Emotional but not irrational.

We've been writing about persuasive communication since the Greeks, and likely long before. And what all of those writings point out is that people don’t make logical buying decisions, we make emotional ones. And only after we've made an emotional decision do we look for some logical narrative to justify our decision.

But there’s a lot of misunderstanding about what that really means. "Emotional" certainly doesn’t mean random, unintelligent or irrational.

An emotional decision is more like: A decision made unconsciously, based on my past experience, and the experience of those I respect.

So how can we make that work for us?

If we zoom in we see that people only ever really buy one thing - hope.

Hope that their purchase will bring more comfort and control to some aspect of their life.

Let me repeat that because it’s incredibly important:

People only buy when they hope to gain more comfort and control in some aspect of their life.

We can think of "hope" as positive expectation.

We can think of "control" as if it were a fuel gauge.

The more control we feel over each aspect of our life, the more fuel we have in the tank and the more comfortable we feel as we make progress towards our goals.

When we feel out of control, the warning light starts to flash. We feel an uncomfortable urge to go top up our fuel and an anxiety about continuing our journey until we have.

We are constantly attempting to control our:

Time, Energy, Health, Riches & Resources, Power, Freedom, Love & Respect, Safety and Alliances.

Because we believe that one, or more, of these strategies will keep our genes alive into the future.

So, however abstract, logical or technical your product may be, if your customer can’t connect those dots, between your tool and their unconscious drives, they simply won’t feel motivated to buy it.

In this short, practical guide we’re going to show you how to position your product and communicate its value through this deeply motivating lens.

Before.

How is your customer struggling, before they buy your product? (And why is it not their fault?)

After.

How will your customer experience more comfort and control, after they buy your product?

Consistent.

Why is it just like them to buy your product?

Gradual.

How can you prove this isn’t going to kill them? (Physically, mentally and socially)

Action.

Why is now the perfect time for them to buy?

When we piece those answers together we are building a simple but complete narrative that demonstrates your value. If it were a conversation it would sound something like this:

We deeply understand the problem that’s giving you pain and we know it’s not your fault. We have a novel solution that offers you more comfort and control. It’s consistent with your past behavior and the people who matter to you will approve. It’s a low risk decision that can’t harm you and there’s a good reason for you to act now.

The specific language, the colors we use to paint the picture, and the type of comfort and control your customer is seeking, will be different for every product. And at different stages of your markets awareness. But the underlying pattern, the structure, is essentially the same. And it’s the structure that does all the heavy lifting.

We're being quite explicit here, so we can clearly see what's being communicated. But the more your messaging develops, the more implicit and natural it will become, without losing its underlying message.

Let’s break it down and look at each question in a little more detail…

Who are we talking with?

Before we can persuade anyone of anything we need to know who we are talking with.

A useful first question is this - are we talking to the person who will use our product, or the person who will approve its purchase?

They are frequently different people with quite different values, goals and social pressures.

So before we attempt to create any kind of pitch, we need to pick the person we are trying to persuade and think only about them. We can have different conversations with different people later. But never all at once.

Action

Identify as best you can who you want to communicate with first. If you're not sure, make a list of who we don't want to talk with. Are they going to use your product? Or approve its sale for someone else? Give them a name and some kind of identifying title.

Hint: Hi [Bob], I know you have an interest in [X]...

Problems, problems, problems

All valuable products solve at least one big problem. (Often more than one.) And all human problems have at least 3 components:

There’s the practical problem itself.

There’s the emotional part, or how it makes people feel.

And there’s the social part, or what other people will think.

Many technical products are good at solving the practical problem, but fail to address the emotional and social dimensions that are the source of the underlying motivation.

Without hitting all three, people will struggle to get as excited about your product as you think they should.

So let’s look at them one at a time.

The Practical Problem

You live with your product day after day, so you’re an expert on the problem(s) it solves, but to your customers it’s often new territory, so don’t overlook the fundamentals.

Action

Describe the problem(s) your customer has from a practical, physical or technical point of view before they discover your product. What are they struggling to do? What's the situation they have? What are they trying to change? List as many problems as you can identify.

