Ask someone why they chose their accountant, and you’ll hear sensible reasons: years of experience, a fair price, a recommendation from a friend. Ask what made them finally book that first meeting, and the answer is often very different. They were tired of lying awake every January worrying about their tax return, nervous every time a letter from HMRC landed on the mat, or simply fed up with always feeling behind.
That second answer is usually closer to why people buy. The decision starts with a feeling, such as relief, frustration, worry or ambition, and the sensible reasons arrive afterwards to justify it, to themselves and to anyone else who asks.
Your prospects are no different, which makes it worth knowing what that feeling is before you start explaining what you do.
Why people buy on feeling first
This isn’t just a sales theory. The neuroscientist Antonio Damasio worked with a patient, known as Elliot, who came out of brain surgery as intelligent as ever but with very little ability to feel emotion. He could weigh up every option perfectly, yet he struggled with the simplest choices and could spend an entire afternoon deciding how to file a document.
Without a feeling to tip the balance, every option looked equally reasonable. The same happens with a prospect who has all the facts about your service but no felt reason to act on them. They agree it makes sense, and they still don’t decide.
What happens when the conversation stays logical
As an expert, it’s natural to lead with what you know: your approach, the deliverables, the timeline and the return on investment. It’s all relevant, and the prospect nods along and agrees with every point.
Then nothing happens.
Nothing in the conversation touched the reason they reached out in the first place. Perhaps they’re tired of doing everything themselves, worried about losing another good client, or frustrated that the same problem keeps coming back.
When a prospect doesn’t respond, the instinct is to explain more: more detail about your process, more figures, more industry jargon and a longer proposal. The conversation gets longer and more polite while the decision drifts further away, and it often ends with the familiar “I need to think about it”.
How to find the feeling behind the decision
Finding the feeling doesn’t mean playing on emotions. You still give people the facts, in a way that relates to what they’re going through, so they can see what working with you would change.
The difference is knowing what matters to them before you start explaining. A few things help:
- Ask what made them reach out now. Something changed, and the answer to “why now?” usually carries the feeling with it.
- Listen for the words that aren’t about the business. “I’m tired of”, “I’m worried that” and “I just want” tell you far more than the size of their team.
- Ask what it would mean for them personally if this were solved. Then let them answer fully, without rushing to fill the silence.
- Use their words when you explain your approach. When you connect what you do to the relief they described, the logic suddenly has something to hold on to.
Where the logic still matters
The feeling starts the decision, but the logic is what lets them defend it. Most of your prospects will need to explain their choice to a business partner, their accountant or simply to themselves at two in the morning. That’s where the numbers, the timeline and the clear cost of leaving the problem as it is earn their place.
When those facts come after you understand what the prospect is feeling, they stop sounding like a pitch and start sounding like the reassurance the prospect was looking for.
In your last client conversation, before you started explaining your approach, did you find out what made them reach out now, instead of three or six months ago?
If you’d like help building client conversations that get to the real reason behind a decision, without feeling pushy, that’s a big part of what I do in BOOST. You can get in touch here.