How A Punch In The Gut Convinced Me All Buying Decisions Are Emotional

I got a call today from an old friend, Chuck. Three years ago he hated my guts. He tried to oust me from a project. Chuck was my customer back then. The project we sold him got off to a rocky start.

Six Months Late And No End In Sight

Six months after our planned delivery date and tempers are flaring. We still lack a clear path to going live. Everyone’s frustrated.

Twelve months earlier we traveled to LA and sold this product. The decision maker at the client loved it and signed up. The sales pitch promised risk reduction, efficiency and workflow features. It amazes me when a buyer signs off on so much money from such abstract promises.

It turned out, I was wrong. He cared not one bit about any of that. He had his own reason for buying. His reason was not abstract at all. It was pure emotion.

How I found out is a bit of a shocker.

Each day Chuck asks me a question. When will this project end? He knows there is no answer.

All parties share the blame for the delays. Of course, from a client perspective, it’s always the vendor’s fault. Anyone who makes their living selling or buying enterprise software can relate to a project like this.

Surviving With A Target On Your Back

The constant complaining starts grating on me. I do my best to put on a happy face and face it with a cheer.

I try to sneak into the office a half hour early each day. This allows me some peace and quiet before the deluge of complaints and excuses roll in. On one of these mornings, I felt grateful for my struggles.

After grabbing a sorry excuse for breakfast I sit down at my desk. It’s 7:15 AM. I see the email headline. A lump forms in my throat as I digest the words. I open the email. It’s the buyer. He addresses it to me only. Surprising. He usually copies in the entire world.

I don’t recall the exact words, but it goes something like this:

“…This project is six months late with no hope of ending. I could build something from scratch in less time. Every morning I walk into this office not knowing if I’m going to be yelled at for having to make adjustments to our net profits. Every single day!….”

I Finally Got It!

That’s when it hit me. He doesn’t care about efficiency. Nor does he care about workflow. Risk mitigation serves only as logical justification. He bought for one reason only. He wants to eliminate a pain. This solution frees him from worry. He’ll no longer worry about someone yelling at him the next morning. That’s what he cared about. That’s why he maxed out his budget. He fears the uncertainty of what happens when he walks in the office each morning. Holy Crap!

I began my side career as a copywriter a few months earlier. I spent all my free time learning the craft. Little did I realize, the most important lesson of all would come from my legacy 9 to 5 job.

I had heard the catchphrase before that people buy for emotional reasons and justify with logical ones. I always nodded in agreement.

“Sure. That makes sense.”

That email, however, is when it hit me in the gut. The legendary salesmen and marketers from yesteryear were right after all.

It’s easy to accept an abstract reason why your customer desires your product. Value, risk reduction, efficiency all sound like plausible reasons. Dig deeper. Ask more questions. Read between the lines. There’s something else they’re looking for.

Sometimes your prospect may not be able to articulate his reason. He only feels it. I doubt my customer consciously justified his decision based on the flak he caught from superiors. If you can express in words what your prospect feels but cannot express, selling becomes easier.

Win with emotion. Justify with logic, reason and numbers.

Note: Names and some details changed to protect privacy

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