Understanding Customer Emotions To Drive Sales Strategies

Stop treating your prospects like calculators. I learned this lesson painfully while leading the launch of a new solution for a healthcare transformation organization. The CEO and SVP of Product Innovation were well-intentioned, but they had biases that fueled their convictions. “Show them the science and ROI. Once they see the data, they’ll switch,” said the CEO. “They’ll switch?” I asked curiously. They rarely switched for the logic. They often resisted because we didn’t understand the emotion that tied them to maintaining the status quo. Most B2B marketers still build journeys on the idea that buyers only care about features, scientific studies, and ROI models. But real people buy with their hearts as much as their heads. LinkedIn's B2B Institute found that emotional factors significantly influence B2B buying decisions, accounting for 66%, while rational factors account for the remaining 34%. When you act like every decision is a math problem, you miss the emotional needs and biases that drive action. Fear of missing out. Desire for security. The endorsement of a trusted referral. Those feelings tip the scales long before spreadsheets ever come out. Three quick shifts to make your GTM more human: 💡 Map emotions, not just touchpoints. Ask: What’s the buyer afraid of at each stage? What small win can calm that fear? Use stories to build trust. 💡 Data is important. But a 2-minute customer story about real struggle and success sticks far longer. 💡 Frame decisions around loss-aversion. “Don’t lose your edge” often lands harder than “gain more efficiency.” When you blend hard facts with a genuine understanding of how people feel, you’ll see faster decisions and deeper loyalty. Takeaway: Your next user journey should start with these questions: ✔️ “How do we show up in our customers' struggles? ✔️ "Do they see us as relevant?” ✔️ Can they see their lives as being better because of our help? Build from there. #businessgrowth #GTM #buyerjourney #CMO

In Mad Men, Don Draper NEVER justified prices. Instead, he used emotional buy-in to sell identity and status. Here's the Don Draper strategy that makes price irrelevant: Most salespeople destroy their own value before a customer experiences it. They apologize for prices or explain costs upfront. They get defensive before anyone objects. What if price justification is killing your sales? This is where Don Draper's genius comes into play... In client meetings, Draper focuses on one thing: emotional transformation. He never says: • "Our prices are competitive" • "Let me explain our pricing" • "We can work something out" Instead, he does something revolutionary that research now validates. Remember the Kodak Carousel pitch? Draper transformed a slide projector into a time machine: "It takes us to a place where we ache to go again." He never discussed price. At all. When you justify price, you tell customers: 1. My product isn't worth what I'm charging 2. I expect you to object 3. I'm worried you'll walk away Their brain searches for cheaper options—even if yours is superior. Harvard researchers discovered something fascinating about this: When salespeople focused on emotional value—not price—customer lifetime value increased by 52%. Some industries saw over 100% increases. Why? Emotions drive decisions. Logic justifies them. How you frame the conversation from the start that matters. In the Lucky Strike meeting, when regulations threatened advertising, he reframed everything with one sentence. "Advertising is based on one thing: happiness." With those words, focus shifted from the problems to emotional transformation. This technique isn't just clever—it's scientifically proven. It's called "customer-centric framing." Here's how it works: 1. Start with THEIR situation, not yours Don't open with product features or pricing. Begin by understanding their current situation and emotions. This activates their emotional brain—exactly where you want them during pricing talks. 2. Create emotional contrast After establishing their reality, paint a picture of life with your product. Focus on transformation—the before and after. This creates emotional investment that makes price secondary in their mind. 3. Use storytelling to anchor value Draper never listed features. He told stories. Storytelling activates multiple brain areas, including those for sensory processing and emotions. This makes your value more memorable than any price discussion. 4. Position yourself as the guide, not the hero In every sales conversation, your customer is the hero. Be their trusted advisor helping them achieve goals—not someone "selling" something. This changes the power dynamic in pricing conversations. 5. Wait for THEM to bring up price If you've done the first four steps correctly: Either they bring up price from interest (not objection), or they're sold before the price becomes relevant. This is when value truly transcends cost.

