The best salespeople are those who understand how different emotions directly impact upon the selling process. ROSS SIMMONDS reports on how jewellery store staff can leverage specific personality traits on the shop floor.
Each day, humans all over the world experience a multitude of emotions ranging from ecstasy to despair. The way we feel depends heavily upon our physical surroundings and the environment in which we find ourselves.
While some days you might feel as though you’re riding a rollercoaster of emotions, one study suggests that humans are really only capable of four ‘basic’ emotions: happy, sad, afraid/surprised and angry/disgusted.
Robert Plutchik, psychologist and professor emeritus at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, established a highly-regarded classification approach for general emotional responses. His famous ‘wheel of emotions’ shows just some of the well-known emotional layers humans drift through.
The best sales professionals have been tapping into this insight for years in an effort to build stronger relationships with clients and ultimately to sell more. How do they do it? They leverage specific personality traits, behaviours and techniques that evoke emotional responses that lead to trust and action in customers.
Happiness and personal magnetism
Charisma is a personality trait that attracts people; it makes you likeable, shiny and draws people into your energy. It makes people want to be around you and evokes trust in those with whom you engage. Charismatic people make others happy and can inspire action in those around them. It’s this ability to inspire that the best sales professionals understand and embrace.
Similar to the research that suggests happiness is an effective driver for social media sharing, joy can easily be translated into a driver of sales. Simply put, happiness is a driver of action. If someone is excited about the possibilities of success that you can bring them or their company, they’ll be more likely to vouch for you and bring you on board as a supplier or partner.
Effects of sadness
One might think of happiness and sadness as opposites but they have more in common than that. In fact, happiness lights up many of the same regions of the brain as sadness.
Paul Zak, an economist and pioneer in the field of neuroeconomics, conducted a series of experiments that demonstrated the effects sadness can have on human behaviour. People were asked to watch a short, sad film about a father and son. After the film was over, people who produced the most oxytocin – a neurochemical produced in the brain – were more likely to give money to others they couldn’t see.
“Our results show why puppies and babies are in toilet paper commercials,” Zak concluded. “This research suggests that advertisers use images that cause our brains to release oxytocin to build trust in a product or brand and, hence, increase sales.”
In order to capitalise on this insight, sales professionals need to empathise with customers – to understand customer needs and wants. It’s important to understand how to connect on an emotional level in both content marketing and personal conversation. Empathy allows sales staff to view the situation through the perspective of the customer and builds trust.
Interpersonal bonds
Emotions allow people to connect with one another and help people bond over shared experiences, values, interests or activities. Developing interpersonal bonds with customers can not only increase sales but also improve customer perception of you and your brand.
When you have a complete understanding of your customers’ needs and wants, what makes them happy and sad, and what emotions drive their action to buy, you can create a sales strategy that connects with them and helps you to develop a meaningful relationship. The human brain feels first and thinks later and as such, sales professionals need to establish emotional connections in their potential prospects and leads.
Emotion-driven purchases
In the world of luxury goods, where people shop with their hearts, understanding psychology can be the difference between making a sale and having a customer walk away. Leverage your understanding of human psychology to deliver an optimised experience for potential and existing customers – whether it’s establishing stronger interpersonal bonds or focusing your conversation around positive emotions.
Jewellery customers are buying an emotional experience, one that starts in a transaction with a jeweller and continues as they wear their piece, give it to their spouse or pass it down from generation to generation. It’s important for jewellers to recognise and embrace this long-term experience.
Successful salespeople will use this insight to connect with customers on a one-to-one basis, establishing and building relationships that can last as long as a diamond.
