People Buy For Their Reasons, Not Yours (Money Monday)

This is Jeb Blunt, and it's Money Monday on the Sales Gravy Podcast. Make money, money, money, money. Make money, money, Money. Money makes the world go round. I'm gonna talk around town. Remy gave me the sound. People act on emotion, and they justify with logic. From complex to completely transactional impulse purchases, emotions drive buying decisions. And the examples are legion, and science is stacking up one study after another that demonstrate how emotion influences the choices that we make. Daniel Pink says that to sell is human, and likewise, in my opinion, to buy is human. Though as humans, we are certain that we're making choices based on rational logic, our best interest, or organized facts, science says that often we don't. Emotion is why well educated executives make multimillion dollar decisions with massive implications for their companies because they feel that one sales team cares about them more than another. At a wine tasting party where researchers placed the price of wine on the wine bottles, people said that the wine with the higher price tag tasted better even though every bottle was filled with the same low cost wine. In another study, German beer hall music wilted from liquor store speakers on Tuesdays and French music on Wednesdays. And correspondingly, German beer sales went up on Tuesdays with French wine sales increasing on Wednesdays. On the sidewalk outside the store, researchers peered into brown bags and interviewed the patrons to learn why they purchased the beer or the wine. Most of the shoppers gave logical reasons for their purchase. They saw it in a magazine, and it was recommended by a friend. They were cooking steaks tonight, or they like the taste of premium beer. As humans, it's important that our self image correlate with our decisions, so we fall on logic to justify subconscious emotional buying behavior, thus avoid the pain of something called cognitive dissonance, which is painful mental stress caused when we try to hold two values at the same time. Despite all the tools, information, and data at their fingertips in our Internet connected world, buyers continue to make irrational decisions. Now am I saying that product features, quality specs, delivery options, speed, service, technology, locations, price, and other tangible attributes of your offering don't matter? Of course not. These things absolutely matter, and all are tickets to the game. However, the sales profession, inclusive of salespeople, sales trainers, sales leaders, and the marketing teams that support them, are and have been under the collective delusion that buyers make logical decisions that are in their own or their company's best interest, that they weigh decisions rationally and choose options that make the most logical sense. But the thing is, evidence upon evidence and data stacked upon data refute this assumption. And frankly, you don't need to look far for proof. I have no doubt that you've been frustrated with a prospect into which you poured heart and soul. You built the …