EP. 251 Emotions Plus Logic Drive Decision Making- Truth #14

Connect the Business Case to What the Buyer Cares About

Understanding how emotions drive decision making starts with recognizing that agreement and commitment aren't the same thing. A customer might believe a solution could improve performance while still feeling more concerned about the disruption of implementing it. The business case matters, but so does what the change would mean for the person responsible for making it work.

“The bigger the shift, the bigger the commitment, the bigger the move, the more it has to be emotion and logic.”

Tab Norris

ASLAN's three C's of building value offer a useful starting point: connect, contrast, and convince. Connect the benefit to the customer's priorities. Contrast the recommendation with the competition or the status quo. Then help the customer believe the promised payoff is achievable. A seller who explains a feature or presents a return-on-investment calculation hasn't necessarily accomplished all three.

In the episode, Tom and Tab emphasize two simple words: “because you.” Beginning a recommendation that way requires the seller to connect it to something the customer has actually shared. For a leader whose managers struggle to coach, the relevant benefit isn't simply access to another training program. It's helping those managers recognize what a rep needs and know what to do in the next coaching conversation.

That connection starts with discovery, not a clever presentation. Coach sellers to identify what's on the customer's whiteboard before deciding which benefits to emphasize. If they can't explain why a particular outcome matters to this buyer, they aren't ready to assume the buyer will care about it.

Use Word Pictures to Make Unfamiliar Value Understandable

A word picture uses something familiar to help a customer understand something unfamiliar. It works best when the comparison connects to an experience the customer already cares about. The goal isn't to entertain them with an analogy. It's to make a consequence or benefit easier to recognize.

Tom illustrates this with his experience building a house. Early in the process, he understood the general reasons for hiring a designer, but the cost seemed too high. What he couldn't yet appreciate was the experience of making countless unfamiliar decisions, handling deliveries, and dealing with problems after those decisions had been made.

Looking back, Tom explains that a comparison to travel could have helped. He enjoys planning trips and researches the hotel, food, location, and experience before committing. A designer could have connected that familiar preparation to the much larger number of decisions involved in creating a home he would live in every day. This was the conversation Tom wishes had happened, not a sales technique the designer actually used.

For your team, the lesson is to look for an experience the buyer understands and connect it to the specific value they're struggling to evaluate. Keep the comparison accurate, explain where it applies, and check whether it resonates. A word picture should clarify the recommendation, not substitute for evidence or exaggerate what the solution can do.

Tell Success Stories the Customer Can See Themselves In

A relevant success story helps a buyer picture how change could unfold in their own organization. The result matters, but so do the starting point, the obstacles, and the work required to get there. Without that context, a case study can become just another impressive number that feels distant from the customer's reality.

“The key is to make sure the hero of the story is very similar to the person you're talking to.”

Tom Stanfill

Tab describes looking for similarities between the team in front of him and organizations he's worked with before. They don't always need to be in the same industry. What matters is whether their people faced comparable challenges, struggled with similar behaviors, or needed to make the same kind of change. Those similarities help a buyer see a possible path forward.

Tom applies this to developing frontline sales leaders. A leader may understand the argument for manager development without picturing what happens when managers are expected to coach a selling approach they haven't learned to use. A story that puts the buyer in that situation can make the gap more concrete than another explanation of why coaching matters.

Coach sellers to tell the whole relevant story: what the customer faced, what changed, where the work was difficult, and what the outcome was. Use verified results, acknowledge important differences, and invite the buyer to assess the comparison. The story should help them evaluate the recommendation, not imply that someone else's outcome guarantees their own.

 Let Customers Experience the Evidence

Sometimes the most useful next step is to let the customer see what the seller has been describing. A focused demonstration, an assessment, or a review of real customer interactions can make an abstract problem concrete. The experience gives the buyer something specific to examine and react to.

In the episode, Tom describes reviewing sales-call transcripts with leaders. Seeing a customer's words next to a rep's response makes the interaction much harder to dismiss as a general training issue. A leader can recognize the moment the seller missed the customer's concern or failed to connect the recommendation to what mattered.

That doesn't mean a few examples establish how an entire team performs. Show what the evidence supports, be clear about its limits, and ask the leader what they see. The purpose is to create an honest conversation about the gap, not use an uncomfortable example to force agreement.

Coach your sellers to design the experience around one question the buyer needs answered. A demonstration shouldn't be a tour of everything the product can do. It should help the customer see whether a specific capability could improve a situation they already care about, with room to discuss what implementation would require.

Address the Consequences and the Possibility

Helping a customer care about change means discussing both the consequences of staying where they are and the possibility of a better outcome. Focusing only on what's wrong can leave the buyer worried without helping them see a workable path forward. Focusing only on the upside can make the recommendation feel disconnected from the problem that needs solving.

Tom and Tab discuss the role of both concern and hope. For a significant investment, the conversation needs to go beyond creating urgency. The buyer also needs to picture why the work will be worthwhile and what a better future could realistically look like.

For a sales leader considering training, that starts with an honest assessment of the current gaps. If the team isn't missing the capability in question, more training may not be the answer. If a gap is present, the seller can help the leader examine its consequences and describe the behaviors, support, and effort needed to improve it.

This is where an Other-Centered® approach matters most. Create receptivity by making the customer's priorities more important than getting a yes. Don't manufacture fear, promise an effortless transformation, or treat every delay as an emotional problem. Budget, capacity, competing priorities, and a poor solution fit can all be legitimate reasons not to proceed.

Help Your Sellers Make Value Meaningful With ASLAN

Emotion + Logic = Action is a reminder to help customers both believe the recommendation and care about the outcome. It isn't a guarantee that every compelling story will produce a sale. Sellers still need to establish fit, provide credible evidence, and respect the customer's freedom to decide.

In your next call review, ask the rep two questions: What gave the customer a reason to believe us? What helped them see why the outcome mattered? If the answers point only to features and financial projections, practice adding one relevant word picture, success story, or demonstration that makes the value concrete.

ASLAN's Other-Centered® Selling program helps teams uncover what matters to customers and connect recommendations to their needs. Explore Other-Centered® Selling to help your sellers build value from the customer's perspective.