SELLING EMOTIONS – the secret of successful salespeople

How many times, during a negotiation or sale, have we heard this phrase: “[…] but my sector is different…”?

It happens very often. It is said to us by those who are totally focused on ‘what’ to sell rather than on ‘how’ to sell, and find it difficult to adapt to the contingencies that different customers put in front of them.

They are not the same.

Is it really always useful to focus on what to say, and to rattle off an endless list of technical features to reassure the other person that our product is good?

Does the customer need this, or is it motivated by other needs that we are not considering?

Charles Haskell Revson, the founder of the well-known cosmetics company Revlon, used to say on this subject:
“In the factories we make cosmetics, but in the shops we sell hope”.
Behind this statement, lies the real key to winning our interlocutor’s taste:
“…People do not buy perfumes or beauty products in general…people buy the hope of being desired”.

Each product or service sought after hides an essential customer need to be discovered and satisfied: there are those who seek a list of technical details to ascertain the reliability of what they are looking for; those who need continuity or to complete what they already have; those who are looking for something that can help themselves or their team, in order to save time and money; or there are those who pursue harmony and pleasantness of form or those who, wanting to stand out from others, seek something that will make them unique and truly inimitable.

To grasp the need of the other, not only creates empathy, but is the keystone of every human relationship or rapport: to sell oneself and one’s ideas, in order to be able to move and be moved.

Diego Ingrassia