Emotional Selling

What is an emotion-based sales strategy? Randy Crane is a nationally-recognized Sales and Marketing Specialist, and the Owner of The Fearless Marketer. In this episode, he talks about emotion-based marketing and the science behind it, why asking important questions helps us in the selling process, and what inspired him to start a career in sales.

Talking Points:

(1:21) What is emotion-based marketing?

(10:01) How to inspire someone to buy

(20:12) Randy’s career path in sales

(27:20) Solve your customer’s problem 

🔗Connect with Randy:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FearlessMarketer 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rcrane2000 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/telemarket/ 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r.crane2004/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RandyCrane2000

🔗Connect with Tom Finn:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/therealtomfinn
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/therealtomfinn/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealtomfinn
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealtomfinn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealtomfinn
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/therealtomfinn
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealtomfinn

Tom Finn:

Welcome, welcome to the Talent Empowerment Podcast, and thanks for tuning in. We're here to help you discover your purpose, step up your game at work, and live your happiest life possible. We're gonna unpack the tools and tactics of successful humans to guide you towards your own purpose and empower your career. I am your host, Tom Finn, and on the show today, we have Randy Crane. Randy, welcome to the show.

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Randy Crane:

Tom, thank you so much for having me on this show. It's an honor to be here with you.

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Tom Finn:

Oh man, it's an honor to have you on the show. For those of you that don't know, Randy's dialing in from North of Toronto and I have not yet met a person from Canada that I didn't admire and respect. So this is gonna be a good show today. And if you don't know Randy, let me take a moment just to introduce him to you. He is known as the fearless marketer and is nationally recognized sales and marketing specialist. He held leadership positions in sales and marketing for over 40 years with global brands such as Molson. and Conoco Minolta, among others, as well as many thriving startups. Randy shares his passion for leadership and marketing strategies that deliver customer value and business impact. Okay, fearless marketer, let's jump right into it.

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What is emotion-based marketing and why should we care?

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Randy Crane:

Okay, emotion-based marketing. It's interesting because we go through our lives and I remember, Tom, I'm sure you remember this too. You know when you were young, your dad would say to you, Tom, you gotta make logical decisions. Do you remember that? You know, you gotta make logical decisions. You know, do you remember that? You know, you gotta make logical decisions.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, absolutely. Gotta make, work hard, make logical decisions, do good to others, they’re all those things.

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Randy Crane:

And all those good things. And my father said the same thing to me, and I'm sure most people in your audience, they can identify with that as well. The problem is, human beings are not capable of making logical decisions. We make emotional decisions, and then logic comes after. And let me just prove that out for a second. You know, I remember when I was about 18 years old, I went to the store, I had saved up my money to buy this new set of speakers for my super duper stereo system. And I went to the store, and I was so excited to get these speakers. So I went there and I paid the money, and I brought them home. Hooked them all up, everything was going great. Then I looked at the receipt. and I saw how much money I'd spent on these. And then the logic started kicking in. Geez, you know what, I gotta pay the rent. Oh my God, you know what, what have I done here? Okay. Before I knew it, I had those speakers back in the box and I was on my way back to the Best Buy to get my money back. Humans don't make logical decisions. First, they make emotional decisions. first. That's the most important thing to remember. And you know, and when we were talking before, we were talking about, you know, sales and how sales and marketing kind of meshed together in this. When you turn around and, and you're a sales rep and you go to meet a client. And the way I was always taught back in the eighties to sell was you sell the features of the company. We'd been in business for 20 years. You know, we have the best service, we have the best company, we have the best people, the best prices, the best guarantee, the best delivery, blah, blah. There's nothing emotionally connected to any of those things. You know, they might be nice to know, but they're not going to inspire someone to buy in the store.

