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]
