People Buy with Emotions and then Justify with Logic.

Selling to Tourists

I think I was already selling with the Buyer’s Perspective when I was a tour guide in Europe. Together with four or five colleagues, we guided youngster tourists straight out of their overnight double-decker bus into a discotheque in Lloret de Mar, Spain. This was a bit of a surprise for them. After a long trip, they probably looked forward to going to their hotel, taking a shower, and enjoying a nice breakfast. But once in the discotheque, their world changed immediately.

In broad daylight, we served them oranges and champagne cocktails and showed videos of the previous groups having fun and enjoying all kinds of adventure things. They could virtually imagine how every day and evening would unfold. The theme was “Together you have more fun”. We told them they could have a similar experience if they bought the full excursion package.  We offered these for a fair price. It was all about emotions and our promise to help them to have the time of their life. That’s where the saying – people buy with emotions and then justify with logic- came to life for me. Needless to say, we sold out every week.

Selling hotel memberships

When I was living in Australia, I was the account manager for Best Western, NSW. My role was mainly to find new hotels in strategic locations to join the famous international hotel chain. Several were initially not interested because the membership was not cheap. I remember sitting with one of the owners and his wife at their kitchen table late in the evening, going over my proposed business case. It was solid, with realistic forecasted numbers. Their hotel was remote out of the city buzz and was relying on loyal travelling trade reps, who unfortunately didn’t eat or drink much in their restaurant. Their challenge was to acquire new hotel guests. Advertising had limited results.

“Best Western guests are in holiday mode”, I said,  “and what do they want? Having fun during the day, a great meal in the evening, relaxing and a comfortable bed. You have that all here. You have a pool table and a great bar; I can see the guests playing cards and having a few beers and drinking cocktails. Maybe do some karaoke while enjoying a nightcap”. I saw them dreaming and wanting this to happen. Within two months, they put the BW sign up, and they never looked back. The details of the contract were minor; they wanted those holidaying tourists to give their business a boost.

Selling to SMEs

Not long after the BW job, I was appointed as the sales & marketing director of TradeBart, a company in the barter industry. Members traded with each other but didn’t pay cash. They paid with barter units. For example, a dentist needed a plumber to fix a blocked pipe, and the amount of the work done was debited while the plumber got credited. The plumber could spend his earned credits with close to a thousand members all over Australia, even with travel agencies.

SMEs’ biggest challenge is often their cash flow, so this was a perfect solution for them. I trained our salespeople to think like the dentist, the plumber or the travel agent. I said: ‘Don’t pitch our company or services. Step into their world. Play on their emotions. Show that you understand their challenges and tell stories of how successful other members are – without spending unnecessary cash. They all want to grow their business and need cash to market themselves and pay unforeseen expenses’.  Again, the details of the membership were inferior to the benefit.

Selling with the Buyer’s Perspective

What do these examples have in common? They all start with Why Change? That’s the phase in the buying clock where the potential buyers were. They were just doing their things or running their business and had no reason to buy anything. Until someone showed them a different world with different ideas on how to grow their business or step into a world they thought was impossible. Without the salesperson, they would not have imagined such a world. That’s what you need to do in Why Change conversations. Selling is helping. Help them visualize the unexpected in a way that is aligned with their challenge and interests. That’s the way to touch their emotions, and as we know, customers buy with emotions and then justify with logic.

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