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Being able to tap into the emotions that people feel before they buy and the feelings of relief they feel after they buy. You see, you know this with companies like Nike. Nike is a master class of emotional marketing. I mean, they spend so much on their marketing message that they're not going to be able to do it. It's no wonder that they're an icon when it comes to emotional marketing. They, they get involved in social, uh, social disruptions. They support, uh, certain organizations. And even though they get backlash from other consumers, they still stay with it. And you see people buy Nike for the emotion of buying. Okay, it's an emotional buy. There's the same reason that back in the 80s, we used to have, you may not remember this, but in the 80s, we had magazines at the checkout counter. You know, the TV Guide would be there, the National, the National Enquirer, do you remember those?

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, yeah, of course.

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Randy Crane:

You'd never find them on the magazine rack. Where would you find them? You'd find them at the checkout counter. Why? because it's an emotional buy. Okay, it's what they call impulsive buying. Impulses that are made through your emotions. I look at the cover and I think, oh my God, I just learned about Queen Elizabeth or whatever, whatever it is on the front cover, it's oh, I wanna read that. So that goes on your list, right? So people buy because of the emotions that they drive. Now, The biggest question comes is, is that how do I know what emotions drive a sale? And that's a great question. You may not know the emotions that drive a sail, but every human being in the world have two things in common. The first thing is they want to be happy. OK? Now, there's a caveat to that, because some people are happy in their own misery. OK?

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Tom Finn:

Not our listeners, but yeah.

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Randy Crane:

Now, I'd like to listen to my doctor.

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Tom Finn:

There is a group out there that are probably a little short-sighted and feeling like misery is the best company, which unfortunately is not the right path forward, but totally get it. There's a group out there that falls into that category.

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Randy Crane:

And the second category is interesting. Every human being in the world is emotionally connected to their own problems. Everyone. Every single person. OK? You got a problem, you're emotionally connected to it. OK? Now, whatever your product or service solves, you answer that question. You've got that problem. If it answers that problem, now we know. Okay. You have a product that, and I guess we can use a piece of software. I may be looking for a database and you know what? I need a database software because I'm, I need database. So a salesman comes to me and he says to me, well, yeah, we do database and, but it can also do this and this and this and this and this. I don't care about any of that.

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Can it do data basing really, really, really well? And if it doesn't, then it doesn't solve my problem. We're in the business of solving problems when you're selling. When you're in marketing, you're in the business of solving problems for your customers. Your customers are emotionally connected to their problems. OK? Now you show me a piece of software that will do exactly what I need it to do. I don't care about all the other things. Those are all perks. but it can do what you say it can do, I'm buying it. Okay, because it solves that problem. Now, the emotions that I feel before I buy. are what you want to trigger when you're talking to the customer. How would you feel if you had this? How would that make you feel, okay, if you were able to solve this problem? It's those feelings. And what I want to do is I want to trigger those in your brain. I want to trigger those in your brain. I want to say, oh, you know what? Well, it would make me feel great. Well, what kind of great like, I mean, would you be over the top? Yeah, I'd be way over the top. Well, now, you know what the feeling is going to be after he buys. So what is it going to take to connect that person?

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And that's what marketing is all about. It's connecting the person to the emotion, the emotion of buying.

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Tom Finn:

Okay, so how do you do that? How do you break out these questions of how would you feel in a way that's authentic and doesn't feel salesy? Because nobody wants to feel salesy. Even salespeople don't like to feel salesy, right? It makes you uncomfortable. You feel icky, right? We've all been in those sales conversations where we feel icky. How do we do this in a natural way?

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Randy Crane:

