care how the compass was discovered, I care how it helps me find my way today.

So though we may agree..... only one of us is right.... sn; -rattus58

I don't have a mantra. This thread asks, "True or False: Buying is Emotional?" That is the topic of discussion.

An understanding of this topic is important to anyone who wants to learn how to sell effectively.

How important? Important enough that leading experts on sales and marketing such as Joe Sugarman, Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, D. Forbes Ley, Joe Girard, Tom Hopkins, David Sandler, to name only a few, ALL felt it was important enough to bring up in their works and ALL asserted that Buying is Emotional. -Seth

This thread appears to have run its course and has been closed. -Jeff Blackwell