I’ve analyzed 1,237 sales calls. Here's why your deals are dying…. It’s got nothing to do with the market. Or your product features, your roadmap or even your pricing. Prospects only care about their PAIN (but they'll never tell you what it really is unless you know how to find it). After coaching thousands of AEs across industries, I've identified the #1 skill that separates six figure earners from everyone else: the ability to uncover, amplify, and leverage EMOTIONAL buying pain. Most AEs make the fatal mistake of accepting surface level answers: "We're just exploring options" "We're fine with our current solution" "Your product would be nice to have" These aren't buying signals. They're DEATH SENTENCES for your deals. Elite performers know how to dig beneath these superficial responses to uncover the real motivators: 1. FEAR: The gnawing anxiety of falling behind competitors or missing market opportunities 2. FRUSTRATION: The cumulative rage of wasting time, money, and resources on broken processes 3. IDENTITY: The personal reputation risk of championing (or not championing) a new solution When you can connect your solution to these emotional drivers, price objections disappear, decision making accelerates, and deals close. — Reps… do you want to make an extra $100-250k in sales this year? Go here: https://lnkd.in/gPutkXeD

Traditional approaches to explaining customer behavior are no longer enough to ensure your company remains on the cutting edge. 🫢   Innovative solutions require fresh approaches to penetrating layers of conventional wisdom.   And that begins by acknowledging that the motivations your customers act on are seldom logical, predictable, or even conscious.   Instead, their strongest responses stem from one source: emotion.   Numerous studies, including two conducted by Gallup, have documented that over 70% of all B2B and B2C customer decisions are driven by emotion.   It’s a deceptively simple reality yet one that many companies often resist preferring instead to concentrate exclusively on seemingly quantifiable metrics because they seem safe and reliable.   But whether customers are consumers or other businesses, all customers are people. And people are emotional beings.   That’s why the best data in the world isn’t necessarily indicative of how they’ll respond.   Traditional research techniques are often unproductive because they generate predictable confirmation of a pre-conceived hypothesis.   Old methods are designed to measure rather than inform and therefore may fail to uncover genuine insights.   Frequently they focus on mapping reactions against existing services, products or internally based assumptions.   Emotional Trigger Research is a methodology that exposes the core, unfiltered and spontaneous triggers that drive behavior.   These triggers provide actionable intelligence that will enable your business to convert emotional considerations into winning marketing strategies.   Based on an indirect approach that features provocative open-ended questions paired with in-depth one-on-one conversations, the results are uniquely spontaneous and enlightening.   When asked the unexpected, most customers have no ready answers. Consequently their unplanned responses are more revealing, providing the most authentic window into the emotional triggers that explain their actions.   Emotional Trigger Research transcends the superficiality of what customers say to the far deeper level of what they really mean.   As the Pioneer of Emotional Trigger Research and Author of “Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers That Drive Sales”, I’ve spent my career helping CEOs and Owners of U.S. based companies leverage customer emotions to generate over $100 million in additional sales.   If you’d like to innovate a competitive marketing strategy that resonates with your customers emotionally, DM me and let’s chat.   Illustration: Your Marketing Rules    Ring the 🔔 on my profile to follow Linda Goodman for marketing strategy and business development content.   #MarketingStrategy #Sales #BusinessDevelopment #EmotionalTriggerResearch #Leadership #CEO #Entrepreneurship

Ever wonder what really drives your customers to say “yes”? Here’s a truth most people miss: Buying decisions aren’t just logical - they’re deeply emotional. The moment I understood this, everything changed. I remember a client struggling to sell her premium service. She thought lowering the price would do the trick. But price wasn’t the problem, It was perception. Her customers didn’t see the value because she wasn’t leveraging psychological triggers. Let me break it down for you: 1. Scarcity creates urgency. If something feels rare, it becomes irresistible. Limited spots or deadlines? They push people to act. 2. Authority builds trust. Position yourself as the expert, and people will listen. Share your knowledge, results, and credentials. They want to learn from the best. 3. Social proof provides reassurance. Testimonials, case studies, or even numbers like “10,000+ clients served”. Show others trust you - so they will too. When we implemented these principles, her sales skyrocketed. Not because her offer changed, but, Because her messaging tapped into her audience’s psychology. Ask yourself: Are you speaking to your customer’s emotions, or just their wallets? PS. What’s one psychological trigger you’ll use to connect more deeply? #Mindset #Business