Hint: The practical problem(s) you have are…

The emotional part

Now let's think about how each practical problem makes our customer feel. Because it's those feelings about the problem, often uncomfortable feelings, that are motivating them to act in the first place.

Action

Describe how the problem(s) make your customer feel before they discover your product. Do they feel rushed? Do they feel tired? Do they feel unwell? Do they feel impoverished? Do they feel powerless? Do they feel oppressed? Do they feel unloved or not understood? Do they feel anxious and uncertain about the future? Are they driven to have a family? Make the world better for their children? Or to be remembered?

Hint: These problem(s) make you feel…

Lack of control causes discomfort

If our customer's feelings aren't obvious to us, we can try to narrow down what it is that they are trying to achieve on a more fundamental level. We can assume that they are lacking control in this area of their work or life. Once we identify what type of control they are lacking, we can pinpoint the type of uncomfortable emotion that is usually associated with it.

There are a number of areas in which we generally seek more control:

Our time
Energy
Health
Riches & Resources
Power
Freedom
Love & Respect
Personal Safety
Group Alliances
Life & Legacy

Let's look at some common feelings and emotions that accompany them:

Not enough time - Unable to do all the things we need to do in order to succeed. Causing feelings of being rushed, pressured, under skilled and stressed.

Not enough energy - Unable to execute our plans fully, or do all that we know we need to do. Causing feelings of lethargy, tiredness.

Not enough health - Unable to move, think, act and carry out our plans. Causing feelings of weakness, pain and fear.

Not enough riches / resources - Unable to satiate your basic needs. Causing feelings of thirst, hunger, exposure, insecurity, poverty.

Not enough power - Unable to move other people, or things, to your will. A lack of leverage. Causing feelings of vulnerability, weakness, or impotence.

Not enough freedom - Unable to move yourself or live your life by your own design. Causing feelings of restriction, servitude or being stifled.

Not enough love / respect - Unable to find sexual attention, friendship, admiration or respect for ones values. Causing feelings of loneliness, a lack of connection, not being understood.

Not enough safety - Unable to predict what will happen in the future. Causing feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.

Not enough social allies - Unable to predict how the social group will behave towards us. Causing feelings of isolation and vulnerability. (We’ll look at this one in more depth in the social question up next).

Not enough life / legacy - Unable to live forever, in body or sense of self. The drive to procreate in youth so our genes can survive and evolve, and the desire to improve the opportunities and conditions for our offspring. The discomfort of aging and the dread of death. Or the longing to be remembered for our accomplishments, ideas or values.

Action

Consider how each of the common control strategies listed above applies (or doesn't) to your product and its individual features. Establish what type of control your customer is seeking and use that information to answer the previous question about how the problems are likely making them feel.

The social part

In most situations we don’t just consider our own needs. We worry about what other people will think of our actions.

This social aspect of human life is so important to our survival, it’s hard wired into our brain and affects every single decision we make and every action we take.

Social allegiance is so useful for our feeling of being Protected, that it is almost always a factor in how we choose to act.

Without social allies we feel isolated and vulnerable.

So it’s essential to know - what individuals or groups does your customer feel like they have to be aligned with for protection, and how will this affect their actions?

Action

Establish who else matters to your customer in this situation? And how are they making your customer feel? Do they feel pressured by their boss or their peers? Do they feel intimidated by the opposite sex? Do they feel ignored by their parents? Do they feel like an outsider in their community? Do they feel vulnerable or isolated?

Hint: The problem also makes you feel… (uncomfortable in a different way) around… (these people who are important to you)

Why it’s not their fault

Once we’ve established the extent of the problem, we need to consider how serious or embarrassing it is.

If they feel guilty about having the problem, they will be too embarrassed to buy from us. So we have to take the pressure off and establish who, or what else, is to blame.

Problems don’t get solved because:

The customer didn’t implement an existing solution properly. (No customer ever wants to hear this)

The technology wasn’t advanced enough yet.

The previous solution, from our competitors, wasn’t as well designed as our new solution.

The times have changed.

There’s a big evil enemy that’s conspiring against them.

Action

Briefly explain why the problem isn’t your customers' fault and why hasn’t it been solved already.

