The most valuable tool in closing a sale? Trust. (No contest.) But trust doesn’t come cheap. Even with years of dedicated consistency, trust is tough to earn, and easy to lose.
In my book, I describe 7 different universal forms of persuasion. Trust is one, of course, but not the only one. What’s a faster way to attract customers?
Meet lust: an instant form of attraction.
Once you successfully add lust to a pitch, customers pay a higher price point (my research shows that in some cases, twice as much). They’re also more willing to go out of their way to obtain your product, more enthusiastic in talking with colleagues about it, and best of all, more likely to reject your competitors.
Trust retains customer relationships over the long-term. Lust, on the other hand, helps you captivate them in the first place. Care to know how to add this zing of attraction to your sales?
Three ways to turn “sorta-kinda-maybe” into “absolutely-positively-yes”
1. Make the Ordinary More Emotional
Over time, a straightforward pitch can become stale. A competitive claim can feel cold. Even the most trusted process can begin to seem, wellyawwwwn! a little boring. But when you bring a jolt of creativity to a presentation, or inject a playful wink into your marketing, you’re creating an instant emotional connection. You’re lowering barriers of resistance, increasing your influence, and allowing your prospect to absorb your message.
2. Add warmth
Do you know how powerfully a smile can shift a conversation? Even subtle cues can turn common meetings into persuasive experiences. Real estate professionals often use sensory cues such as baking bread or brewing coffee when showing a home to buyers, because these nostalgic scents cue unconscious memories for many buyers. A brilliant combination of both trust and lust.
Use trust to decide what you say. Use lust to improve how you say it.
3. Create “Lustomers”
What happens when you turn a cold prospect into an “I gotta have it” sale? You’ve created a “lustomer” – a customer who lusts for your product or service. The more passionately someone feels about you and your product, the more successfully you’ve transformed a customer into a lustomer.
You’ve been a lustomer before, probably without even realizing it. Think of those times when you’ve been excited about making some particular purchase a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, tickets to a basketball game, or even a sportscar. (For me, it’s an Apple iPad. I’m practically drooling to buy it.) In these situations, we’re no longer just regular customers, and the sale is no longer just a regular transaction. Thanks to lust.
What about you? Are you currently using trust in your sales? Or lust? Or one of the other personality triggers? I developed an online test to measure your fascination, the F Score personality test, to reveal what naturally makes you most persuasive.
Trust still reigns supreme. Always will. But while trust drives long-term relationships, lust drives them straight to your door.
[This article by Sally Hogshead, published by Jeffrey Gitomer in his weekly Sales Caffeine on April 20, 2010]
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Isn’t this the truth?
I used to have an upscale specialty boutique and struggled to sell great stuff by being all earnest and serious instead letting my more smarty-pants, fun side out. That’s when all the sales started to kick in!
Now with Social Media I’m working on finding that same balance in this new medium. People want to know that you actually do know what you’re talking about without being boring.
Thanks for the great article, Sally. I’m ordering your book!
LOVED this article… or was it lust?
Lots of helpful wisdom in this post; thanks!
Really like this phrase, “inject a playful wink”.
In the mid-90s I was with Saturn and did some sales training. Anyone who could “jolly up” (one of my mom’s phrases from who knows where) a customer typically opened the door to “trust” and ultimately a sale.
Glad to have discovered you, your work and your writing via Amazon search.
Keep creating…it freaks people out,
Mike
@Lori and @Don- So glad you enjoyed it.
The name “Lustomers” came from Andy Wibbels, who is the “Social Media Smartypants” for Jeffrey Gitomer.
Next up… Trustomers!
@Mike, thank you! Yeah, I’m a big believer in “the wink.” Relationships are all about building a commonality, which can be hard to authentically pull off in marketing. Humor is a powerful way to lower the barriers of skepticism and uncertainty (both in real life and in branding). Any time you have an instant inside joke, it creates connection.
Saturn is a brilliant example of the Trust trigger — even from the very beginning of the brand’s inception in the 90s. The no-haggle policies, the customer experience, it all added layers of familiarity to what would otherwise be an untrusted process.
Thanks for your comment!