You know, it's interesting too. You know, I was at a conference back in the 90s one time, and I got to see Zig Ziglar. Maybe it was the 80s. No, I think it was the 90s. Anyway, Zig said that everybody in the world wants to buy, but nobody wants to be sold. OK. And no, you know, selling somebody is a dirty experience. It really is, it's a dirty experience, you know. And this comes back to what I said earlier, you know. Well, this is our company and this is our people and this is our product and this is our service and blah, blah, blah. Nobody cares about any of that stuff. They're nice to know, but it's not gonna inspire somebody to buy from you. So what is going to inspire someone to buy? Well, it's gonna be a feeling. So what does that feel? Well, I don't know. So the only way for me to find out is to start asking you questions. Okay? Tom, how would you feel if this happened? Tom, if we could show you a product that could do this, how would that make you feel? Tom, if this product had the ability of doing that, how would that change your life? And you see, once you start doing that, you start making notes. You can start realizing what the common denominators here are. And you know what? If you, if you're, if you have a good enough relationship built with your customer, it's going to make a huge difference to how he answers those questions. So usually when I could sit down with a prospect, I'll turn around and say, Hey, listen, you know what, Tom? You know, you asked me about, you know, where I live and I asked you about where you live. And I said, I told you how about when I lived in California and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We broke the ice a little bit, made things easy. Now we want to get down to business. I want to ask you some specific questions. And when I ask those questions, and if I can't figure it out, I'll just ask you more questions. Okay. And just keep asking questions until you get that. Um, That feeling and it's kind of weird, you know, Tom, do you play golf?

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Tom Finn:

I do.

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Randy Crane:

Okay. You know that, you know, when you get that, he hit that ball in the sweet spot and, and that twang just goes right through your body. Well, it's the same thing on a sales call. You know, you, as soon as you get that feeling that you're on the same uh, vibration as that customer. It just automatically start, you start to feel right. Now you can show him the product that you've got and how his life is gonna change as a result of it. It's the feelings that cause us to make decisions. And you know, it was interesting because there's a great book by Simon Sinek and it's called Start With Why. If your audience hasn't read it, I would highly, highly, highly recommend it.

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Tom Finn:

Pretty famous book, Randy. Yeah, start with wise, pretty widespread out there.

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Randy Crane:

Have you read the book?

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Tom Finn:

Yeah.

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Randy Crane:

Yeah. And you know what? He goes into detail about, you know, how the brain, you know, the limbic brain is your is your emotional brain. But you know what we talk to, you know, the frontal cortex and how it it doesn't understand, it's like talking to two different people. This is why your emotions are. are so important because when you start building emotional based selling, emotional based marketing, you're going to find that things start to change. There's nothing wrong with being empathetic, compassionate, and sympathetic in every day of your life. And I happened to grow up in a household where, you know, men were men, okay, and women were emotional creatures. And in actual fact, you know what, that's not true. Men are emotional creatures as well, okay? And it's the emotions that drive our decisions. Nothing more.

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Tom Finn:

So emotional-based marketing can be summed up by saying, how would you feel knowing that everybody wants to buy? And how would that change your life if your problem was solved? And what I think I heard you say is you start with some questioning to really understand what the problem is. You start to understand what their feelings of that problem are. And then you can go into: “Okay, now that I understand your problem and your feelings, here are some things that we can help to solve your problem and get your feelings on the right track, building back to happiness and solving that problem.”

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Randy Crane:

You know what, and it's funny because people find it uncomfortable. And I've had clients that find it uncomfortable as well, you know. I'll sit there and I'll say, well, geez, you know, you got this problem. Yeah. Well, how does that make you feel? Well, you know, it makes me feel lousy. Really? How lousy? Like lousy is a feeling, but it's not really an emotion. And they'll say, well, you know, I, it's, it's horrible. My life is terrible because of this. Okay. And you see, once you start ironing that down, everything you do on that side, on that side of the sales call, when you've got the solution and you know what that feeling is like, it comes back to in the end, when it comes time to, and I hate the word close, but I'll use it for lack of a better term, you turn around and you say, Okay, you ready to buy? Well, I need to think about it. Well, what do you need to think about? Did you not tell me that it made you feel this way? Yeah. Did you not tell me it made you feel that way? Yeah. Did you not tell me that your life would be changed if we did this? Yeah. Well then what are you waiting for? You know, you want to suffer another day. Okay. And I'm not saying that you say pervading what I'm saying. And what I am saying to you is that that's the mentality you want to work with. Okay. Just going in and showing a product because some, you have a job that says, go out and sell this product, isn't going to handle it. Now it might've 20 or 30 years ago, maybe. Uh, I. You know what? I didn't find it worked that great back then either. But the whole idea of, you know, back in the 80s, they used to say FAB, you know, features, advantages, benefits. Okay. And ABC, you know, always be closing. Okay. Horrible, horrible ideas. Okay. And just terrible. And you need to be able to connect with your customer. Okay. Your service to him is to find a solution to his problem. You know, I was watching a thing with Russell Brunson and I can't remember who said it, but it was on a podcast with him and there was a whole misconception about, you know, entrepreneurs, you know, everybody uses that word entrepreneur. It's like a, um, a key word these days, buzzword. Okay. And they turned around and Russell Brunson turned around and he said, you know, everybody's got this wrong idea. An entrepreneur is not a guy who's in business. Okay? An entrepreneur is a person who, let me see if I get this straight. He identifies a customer's problem or identifies a person's problem and makes it the wrong. So a great salesperson is an entrepreneur. A great marketer is an entrepreneur. You find a person who's got a problem and you answer that problem, that is what an entrepreneur is. Okay. To me, solving problems is what we do. Whether you're a marketer, whether you're a salesperson, whether you're a business owner, you know, the whole idea of... Well, I got into business to make a profit. Okay, and you know, I've talked with a lot of business people over the years, like tons. And I can tell you, you know, and being in business myself for over 30 years, I can tell you the reason I got into business is not the reason I stay in business. Okay. I probably got into the business because I figured I could make more money. Okay. Once I realized that wasn't going to work out too well, I changed, I changed his pitches and, uh, today I, I'm in for, I'm in it for the customers. Okay. I love working with people and, um, you gotta love what you do.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, I agree, Randy. You gotta absolutely love what you do. You've gotta do things that drive your own purpose. So why did you originally get into sales? Where did that story start? And why was this a career path for you?

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Randy Crane:

You know what? I've asked myself that a dozen times and you know, I've come up with it. I, you know, I, oddly enough, I change the story all the time, but it still comes down to the same thing. You know, my father was a salesman. Okay. And he was a tool salesman. So I used to go out with him during summers and on weekends and he would go around to car mechanics and, you know, bike gangs and places like that to sell his tools. And it was kind of interesting because his customers just loved him. Like he would go there and the guy had say, well, you know what, Tom, he said, I don't have a, I can't afford this ratchet. So my dad had say, okay, no problem here. I'll give it to you now pay me in two weeks when you get paid. And he would do stuff like that. My father died in 1979. And when he died, all his customers came. to the funeral.

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Tom Finn:

Really?

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Randy Crane:

All his customers came to the funeral. And it was crazy how many people came. But my father was a very beloved person. So I learned that... My dad was always due for others. Okay, you know what, don't worry. He used to get his hands slapped at work all the time because they'd say to him, you know what, what are you giving that guy credit for? Okay. So my dad was always a very compassionate, empathetic person. So I kind of learned that from him. When I got out into the workforce, I... I went to, after college, I got to work with a company that was a subdivision of Goldman Sachs. So I figured I was going to be a stockbroker and I figured that's a great place to start. And I did well at it, but I remember the first few months. And you know, it's funny, I tell this story because it's really kind of weird. When they hired us, they hired people at like, I don't know, I think it was like five bucks an hour, maybe less. And it was like minimum wage at the time. and they would put you in this room and there'd be a guy up at the front of the room and he would be sitting there on the phone like on his on his hand phone and he'd say oh hello Mr. Jones uh yeah my name is Wayne from Goldman Sachs and this is what we do and he would just talk to nobody because obviously nobody on the phone but and he would answer objections and do this type of thing and then the bell would ring at 10 o'clock and then everybody have to go to the desk When you get to your desk, there is a page out of the white pages sitting on your desk, a magic marker so you can write off the names, and there's a rotary dial phone. Now you're probably too young to remember a rotary dial phone, but these things here were made of steel, and you dial the number like this.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, you put your finger in the hole and dial it all the way around the circle. And, and for those of, uh, those of you listening that were not around for the white pages, that was a book, a paperback book of names first and last, and a direct phone number to a landline that you could call. So when Randy says white pages, magic marker. rotary phone. I think we got all three of those now lined up. All right, Randy, back to you.

