Let me introduce you to one of my very good friends….. Dawn Gibbins MBE. You may recognize her as one of the Secret Millionaires on TV.
When she was a young hippy with no qualifications, she set up her own business, working from home.
Within 25 years she’d built it into an international company – with a multi-million turnover. Thirty offices worldwide and 12 manufacturing sites in the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa, US and South America.
When I was putting this course together, I asked her as a successful entrepreneur: “If a copywriter were to ask you for a single piece of advice, what would it be?”
Without hesitation, she said “Think like the customer’.
That’s what this session is all about. Most sales-related training (and that includes sales writing) focuses on the PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING.
It’s so much MORE productive to think about the PSYCHOLOGY OF BUYING. What is it that motivates people to say – ‘Yes’.
When she was a young hippy with no qualifications, she set up her own business, working from home.
Within 25 years she’d built it into an international company – with a multi-million turnover. Thirty offices worldwide and 12 manufacturing sites in the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa, US and South America.
When I was putting this course together, I asked her as a successful entrepreneur: “If a copywriter were to ask you for a single piece of advice, what would it be?”
Without hesitation, she said “Think like the customer’.
That’s what this session is all about. Most sales-related training (and that includes sales writing) focuses on the PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING.
It’s so much MORE productive to think about the PSYCHOLOGY OF BUYING. What is it that motivates people to say – ‘Yes’.
There are two drivers – one rational, the other emotional. Let’s look at some samples of both types of motives
Obviously, when someone’s buying a new party-dress, it’s pretty much emotional. But many of you will be writing, not to the consumer, but to business people. B2b
Obviously, when someone’s buying a new party-dress, it’s pretty much emotional. But many of you will be writing, not to the consumer, but to business people. B2b
And, from this chart, it’s pretty obvious that their decisions are made RATIONALLY.
Not true! People make what appear to be ‘hard nosed’ business decisions emotionally – AND THEN THEY RATIONALIZE THE DECISION AFTERWARDS.
I know that’s hard to accept, so let me give you a couple of real life examples. The first - decisions costing half a million pounds a time – three quarters of a million US dollars. The second costing around 50,000 dollars. Not much room for emotion there?
The first… a million years ago, when I sold mainframe computers, IBM was the biggest computer company in the world – many times bigger than the rest of the completion worldwide put together. And we sold computers at a 40% premium over the cost of competitors, even though the competitors had excellent – sometimes better - hardware. How did we get away with it?
The saying, at the time was “Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM”. It was all to do with self-interest.
Let me give you the second, a more detailed example.
I did some marketing work a few years ago for a software company that sold laboratory systems to toxicologist. Toxicologists work for drug companies and it’s their job to test potential new drugs before they go into clinical trials.
Now, you need to understand that drug companies can only patent their products for 20 years - INCLUDING THE TIME TAKEN IN CLINICAL TRIALS, where it’s earning no money at all. So, every day you can chop off the trials-period is money that goes straight to the bottom line. For a block-buster, that could be worth a million bucks a day.
This software could DEMONSTRABLY reduce the time taken up in the lab, so at $50,000 it could be cost justified many, many times over. It was a no-brainer decision.
Except, sales were abysmal. The company did its selling by using rational arguments exclusively – return on investment. And, let’s face it, toxicologists are very rational people.
Sales were disappointing because THERE WAS NOTHING ‘IN IT’ FOR THE TOXICOLOGIST. They had the hassle of installing a new system, spending 50,000 from their budget and then – five or six years down the line, the company made more profit. Who knows, they’d probably be working for someone else by then.
Today the company uses emotional arguments – “The software makes life much easier in the lab!” That could NEVER be cost justified. But it’s what toxicologists want, infinitely more than giving shareholders a bumper dividend five years later.
So, did we drop the rational arguments? No way! Having made a decision motivated by emotion, they then needed rational arguments to justify the purchase further up the management line.
Not true! People make what appear to be ‘hard nosed’ business decisions emotionally – AND THEN THEY RATIONALIZE THE DECISION AFTERWARDS.
I know that’s hard to accept, so let me give you a couple of real life examples. The first - decisions costing half a million pounds a time – three quarters of a million US dollars. The second costing around 50,000 dollars. Not much room for emotion there?
The first… a million years ago, when I sold mainframe computers, IBM was the biggest computer company in the world – many times bigger than the rest of the completion worldwide put together. And we sold computers at a 40% premium over the cost of competitors, even though the competitors had excellent – sometimes better - hardware. How did we get away with it?
The saying, at the time was “Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM”. It was all to do with self-interest.
Let me give you the second, a more detailed example.
I did some marketing work a few years ago for a software company that sold laboratory systems to toxicologist. Toxicologists work for drug companies and it’s their job to test potential new drugs before they go into clinical trials.
Now, you need to understand that drug companies can only patent their products for 20 years - INCLUDING THE TIME TAKEN IN CLINICAL TRIALS, where it’s earning no money at all. So, every day you can chop off the trials-period is money that goes straight to the bottom line. For a block-buster, that could be worth a million bucks a day.
This software could DEMONSTRABLY reduce the time taken up in the lab, so at $50,000 it could be cost justified many, many times over. It was a no-brainer decision.
Except, sales were abysmal. The company did its selling by using rational arguments exclusively – return on investment. And, let’s face it, toxicologists are very rational people.
Sales were disappointing because THERE WAS NOTHING ‘IN IT’ FOR THE TOXICOLOGIST. They had the hassle of installing a new system, spending 50,000 from their budget and then – five or six years down the line, the company made more profit. Who knows, they’d probably be working for someone else by then.
Today the company uses emotional arguments – “The software makes life much easier in the lab!” That could NEVER be cost justified. But it’s what toxicologists want, infinitely more than giving shareholders a bumper dividend five years later.
So, did we drop the rational arguments? No way! Having made a decision motivated by emotion, they then needed rational arguments to justify the purchase further up the management line.
Put this chart on your wall - DECISIONS ARE MADE EMOTIONALLY AND THEN JUSTIFIED RATIONALLY.
The product, by the way, has become a world beater.
The product, by the way, has become a world beater.
