We all know that some people are more emotional than others. But as much as we like to think we keep our own emotions in check, making our decisions based on logic and facts, just ask any Vulcan you know and they’ll tell you that we are emotional beings. Give us logic, give us reasoning, give us hard and cold facts, and we’ll still find a way to let emotion get involved in our decision-making processes.
This is no less true when people are shopping for your products or services online. Before any visitor to your site decides to make a purchase–or sign a contract for services–it has to be justified on an emotional level. You can have all the facts and figures you want, but in the end, they need to feel good about the decision they made.
Emotion Wins
My wife and I recently went shopping for siding. We had four or five companies come out and give us quotes. In the end, almost all of them had the same or nearly identical product. But what influenced our decision the most? The salesperson who seemed more invested in our needs. The one that took time to listen. The one that followed up. The one that brought us samples when we requested them.
Ultimately, the facts between the companies were very similar. In this case, it makes it easy to go with the emotional decision. But in some cases, you’ll see that the emotional justification far outweighs the logical one. Yeah, you still need the logical justification, but the emotional one is what pushes the decision forward.
Aside from providing information about your products and services, you need to make the shopper feel good about the decision to go forward. And this applies to every step of the process. From the moment visitors land on your site, to clicking the next page, to contacting you, and, ultimately, to making the purchase. As soon as they lose that emotional justification, you’re likely to lose the sale.
3 Ways to Influence the Emotional Decision
There are many ways to tap into the emotional justification, but these are the three most powerful:
- Explain the price: You would think price falls into the “logical” bucket, but not always. Price matters on a logical level only for those who shop on price alone, ignoring factors such as quantity and quality. If you compete on price on a logical level, the cheapest price always wins. But to get that emotional justification, you need to communicate why your product or service is worth the price you’re asking.
- Convey the value: There is no more subjective metric than value. What it means to one person is not what it means to another. Which is why you must tap into the emotional value just as much, if not more so, than the logical value. If you can demonstrate sufficient emotional value (satisfaction, less work, less problems), the price becomes irrelevant.
- Highlight the solutions: Address the solutions that your product or service resolves. More than talking about what the product actually does (logic), address what that means to the shopper. For example, a toilet bowl cleaner doesn’t just remove rings from the toilet; it gives the user a spotless bathroom that not just looks but feels clean, too.
Use Logic AND Emotion
Shoppers will often make illogical choices if the emotional component provides better justification. That’s not an excuse to try to manipulate your shoppers into a bad or illogical decision, but it shows the importance of using both logical and emotional justification through the sales process.
The emotional component should only support the logical one. But few decisions are made on logic alone. You must tap into the deep satisfaction your visitors will receive if you want to truly help them justify their purchase.