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Randy Crane:

So anyways, there was this guy who walked around the floor and he would say, get on the phone, get on the phone. You're not making commission sitting on the phone when you're not on the phone. And of course it would just be upsetting because we were all new people at the time. So after about a week or so at this site, I finally get this little old lady on the phone and I still remember her voice. Just a wonderful lady. And she's. I gave her my pitch and she said, oh dear, no, she says, I just couldn't afford to make an investment right now. I said, no problem, dear, you know what? You just go and have a great day. I get off the phone and this guy comes over and he goes, why didn't you close her? You should have hammered her. And I'm thinking, she couldn't afford it. You should have closed her anyway. Some commission is better than no commission. You know, and I kept thinking. And this kind of went on for like three months of this. And I'm really hating this guy. Like, I mean, really. Nothing will drain you faster than working with people you can't stand. It just drains the life right out of you. So. Along, about four months comes along and I'm on the phone with this guy and we're talking. He's telling me about his family, he's telling me about his wife and his kids and the guy keeps coming, the guy who's on the floor, he keeps coming over, he's going like this with his watch. I'm spending too much time with this guy. And we kept talking, he's telling me about his business. And I closed the guy for a $150,000 investment.

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So I got off the phone and the guy, the floor manager comes over, he says, hey, good work. How did you close them? Did you use this close or that close? Did you hammer them hard? I said, no, man. I listened to him. I listened to him talk. We talked about his business. We talked about his family, his friends. OK? And I learned then that it was a sympathetic ear that makes the difference. And That guy, I don't know whatever happened to him, but I realized at that point, you know what, I'd been trying it your way for like months and got nothing. I was gonna do it my way. And once I started going down that path of... I was gonna do it my way. And once I started going down that path of... I was gonna do it my way. And once I started going down that path of... I was gonna do it my way. And once I started going down that path of... trying to tap into people's emotions. How are you feeling? You know? And you know what, when you ask that question, some people will say, well, what do you mean by that? Maybe you have to just elaborate. Listen, I'm just really kind of interested. How are you feeling? You know, are you feeling good today? Well, yeah. You know? Do you have a problem I can solve? And you know what? When you ask that question, you'll be surprised with the answers you get. Don't be afraid to ask questions. And that's really my point is that you're not going to, you know, after spending a few minutes with you, Tom, I know a little bit more about you because we were asking questions back and forth. That's how we learn. This is how we learn. And, you know, don't be afraid to fail. Failing is a good thing.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, there is no such thing as failure. There's just learning. If you look at it the right way, you're 100% right, Randy. And I love the way you're talking about sales. It really is trying to understand your customer with an empathetic ear and solve their problem. That's it.

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Randy Crane:

Look, every business person in the world has the same problem, Tom. They all got problems. Now the question comes is can you solve that problem? Or can you solve a problem? And you know, like I said, I, you know, and I've said this to people, you know, I don't know whether I can solve your problem, but tell me what your problems are and then let me see what I can do about it. But if I can help you solve one problem, wouldn't it be worth five minutes of your time? Well, yeah, it would be. Well, great. Let's talk. And more times than not, you'll be in line to make a sale, but what's the worst that can happen? You made a friend. Okay. And you know what? I built a career out of making friends. I, I, I like people and, um, You can't be in sales if you don't like people. It just doesn't work.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, the other alternative way to do it is you show up to a discussion, whether it's virtual on the phone, video, what have you in person, doesn't matter, but you show up and you just start talking about yourself and your product and how the pants are going to fit and how the elastic waistband is perfect. And the drawstring is made of a particular material and, and it comes in 17 different shades of colors and it comes in 42 different sizes and And if you do that, you can talk for as long as they can stand there and listen to you. But the problem is you haven't figured out what their issue is. Do they even need pants? Do they need them in 17 different colors? And if you ask questions first, as Randy said, you're likely to find that maybe they need a shirt or a pair of gloves or running shoes. And so I love the way that you've explained this in such a simple, straightforward. effective way and you call it emotion-based marketing.

