Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin, co-authors of Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers that Drive Sales, published by Career Press, answer Wayne Hurlbert’s questions about the role of emotion in the purchase decision … and … how uncovering their customers’ emotional triggers help companies craft winning sales and marketing strategies.
Visit their website: www.EmotionalTriggerResearch.com or email them at: query@EmotionalTriggerResearch.com
1) Your book is titled Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers that Drive Sales. What was the background to writing this book?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: In this period of unprecedented global change and a catastrophic economic downturn, businesses of all sizes and within all sectors are struggling to cut through layers of conventional wisdom and traditional answers to find new ways to attract and retain customers. Established ways of seeking to explain customer behavior are no longer enough to remain competitive.
Over the course of our careers as senior corporate marketing and sales executives, we came to recognize the connection between the method by which information is acquired and why that information is frequently misleading. Typically studies and research initiatives are one dimensional. They’re designed to collect a series of facts. Yet depending upon how those facts are compiled a number of different … and often contradictory … interpretations are possible. In a search to explain how customers make purchase decisions, many businesses gravitate towards approaches that rely on statistically verifiable answers. Such answers may provide a sense of security because they’re tangible and absolute. But we know the motivations customers act on are seldom logical, predictable or even conscious. Instead their strongest responses stem from one source: emotion. That’s why statistically verifiable answers often fail to reveal concrete insights that increase sales.
When we started our own businesses we wanted to provide for our clients what we could never find for ourselves. Although we had no difficulty obtaining unlimited quantities of information, we found most of it was interesting but not particularly useful. So we decided to share what we learned over time and show organizations how to focus on the emotional triggers that drive their customers’ behavior. It’s by uncovering these emotional triggers that companies gain the actionable insights they need to craft winning strategic solutions.
Linda Goodman (photo left)
2) Most people believe that their purchases are the result of carefully planned and researched buying choices. Is that really the case?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: In the last few years more attention has been paid to the role of emotion in purchase decisions. Typically the focus has been on consumers. Yet emotional considerations play an equally powerful role in the B2B space.
Whether the customer is a consumer or another business, emotion has always played a role in the purchase decision. That’s why advertisers continue to spend millions of dollars each year to convince women that blonds do have more fun. Or why so many people victimized by downsizing, outsourcing, or mergers go into business for themselves in an effort to eliminate the fear of loss of control. Or why savvy companies understand it’s just good business to invest in such initiatives as green technology or community based programs that appeal to their customers’ deeply held beliefs and values. Emotional triggers strike at a deep-seated chord. They are what we connect with at a level that goes beyond reasoning because in our gut it feels right or it feels good or it feels familiar. But because feelings are neither deliberate nor planned they defy quantifiable explanations.
3) How powerful is emotion in the buying decision?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: More often than not, emotion plays a crucial role in the buying decision. Whether as consumers or in the B2B space, customers often act on emotion. But when asked to provide a rationale for their decisions – a rationale that’s usually after the fact - the answers they provide are often part truth, part wishful thinking, and part reinvention. That’s why the best data in the world doesn’t necessarily provide the crucial insights needed to understand what drives their purchase behavior. Particularly in the B2B space, answers are often predicated on the company line rather than a genuine response that reflects the emotional triggers that actually drive decisions.
4) Your book mentions something you call “emotional logic”. What do you mean by that seeming oxymoron?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: We deliberately chose to name Part 5 of our book “Integrating Emotional Logic” because we believe that rather than being contradictory, emotions ultimately have a logic all their own. Our book helps executives learn how to better understand their customers in order to develop successful sales and marketing strategies.
The last section of our book consists of two chapters. Chapter 16 addresses how, in addition to helping companies increase sales, Emotional Trigger Research has enabled companies to: restore employee morale; strengthen vendor relationships; enhance customer communications; and, understand analyst expectations. Chapter 17 provides our thoughts about the role Emotional Trigger Research will play in helping organizations thrive in an increasingly complex environment that is forcing businesses of all sizes and within all sectors to transform the way they operate in order to succeed in the new world order.
Michelle Helin (photo left)
5) Your book discusses what you describe as emotional triggers. What do you mean by that term?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: An emotional trigger is an event that causes a reaction. Some occurrence, real or imagined, sets off a series of intense feelings and those feelings become the reason behind subsequent customer actions or strongly held customer convictions. But since they are neither deliberate nor planned they defy quantifiable explanations. These triggers reflect our inner selves; they emanate from the sum of our life experiences. As such, they are more profound and a better indicator of customer behavior than statistics, projections, or objective answers.
6) How can these emotional triggers be put to work in marketing?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: Understanding emotional triggers enables sales and marketing executives to circumvent the limitations of more structured approaches because customers are encouraged to speak about their experiences, hopes, frustrations, or, beliefs in open-ended narratives instead of being asked a series of specific questions. What they choose to share and the way they choose to share it makes it possible to understand what influences their decisions. Specifically, Emotional Trigger Research pairs provocative open-ended questions with insightful listening and in-depth conversations to open a psychological window into what really motivates customer behavior. The insights they reveal provide the hard edges to vague or distorted answers. And it’s these hard edges that give companies the insights needed to jumpstart sales.
Recognizing how to distinguish a top-of-mind answer from an authentic emotional response is crucial. There are definite clues to distinguish mere top-of-mind answers from authentic emotional triggers. Answers are characterized by measured, neutral responses. They tend to be deliberate, factual, quick, and passive. On the other hand, emotional triggers are revealed through reflective and spontaneous exchanges that are longer, livelier, or more personal. Answers document what people are thinking. Emotional triggers expose what people are feeling.
7) How can emotional triggers be helpful in achieving good customer relationships?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: The essence of Emotional Trigger Research is listening and looking for clues that expose a customer’s true feelings. By penetrating predictable answers, Emotional Trigger Research enables sales/marketing organizations to transcend what customers say and arms companies with actionable intelligence based upon what their customers really mean. Once armed with insights that emanate from a far deeper level of authentic emotional triggers, companies are better positioned to solidify customer relationships.
8) What is next for Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin?
Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin: We plan to continue with our Emotional Trigger Research work because it’s work we love. Our book Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers that Drive Sales has generated more speaking engagements … particularly to sales, marketing, and management organizations. These speaking engagements have prompted us to begin the development of a workshop. The book has also created a lot of interest from different groups about opportunities for collaboration.
And we’re in the process of refining our website www.EmotionalTriggerResearch.com to feature more information from the book plus incorporating additional key words and links to our first page. And we’re responding to requests for more articles in targeted magazines.
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