THE BARD GROUP, LLC

OBJECTIVE

Take emotional charge of your audience because clients make buying decisions based on emotion and use facts only to justify how they feel.

CHALLENGES

95% of your client’s decision-making takes place subconsciously at the emotional level according to Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman. Science has proven that our unconscious mental processing system is capable of effortlessly processing millions of bits of data and arriving at a decision very quickly. We refer to this as our intuition or “trusting our gut". Our unconscious mind then communicates decisions to the conscious mind via an emotion.
Your client feels far more quickly than they think. They feel an emotion in one-fifth the time it takes for their conscious brain to process the same input, according to Dan Hill, Author of Emotionomics.
It is easier to build a presentation that is loaded with facts than one that connects to how the client will feel about it.
Sales people find it difficult to imagine that executives will make decisions based on emotion. We view our own emotional decisions as irrational and irresponsible, so we expect clients to make rational, fact-based decisions because we see ourselves in our clients.
Your clients care about the outcome for their business, but they care as much about what their decision means for them personally. According to research conducted by Google and CEB, B2B buyers are almost 50% more likely to buy a product or service when they see the personal value such as possible career advancement or pride in their decision. The stakes are high for them, at least in their minds, so they need to feel a strong emotional connection to outweigh the personal risks.
Clients typically choose and maintain relationships with people they like and who they intuitively think like them in return.
Clients struggle to differentiate one vendor from the next because they rely on emotional factors like trust, confidence, and likability, which too often don’t come through during a sales meeting.

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TECHNIQUES

A. Differentiate yourself so your client feels the value you bring to them

1. Ground yourself in what’s important to your client.

What challenges are they facing that you can solve?
What do they want to learn from you, and why?
What is the goal of the presentation from their point of view?
What is MOST important to them?

‍2. Identify the 3 key messages that are unique to you and align the things you do well to what your client says is most important to them.

Why 3? Because your buyer’s memory is limited to 3-4 new pieces of information at a time. Any more than three creates cognitive overload.

3. Ask yourself how you want them to feel five hours after the presentation when they are talking with their colleagues about how it went. What do you want them to say?

Examples:

“I feel like they were a good fit for what we are looking for.”
“They feel different from the other firms we’ve talked to because…”
“I feel like they really “get us” and understand what we need.”

When you create awareness around how you want them to feel, you create an emotional pull and engage with them differently.

4. Know that your real differentiator is the emotional benefit they personally feel from making the decision.

By making them feel the unique value you bring, you build trust and confidence that a decision to go with you will benefit not only their business but also them personally.

B. Communicate in a way that evokes emotion

Sharing interesting or potentially important information and facts without an emotional connection is just that, sharing information and hoping that the client will interpret the information in a way that is to your benefit. You need to take what you think is interesting and make it meaningful to the client.

They need you to help them understand why something is important, why they should care, and why they should attach themselves to it. You want them to feel as passionate about your ideas and solutions as you do. And they cannot get there without your leading them.

Let's look at techniques that will help you create the right emotional climate.

1. Speak passionately.

The client wants to feel your excitement, energy, and commitment. You cannot expect them to buy in unless they feel you are all in. Science shows that passion is contagious and will rub off on them.

Speak passionately about the things that make you different, make a huge difference to your clients, or things about which you are most proud.
Use emotive words like “ideal, great, strong, perfect for…”

2. Use your body language to transfer emotion.

The body language you use has an emotional mirroring effect on your client. Since the discovery of mirror neurons in the 1980s, neuroscientists have proven that we interpret each other’s motives and actions not by thinking, but through emotion.

By reading your gestures, posture, and especially facial expressions, your client’s mirror neurons fire up and subconsciously interpret the emotion behind your body language. As they begin to feel the emotions your body language evokes in them, their body language naturally starts to mirror yours.

Animate your body language:

Use broad, open movements, a forward-leaning body, and openly-projected, outward hand motions.
When standing, stand tall and expand your chest with shoulders back. Lean slightly toward the audience. Keep your hands open, not clasped or in your pockets.
When sitting, sit upright with your forearms or elbows on the table (hands apart). This seated posture is shown to improve one’s energy level.
When either standing or sitting, project energy. Keep things lively. Use your body to convey your confidence and passion.

Observe your client’s body language:

When you see them mirroring you, know that you are connecting. This may start with a smile or nod, then move to bigger, more noticeable signals.
Don’t try to mirror them. Let it happen naturally. Your goal is always to be authentic.
If your client is not mirroring you, consider the possibility that they are not yet buying in.

