Welcome to ‘Selling to Human Nature’. Proven Sales, Marketing, and Advertising tips and resources that tap into the incredible power of human nature appeal. To Sell More!
Welcome to ‘Selling to Human Nature’. Proven Sales, Marketing, and Advertising tips and resources that tap into the incredible power of human nature appeal. To Sell More!
This week’s feature,
‘Sell The Sizzle, Not The Steak!’
There’s a saying, ‘The Road to Business Hell is Paved with False Assumptions’.
Would you like to avoid making one of the biggest profit killing assumptions made by literally millions of business people every day?
Here it is. Assuming that a buyer can readily make the connection between what a product does, and how it can improve their life.
In 1915, Elmer Wheeler, the legendary Salesman turned Adman, coined the phrase, ‘Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak!’
What in the heck do you think he meant by that?
Come a little closer. I want this next point to really sink in. ‘It’s not the thing that you’re selling that inspires the customer’s desire for it, but rather the anticipated feelings that they will experience, as a result of having it.’ Read that last sentence again. It’s that important.
Being human, it’s the emotional content of our thoughts that motivates us. Once moved, only then do we demand logic, to justify the decision that we have in essence, already made.
Even the most serious corporate decisions are routinely based on human cravings for recognition, prestige, and power. Smart marketers have an insatiable appetite for triggers that tie their wares to the satisfaction of these and other fundamental human auto responses.
It’s a life long study.
So how do you trigger human emotion in your marketing and sales communications?
Not by telling the prospect about all the wonderful features of your product or service, at least not at first. Begin by talking about what having it will mean to them. And wherever possible, use words that paint mental pictures of what ownership will be like.
For example, if you were selling a contact management software program, your copy might begin like this.
‘Automates Your Tedious Contact Tracking Tasks, And Increases Your Profits by up to 358%, While our Toll Free Customer Support Takes You Every Step of the Way to Customer Relationship Management Success!’
Do you see the implications in the wording? You probably didn’t notice them, but there are some very specific nuances that make this statement powerful.
Note the inclusion of the letter ’s’ at the end of the words ‘automate’, and ‘increase’. Using just this one letter made the copy much more effective. Why? Because it makes us think about how easy it’s going to be. The ’s’ signals the subconscious that the software will automate our prospect tracking, that the software will increase our profits, and that the toll free customer service will take us every step of the way to Customer Relationship Management success. All without us having to put forward any effort…Now read the sentence without the ’s’, by substituting the word ‘automate’ for the word ‘automates’, and the word ‘increase’
for the word ‘increases’. Now who’s doing all the work?
Wouldn’t you like to invest in a product that does all of the boring grunt work for you, while you envision all of the free time that you’ll have to spend all of the money it makes for you?
I hope you enjoyed this issue. Till next week, Good Selling!
Best Regards, 