Welcome to the CustomerCentric Selling podcast! In this episode, Frank and Tim talk about how emotions affect a person's buying behavior and how the salesperson uses the buyer's emotional decision in building value and logic as to why that's the right decision to make.

Most people feel that their decisions are the outcome of a reasoned examination of available alternatives. However, in reality, emotions strongly affect and, in many cases, dictate our actions. When we go shopping, we want to believe our decisions are logical, but they rarely are. Our emotions frequently influence them. When faced with a decision, emotions from our past involving similar situations affect the options we examine. These emotions shape our preferences, which influence our decision.

Most importantly, emotions motivate us to take action. We are compelled to act in reaction to an emotion. Fear forces us to choose between "fight or flight" in a physical conflict to ensure our survival. In our regular social interactions, self-doubt may push us to buy the latest gadget to boost our sense of belonging.

Since most people use their emotions to buy something, a salesperson needs to be a master of connecting emotionally with customers and clients. Marketers need to appeal to their buyer personas’ wants and needs. It’s a primal response; people see what they want, and they take action.

Salespersons should establish hypotheses on why customers buy over time. The majority of them make mistakes by viewing the user through the prism of the product. Marketers begin with a product's features and benefits and then perform market research to identify corresponding needs and motivations.

Marketers need to recognize the value of cognitive research in marketing and use it to target hearts, not heads. Make it a goal to create a sense of inspiration in the brain area that seeks connection and a sense of belonging, and build a strategy that emphasizes it.

What to Listen For:

Emotion in B2C Environment [2:01]
Emotional Decision in Buying [3:31]
3 How’s [8:51]
Value and Rationalization [10:15]

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Quotes:

“Emotional decisions are justified by value and logic.” – Frank [02:45]

“Regardless of the purchase that most people make the choice that feels right to them, and then they have to validate that by reasoning.” – Tim [06:47]

“Value is one of the key ways that we can prepare for it and overcome it.” – Frank [11:38]

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

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