3. Use vivid visuals to prompt an emotional response.

The human brain is wired to remember vivid scenes. The more vivid your visuals, the more likely they are to elicit an emotional response in your client, and the more likely your client will remember them.

Clients often ask for more information, more data, more proof, because they believe they will make a rational, thoughtful decision. However, time and again, neuroscientists test more information against a control sample, and more information invariably loses.

Create a crisp, clean, visual presentation:

Fewer words, more visuals
A font size of no less than 30 points
One key message per slide
Headers and titles that are so self-evident that the client can grasp the point of the slide in 3 seconds or less
Eye-catching graphics, images, color, and contrasts

C. Give them facts to justify their emotional decision to buy

Your client will not be sold by facts alone, but they need facts to justify their emotional decisions. Neuroscientists have proven that our conscious mind will always seek reasons to justify our unconscious, emotional decisions.

1. Give them the data they need.

Your clients like to believe that the decisions they make are rooted in logic and reason, so it’s important to give them the data they need. Data gives your client something to “hang their hat on”, and it makes them think, keeping them engaged. Data is essential, it’s just not every thing, so be selective.

2. Select data points that specifically support each of your 3 key messages. This can include:

Analytical performance data
Case studies
Client reviews/testimonials

D. Tell stories to make them feel emotionally connected to your solution

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Stories activate brain neurons and stimulate emotions. We know from our own experience that when we’re listening to a good story — rich in detail, character, and events — we tend to imagine ourselves in the same situation. Stories have a transportation effect, meaning we process the story as if we are imagining it or experiencing it ourselves. Then, it unconsciously becomes our idea.

Stories help them connect what you do to WHY you do what you do — the WHY is what they care about.

WHAT you do and HOW you do it give them needed data to justify how they feel, but WHY you do what you do fires up their emotions.
Your WHY pulls them in and makes them want to get on board.
Your data is the past. Data simply proves that what you do works. Stories help them imagine the future.

"Stories are just data with a soul."
Brené Brown

1. Share a customer story — it is one of the best ways for a client to experience your solution.

Make the client feel like they are there with you. Create an emotionally vivid scene they can see, touch, feel, and will remember. Think of it like you are taking your client on a virtual test drive of your solution.

2. Select your story to fit your audience.

Choose a story that is relevant to your client’s situation so they can see themselves in it.

3. Structure your story to keep their attention.

Organize your story into three parts: the hook, core content, and a payoff for the client.

Write it, practice it aloud and with animation, and then rewrite it to make it even more focused.

"Simplify. Focus. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff, but it sets you free!"
Emma Coats, story artist at Pixar

Stories work, use them, there’s plenty of science to back you up!

E. Engage them in conversation to increase your likability

How you engage your clients through questioning and listening will have the greatest impact on how they feel about you and the meeting. Questions demonstrate your warmth, curiosity, and empathetic concern for them. Listening makes them feel heard and understood.

In the end, people buy from people they like and who they think like them.

1. Ask open-ended questions (those that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no”).

Questions help you better understand your client's challenges — how they think, what they want to accomplish, and what’s most important to them.
Questions give you the information you need to shape the way you present your key differentiators and align your solutions to fit their challenges.
Questions help establish a relationship, creating an emotional connection between you and the client.

Ask questions with sincere curiosity. Make it natural and conversational.

Examples:

“What’s the most important thing you’d like to take from our meeting today?”
“How are you thinking about X…?”
“What has been your experience with Y?”

2. Pause and listen. Simply listen.

Free your mind of everything else and give them your undivided attention. When you are 100% present, you will find yourself mirroring their facial expressions and mannerisms — naturally.

Be patient, don’t rush them, let them finish.

Pay attention to what they are saying but also to their body language and their tone. These will give you important cues.

3. Ask follow-up questions.

Follow-up questions encourage the client to elaborate on what they just said.

Examples:

“That’s so interesting. When you say X, what do you mean by that?”
“Tell me a little bit more about that.”
“How does that fit into your goal of…?”

The client will never say the same exact thing twice. They will change it or elaborate.

Studies show that people who ask questions are better liked than those who do not, and those who ask follow-up questions score even higher in likability.

ADVANTAGES TO YOU

You deliver a unique experience for your client, engaging them while clearly and passionately communicating your value.
You demonstrate your warmth, interest, and sincere desire to help them.
You make your point — emotionally and factually — going after what you came for.
You clearly differentiate yourself from the competition who will try to overwhelm the client with facts and shiny objects.

ADVANTAGES TO THE CLIENT

They get everything they need — emotional buying signals and the facts they need to justify how they feel about you and your solutions.
They like you, trust you, and have a high level of confidence that this will be the right decision for their business and them personally.