Hint: This has always been a really hard problem to solve because of (this)…

Solutions, solutions, solutions.

Now it’s time to present our solutions to the challenges our customer is experiencing. Again we’re going to look at the 3 types of solution. The practical, the emotional and the social. And then we’re going to consider what’s new about our solution.

The practical solution

Remember, this is the fundamentals of whatever problem your product solves. The basic features and benefits.

Action

Describe your solutions to your customers problems from a practical, physical or technical point of view. What will your product let them have? What will they be able to do? How will the situation change after they have purchased your product?

Hint: With our product you'll be able to...

The emotional part

How will your product give your customer more control over their life and how will this make them feel more comfortable?

Examples:

More time - Able to do all the things you want to do. Causing feelings of relaxation and comfort.

More energy - Able to execute on your plans. Causing feelings of energy, capability, strength.

More health - Able to operate optimally. Causing feelings of youthfulness, high energy, vigor, mobility.

More riches / resources - Able to satiate your basic needs. Causing feelings of fullness, protection, security, abundance.

More power - Able to move other people, or things, to your will. Having more leverage. Causing feelings of power, strength, effectiveness.

More freedom - Able to move yourself and live your life by your own design. Causing feelings of freedom, independence, possibility.

More love / respect - Able to find love, lust, admiration or respect for one's values. Causing feelings of connection, self acceptance, validation, joy, ecstasy.

More safety - Able to predict and avoid dangers in the future. Causing feelings of calm, familiarity, certainty, safety.

More allies - Able to call on allies and group strength for protection. Causing feelings of belonging, brotherhood, sisterhood, comradeship, group pride and safety. (We’ll look at this one in more depth in the next question).

More life / legacy - Able to continue your genetic line, give your offspring more opportunity and greater safety, make an impact on the world and be remembered after your time.

Action

Describe how your solution will make the customer feel more comfortable and in control after they buy your product. Will they feel relaxed? Will they feel capable? Will they feel energetic? Will they feel abundance? Will they feel powerful? Will they feel free? Will they feel loved or respected? Will they feel safe? Will they feel belonging? Will they establish a legacy?

Hint: And you’ll feel…(more energetic, abundant, powerful, free, loved, safe, protected, remembered)

The social part

Once again, knowing how important the social aspect of any solution is, let’s make extra sure we have it covered.

Who are the powerful people or groups your customer wants to feel comfortable around, included in, and most importantly protected by? And how will your product increase that sense of group belonging?

Action

Describe how your product will make your customer feel more aligned with, and more accepted by other people, after they buy your product. Will it help them become more attractive to the opposite sex, recognized as a leader in their field, more respected in their parenting group, more intelligent amongst their peers etc.?

Hint: You’ll also feel… (more comfortable and in control) around… (these people who are important to you)

What’s new or novel about your solution?

When describing the benefits, keep in mind what is new and novel about your product.

It’s likely that your customer has tried and failed to solve this problem in the past.

While they are still driven to solve the problem, their past, negative experiences will work against you. They’ll be skeptical and cynical and want to dismiss your product to save them from more pain.

So your solution needs to look and sound different enough to fit into a new category. It must be novel enough to allow your customer to feel a new sense of hope.

Action

Briefly explain why your solution is new, novel or an improvement on past solutions.

Hint: This has always been a really hard problem to solve but because of (some new thing), things are finally changing…

Any new purchase has to feel consistent with your customer’s identity.

It has to feel "just like me to buy this".

There are 3 things you can do to trigger that feeling. (You should do all of them).

1. Demonstrate consistency with your customer's identity, values, beliefs and previous purchases.

2. Demonstrate that your product is approved of by other people who are just like them.

3. Demonstrate that your product is approved of by people your customer looks up to. Heroes, celebrities or experts.

Let's look at them one at a time.

Demonstrate consistency with your customer's identity, values, beliefs and previous purchases.

We strive to be consistent with our past behavior, the places we frequent and the types of people we associate with. So let's demonstrate that this purchase is an obvious next step.

Action

What identity, values, world view, or previous purchases make it consistent for your customer to buy your product?

Hint: If you’re an (identity)…
If you believe (in this value)…
If you’re a fan of (this genre)…
If you already own (this product)...
…then our new product is perfect for you.