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Randy Crane:

I do, I do. And you know, it's funny. You know, and we see this all the time, you know. You ever walk into a store and sales rep comes up to you and he says to you, can I help you? What do you say?

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Tom Finn:

I'm looking around.

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Randy Crane:

That's right. No thanks. I'm just looking. What does the sales guy do? Oh, okay. He walks away.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, yeah, if you need anything, I'll be over there. Right.

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Randy Crane:

Yeah, trust me, I'm not going to need anything, you know, I mean, because the sales rep hasn't done his part. Where if he had turned around, and you know, I did a, back in early 2000, I got invited to go to a store, I don't want to say the store, but it was a small chain of stores. And they wanted me to train their salespeople. And they were selling women's clothing. Now understand something, I'm not a retail guy, okay? I know almost zero about women's clothing. So women would come in, and I joined their sales team for about five days. And everybody would do the same thing, you know, can I help you? No, I'm just looking, okay, thank you very much, call me if you need me, blah, blah, blah. So I would go over and I would say, hi, how you doing? And she'd say, fine. Are you looking for something specific? No, I'm just looking. You know what? Would you be interested in having a look at something that I think would look amazing on you? And then she would say – the answer’s gotta be yes, right? You don’t – you know, a lawyer once told me, he said, never ask a question if you don't know what the answer's gonna be. So that being said, I would say, you know, I have something here that I think you'd look great in. You know, have you got a second to have a quick look? If it's not for you, no problem. And so I'd take her over to the rock and I'd show her the clothes. And sometimes they'd say, oh, you know, I wanna try that on. And some people would say, no, no, no, that's not really for me. I'd say, okay, what is for you? Well, I mean, I obviously came in here for a reason. What is it? You know, well, I'm interested in buying a new top. I need a new bra. I mean, whatever, you know, whatever it was. And, but you see, I've opened up the dialogue. And of course, you know, the sales reps would turn around and say, well, I can't say that. How can I say that? Well, what are you being paid to do? You want to connect with these people on an emotional level. So it doesn't matter whether you're working for Walmart or you're working for a grocery store, you're working for a, uh, uh, you're working for Microsoft and sales. It doesn't matter. The rules still stay the same. You have to emotionally connect with the people that you are talking to. If you can't emotionally connect with them, maybe you should be flipping burgers at McDonald's.

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Tom Finn:

Well, I think we can leave it there, Randy. You've, uh, hit the nail on the head and, and really simplified this sales process down to some very easy steps for people to follow no matter what industry, um, that you're in. So I appreciate you being on the show today. I think we covered it in depth in a very straightforward way, uh, and appreciate you sharing this information on emotion-based marketing and sales. If somebody wanted to get in touch with you, get in contact, how would they go about doing that?

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Randy Crane:

Um, you know what? The best way to reach me would be through email at randy at fearless marketer.com. And just in case anybody's aware, you know what? I answer all my emails personally.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, love it.

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Randy Crane:

So if you have problems or questions or concerns about your, your, your business or your job, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. If you just want to call me and say, hi, that's fine. Um, I do answer all my emails.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, wonderful. So we'll get that in the show notes. Uh, you can also find Randy on a ton of different social channels, including LinkedIn, we'll put that in the show notes, uh, so that you can get in touch with him. Randy, thank you again for being on the show.

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Randy Crane:

Tom, it's been a pleasure to be with you and listen man, I would love to come back for another episode.

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Tom Finn:

Oh, I love it. There's far more that we can unpack when it comes to sales. So thank you for that.

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Randy Crane:

I think so.

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Randy Crane:

You bet.

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Tom Finn:

And thank you for being a part of the talent empowerment revolution. You're already on your way to career success and we hope you're feeling inspired after our conversation today. Get ready to dive back into all things career on the next episode. We'll see you then.