Scientific brain research shows unquestionable truth how human emotions and the unconscious influence buying behaviors.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence and scientific brain
research showing that human emotions and the unconscious
plays a major role in consumer selection of products and
services. As our multi cultural society matures; it becomes
evident that those companies and individual who what to
advantage themselves in sales and marketing must understand
the perception and mind of other cultural groups. That will
require a better understanding of your conscious and
unconscious mind - how memory, experience, and associated
emotions exert a force on the thinking and buying behaviors
of consumers.

According to Gerald Zaltman, Professor of Marketing at
Harvard Business School: as much as 95 percent of
consumers' thinking occurs in their unconscious minds. Much
thinking surfaces through metaphors and consumers' memories
which are much more malleable than previously thought --
which is why "confidence" adds great persuasive power.
Artificial confidence does not work, but authentic
confidence will decisively engender a winning edge every
time when a salesperson truly believes in his/her products
and services.

Fostering a shift in sales and marketing will require a
deeper understanding of how pervasive the unconscious mind
of the consumer works. Breaking into new ground requires
breaking out of traditional thinking about features and
benefits selling. You need to enter into the mental
activity of unconscious thoughts, feelings, memories,
intentions, metaphors and just how they direct consumers'
attention, influence perception and manipulate their
decisions and actions.

6 key strategic solutions for sales and marketing.

1. Metaphor making in the mind of the consumer is a
powerful fundamental that helps them make sense of
information received. When eliciting information from a
potential client. I asked him what success felt like. His
metaphor was; "Success feels like the power of driving a
Porsche down the highway at top speed." Tying his metaphor
to several service benefits closed the sale securely.
Understanding and having collected a large range of
metaphors consumers' use to think about you, your services
and products, enable you to sculpt a more effecting
communication strategy and increase the potential of a
purchase.

2. Improve your mental outlook about you, your products and
services. "You Are The Message." Eliminate negative clues
by preparing yourself with the confidence of a winner. Use
friendly language and genuine enthusiasm; reflecting
energy, trust and openness will open up the consumer when
probing for their thinking and core metaphors. Assertive
and outgoing personalities, regardless of ethnic
background, will outpace those people whose characteristics
display shy and timid behaviors.

3. Design your office, retail store layout, waiting rooms,
ads and brochures that reflect the Metaphors of your
market. Example of how one Doctors office focused on
outpatients care as being more nurturing and responsive.
Patients view rooms with chairs lined up in rows as boring,
frustrating and long waits. The office was rearranged to
promote friendliness and privacy and was supplied with
several TV's and a computer. The results were a decline in
waiting time complaints and patients felt they were
receiving a better quality of care, referral rates
increased more that 18 percent and patient cancellations
decreased by 23 percent.

4. Build into your oral and written marketing/sales
communications stories using metaphors gathered from your
market.

5. Probing the mind of your customer/client requires you
uncovering the metaphors they use when thinking about
purchasing your products and services. Once you have
uncovered their metaphors you can identify some or most of
the important and hidden drivers of your customer/client
buying behaviors.

6. Develop an organizational climate and a workplace
attitude that strengthens sales and marketing creativity.
This requires breaking into more boxes and not applying the
metaphor that suggests you step out of the box. Breaking
into more boxes enables you to gather gleaning new
knowledge and will help pry you loose of conventional
thinking. How you think is more important and will produce
more productive and innovational ideas than what you think.