Demonstrate that your product is approved of by other people who are just like them.

A testimonial or case study follows the same format as your own sales pitch. You are simply getting your customers to explain their journey of transformation in their own words. Here’s how to ask customers for testimonials using a simple feedback request…

Example: I’d love to hear about your experience with our product so we can make it even better.

Can you tell me what the situation was like before you found our product, was it a struggle to solve this problem? And how did that make you feel?

How did things improve when you started using our product? How do you feel now?

What would you most recommend about our product to your friends?

What can we do to make the product even better for you?

Thank you, we really value your feedback.

Keep the feedback from the last question to yourself, and make sure to get permission from the customer before using their feedback as a testimonial. The majority of people are flattered and happy to be heard.

If you don't have any customers yet, don’t fake them, just use a customer story. Simply describe how a potential customer might benefit from your product.

Over time, the more you can have your customers tell the story of your product for you, the better it will be received.

Action

Describe the positive experience of one or more customers who have benefitted from your product in the form of a testimonial.

Hint: Before I found this product I was really struggling… After finding this product I was able to solve this problem and that problem… I loved using the gizmo function, it gave me more control over the problem and that feels great…
Mr T. Bone, Ranch Owner, Texas, USA.

Demonstrate that your product is approved of by people your customer looks up to. Heroes, celebrities or experts.

If you can't demonstrate celebrity endorsement yet, demonstrate how you all share the same values and beliefs. You can often do this by creating content, like an interview, with someone in an authority position.

If you can’t get an interview simply create a piece of content praising them and talking about your shared values. Association rubs off, so you do not always need explicit endorsement, especially to get started.

Action

Demonstrate that your product, or the value it represents, is endorsed by someone high up the social hierarchy, an expert, authority, celebrity or hero.

Hint: (This hero or expert is) someone we admire and look up to, just like you. We all share the values of… and...

Staying alive, physically, emotionally and socially.

It may sound dramatic, but keeping us alive is exactly what our brain is trying to do, even when shopping.

We fear losing what we have, more than we are driven to succeed. This applies to our riches, our reputation and our life in general.

With that in mind we can’t just show people that our product has value. We have to convince them that it isn’t going to harm them. Either physically, emotionally, or socially.

The key to building this kind of trust is gradual exposure.

Action

How can you let your customer dip their toe in the water and experience the value of your product first hand, with zero risk to themselves?

Hint: Let us show you how to experience the benefits of our product, risk free for (this many) days...

Every communication should prompt our customer to take action.

There are Three main types of prompt:

1. We can simply ask them to buy.

2. We can offer an extra benefit to sweeten the deal. (A carrot). This also provides a narrative they can take back to their tribe to justify the purchase.

3. And we can use a limited time offer. (A stick). This is really a threat that something will be taken away if they fail to act.

Examples:

If you buy now you'll gain something extra...
"Sign-up and for today only you'll receive this bonus"
“Order in the next 15 minutes for free next day delivery”

If you buy it right now we'll reduce the price...
"Half Price Holiday Sale"
"Book your holiday in winter for 30% off"

If you buy it right now you'll be special...
"Pre-order and be the first to receive."
"Exclusive access for the first 100 ticket holders."

Buy a set and get this extra benefit…
“Buy a meal deal and get this free toy”

Buy more and get more…
“Buy one, get one free”
“Buy two, get one free”
“Get your 7th coffee on us with our loyalty card”

Buy one, give one…
“For every pair of shoes you buy, we’ll donate a pair to the developing world”

If you don't buy now, the opportunity will disappear...
"One offer, one time"
"New Year's Day Clearance Sale"
"Only 10 Places available"
“Limited Edition”

Action

What can you offer extra, and maybe for a limited time, to prompt an immediate sale?

Hint: Buy (within this limited time frame) and get (this extra value) for free…

How sophisticated is your customer?

At this point we should have answered all the key questions and have a rough draft of a persuasive narrative. Now it’s time to go back to the beginning and create a headline and sub header for that narrative.

