Emotional Selling: Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” I am confident that at some point in your sales or sales management career, you have heard this expression about emotional selling. As I read Seth Godin's post “In the Mood,” it reminded me of this fundamental sales principle. The short version: Music doesn't teach us how to fall in love; it just creates the emotion of falling in love, being in love, or looking for love. In other words, music, books, theater and movies sell emotion, or the “sizzle.”

So how does this relate to selling? How does it relate to why a salesperson's prospects fail to become qualified buyers, and why their qualified buyers fail to become clients? They likely showed them exactly what the prospect needed to see, or told them exactly what they needed to hear to solve a problem that they have. Emotional selling is more than explaining and telling; it is about creating a feeling. It is about uncovering how much something means to a buyer, and what the impact will be if they do or do not fix the problem. And yes, that means emotionally, financially, and intellectually. If a salesperson does not appeal to the potential buyer on each of these three levels, their likelihood of selling the deal decreases. More importantly, without the skill of emotional selling, a salesperson will not become a true and trusted business advisor.

A great book that will help you and your salespeople refine skills in storytelling and emotional selling is Story Selling for Financial Advisors. This book will help you understand how to more effectively motivate prospects to take action.

Here is my take on the four most important things to do to get people to take action, by appealing to their emotion. As a sales leader, this is a great topic and practice session for an upcoming sales meeting with your team.

The 4 Keys to Emotional Selling

1. Accurately identify the real problem or benefit. The initial problem that someone describes to you, or the “need” that is being expressed, isn't typically real. A salesperson must ask great questions to peel back the layers to uncover the real motivation.

2. Once you identify what is real, you must ask, “What happens if you don't fix the problem or realize this benefit?” You must get your prospect to describe an outcome in detail. Find out how it will affect their job, career, ability to drive growth, capture market share, etc. What is the impact on a professional and personal level?

3. Then, top producers ask if “not realizing the benefit” is a compelling enough reason to invest time, money, or resources to take action. Take yourself out of the picture. In other words, your salespeople should not try to sell themselves, your company, or your products at this time. The most important decision that the prospect has to make is: will they take action to fix it?

4. Once that important decision is made, the questions and positioning of why you and your company begin. Emotional selling, when done well, uncovers the why. Why someone must fix the problem or take advantage of an opportunity, on a visceral level. Once that is determined, where and how becomes important.

Selling the sizzle, or emotional selling, is all about asking the right questions so that the prospect falls in love with the sizzle of buying.

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