A headline or titles's main job is to get attention and lead people into your sub header or opening, which expands on your headline, gives a condensed version of your overall argument and leads them into the beginning of your pitch. You're selling the value of the message you want them to invest in consuming.

It doesn't matter what medium you're communicating through, whether it's a landing page, a YouTube video or an email. Your headline, title, or the first 5 seconds, is the most important part of any sales pitch. If it doesn't grab your reader’s attention, the rest of your pitch simply doesn’t exist, because they will never ever see it.

Your headline and subhead must give your reader hope that they will gain more comfort and control in some area of their life. But how you phrase them will be affected by how sophisticated your customer is.

By sophisticated I don't mean do they sip champagne with their caviar? I mean, how familiar are they with the problem they are trying to solve? Do they understand the type of solution you are offering? Are they aware of your company and your competition? Is this a new market category? A competitive product? Or a mature market?

Let’s look at three basic levels of awareness or sophistication.

Level 1: What is it?

Your potential customer is well aware of the problem or pain he is suffering, but isn’t yet aware of the type of solution you offer, or your specific product or brand. In this case you’re probably offering a novel solution, a new category or invention.

Your headline should be quite basic. Point out the problem or your solution, or both, in simple terms.

Example: The first affordable personal computer.

Level 2: How is it better?

As more competitors enter the market your customer becomes more sophisticated. He understands the general solutions to his problem that exist. Your job becomes to demonstrate how your product is better than the competition.

Your headline starts to focus on your unique features and their benefits and becomes more competitive as the competition grows.

Example: A faster personal computer with more storage than the competition.

Example: A multimedia personal computer with a high definition color screen, a pointing device, graphical user interface and built in speakers.

Level 3: Who will it allow me to be?

At this point the market is usually saturated, and the customer is starting to become cynical about all the competing features and claims in your category.

So we move the focus away from the product and towards the customer themselves. Our product becomes a reflection of their values, a means of self expression and social status.

Example: Are you a creative person who thinks different?

Action

Decide what level of sophistication and product awareness your customers are at. Then draft out at least half a dozen different headlines and sub headers that you think might grab their attention and draw them into your pitch. Commit to split testing these different headlines until you learn which appeals really connect with your audience. Understand that it's not our job to know in advance what will move our customers to act. It's our job to learn what appeals. We hypothesize and test. It's the market that decides.

Evolving your pitch

When we start talking to our market we are feeling out what motivates them to act. We are using our own voice and talking to them directly and explicitly.

As we learn more about our customers and become more confident in our selling points our marketing can evolve in two ways: We can use our customer’s voices, or the voices of their heroes to deliver our message for us, through testimonials, case studies and endorsements. And we can use dramatic demonstration to imply the emotional and social benefits of our features.

But before we go down those more costly and longer term routes, we first need to establish what emotional and social benefits our customers really want from our product. So this framework is where we start. We hypothesize, we test and we quickly and affordably adapt our pitch as the market reveals itself to us.

Most products fail, not because they are not useful, but because they fail to connect the dots between the practical features, and what really motivates customers to take action.

What motivates people to buy?

Now you know the basics of what to do, let’s quickly look at why this approach works by laying some psychological foundations.

To understand what motivates people to buy, we need to understand what motivates people to do anything.

Let's condense all the human sciences into a 90 second overview…

We're all subconsciously motivated by a simple primary drive: stay alive and reproduce. If we can achieve that goal, the unique combination of code that makes up our genes can survive and continue to evolve.

Sitting here today, we are part of an unbroken chain of survival and reproduction that goes all the way back to the very beginning of life on the planet, about 4 billion years ago.

That’s a lot of survival and reproduction. How did we manage it?

At this stage of our evolution we use water, food, mobility, clothing and shelter, social alliances, communication, weapons, tools, sex, and education.

(And we use money as a convenient way to store value so that we can trade these things.)

It’s these everyday survival and reproduction strategies that determine our basic wants and needs. And we all want more control over each of those categories.

Remember, we can think of control as a fuel gauge.

The more control we have over each category, the more fuel we have in the tank, and the more comfortable we feel. The less control we have over these things, the more uncomfortable we feel.

We want more time and energy. We want cleaner water. We want tastier/more nutritious food. We want faster, safer transport to more places. We want nicer clothes and a bigger house in a more prestigious location. We want to be more popular with better friends and alliances. We want more people to hear what we have to say. We want the tools and weapons that give us the most leverage. We want a more likable and attractive partner. We want a school and an environment that provides better opportunities for our children. And we want to be remembered. All for the purpose of staying alive and carrying our genetic and memetic torch forward.

Every product or service, however technical or complex, either serves these basic needs directly, is a tool (a lever) to serve them indirectly, or - is hijacking the biology that drives those needs.

If it doesn’t, it has no value to us.

Did I feel pleasure or pain the last time I did something like this?

Now that we’ve established what everybody wants, the most important question, the thing that really makes all the difference is this: what is it that tips people over the edge, from wanting something to actually buying it?

It's rarely just a lack of money.

It turns out that when we want something, and when we feel motivated to act on that desire, we’re using completely different parts of our brain.

For the sake of simplicity let’s horrify the neuroscientists and imagine that the brain consists of only two parts. Our conscious and our subconscious.

Let’s call the voice we can hear in our head our consciousness. Always thinking, making plans, setting goals, trying to understand what’s going on and creating stories that seem to make sense of the world.

We tend to think of our consciousness as “us” or “who we are” , the clever “thinking part” that’s making all those logical decisions.

But in reality it’s our subconscious that determines when we take action. Making us move, act, get off the sofa or take out our wallet and buy. (Or not.)

If you want to get really nerdy, at the core of our action taking, or lack of action taking, is the Basal Ganglia. Which approves, or rejects every action, mental and physical, that we consider making.

Here’s how these two forces work together to move us (and our customers) forward in the world…

The process generally starts out with an uncomfortable feeling, like hunger. In response, we come up with a clever idea to solve the problem. “I see a restaurant, let’s go inside.”

But before we feel motivated to physically act on our wants, to literally move our muscles, our subconscious has to approve the action.

Our subconscious is not so concerned with perfectly optimizing our life. It just wants us to be safe and not run out of energy.

It doesn’t use logic or reason to decide if an idea is worth acting upon, it relies mostly on our previous experience of similar situations.

Did I feel pleasure or pain the last time I did something like this?

Now rather than scanning through all of our past memories every time we need to act, our subconscious creates simple rules over time. We call those rules our values.

A value effectively says - “Based on my past experience of how this kind of situation made me feel, I’m going to either move towards it, or away from it.” (I like it, or I don’t like it.)

Collectively our values become our identity. The way in which we typically act, subconsciously, in the world.

But what if we don’t have any first hand experience? In that situation our subconscious will rely on the experience (the values) of the people we trust.

Initially our parents, then our peers, and eventually the people we look up to as heroes. (People who appear to have more control over their lives than us).

And that’s how we really make the majority of our “decisions”. They are not decisions in the conscious, logical sense at all.

They are predetermined by our values and based on our (limited) experience of the world, and the (limited) experience of the people we trust. And they happen completely unconsciously.

If a good experience is expected, what we want is approved by the subconscious.

We feel driven, motivated, optimistic and hopeful. We start taking action naturally and with no resistance. We sign-up. We press the buy button. We consume.

But if a bad experience is expected, what we want is rejected by the subconscious.

We feel indifference, resistance, pessimism, cynicism, procrastination or revulsion.

Our subconscious doesn’t explain why it approved, or disapproved the action, it just sends us the feeling.

Our conscious mind is left to create a narrative about our own motivations. (Often a wildly incorrect narrative).

And so if we want people to follow through and buy our products, we must talk to both parts of their brain. The conscious and the subconscious.

And that’s exactly what we’re doing when we consider the questions in this framework.

We’re aligning our product with our customer’s deepest motivations. The strategies that have become hard wired to keep our genes alive.

We’re positioning our product as a lever to achieve more time, energy, health, riches/resources, power, freedom, love/respect, safety and allies in their life. The increased feelings of control that lead to comfortable positive emotions.

We’re demonstrating consistency with their past actions, and the past actions of people they trust.

We’re lowering the risk of taking action, and we’re increasing the risk of not taking action.

A powerful combination of forces aligned to make more people say Yes.