When Scott, the corporate buyer at a law firm, submits a purchase order for two dozen desk staplers and 25 boxes of white copier paper, he’s pretty detached from the romance of the products. His ultimate concern is that the products meet the employees’ needs and how the numbers jibe with his budget. Since it’s not his money, he’s even less attached to the emotions surrounding the expenditure. Every time he needs something, the product is just a purchase order away. To him, buying at work is mostly a numbers game.

In contrast, most consumers making purchases for their personal use may use data to justify spending money, but it’s their emotions that cause them to dig their hands into their pockets and snap out their credit cards: “Hey, I really didn’t need to buy a new computer right now, but they were offering a 25 percent discount on all new desktop systems. Not buying it now would have actually cost me more money in the long run. So yeah, while I spent money I really shouldn’t have, I made a smart financial decision nonetheless.”

Emotions being the big driver of sales, let’s take a look at which of the two—examples or statistics—has more power to persuade. First, let’s look at the power of examples.

PRODUCT: The Bowflex Revolution Home Gym

“I want you to imagine yourself 90 days from today, leaner, firmer, with a body that turns heads and starts women fantasizing. Imagine standing in front of your bathroom mirror, stripping off your clothes, and seeing exactly the physique you’ve always dreamed of, like the ripped fitness models on the covers of men’s health magazines. Tight washboard abs. Biceps and triceps that stretch your T-shirts and instantly say power and strength. Broad muscular cannonball shoulders. Well-developed traps and neck muscles. Thighs and calves of an Olympic gymnast. Imagine the confidence of looking and feeling like you can handle yourself in any situation. Fact is, a stronger, larger physical presence says alpha male and gets you more respect in just one glance than a half hour of bragging about your money and accomplishments. It’s pure animal sociology, and it affects the human species every day in every situation you find yourself in. The Bowflex Revolution Home Gym transforms every zone of your body (upper, lower, cardio) and supports every workout routine, strength level, and fitness goal. You’ll see results in as little as 20 minutes three times a week, and improve your body and your life in just six weeks, guaranteed!”

Compare this emotion-filled script with the following one, which focuses on cold, lifeless stats.

       The Bowflex Revolution Home Gym features a standard 220 lbs. (100 kg) of resistance which you can upgrade to 300 lbs. (136 kg) to strengthen your upper body. For lower- body workouts, you can upgrade to 600 lbs. (272 kg) of resistance.

       10 positions and 170 degree adjustments

       Preacher Curl Attachment

       Vertical Bench Press

       Complete a wide range of exercises and variations

       Leg Extension

       5-Way Hand-Grip/Ankle Cuffs

       Multiple Cable/Pulley Positions

       Cardio Workout

       Built-in rowing machine

       Folds to 55” × 38”

       Owner’s Manual/Fitness Guide

       Detailed instructions

The difference is profound, isn’t it?

The bottom line is that statistics don’t have the sales power of emotions. Emotions appeal to the part of us that wants the product to work. Logic tells us not to crack open our wallets so fast.

Did you ever think of it that way? When we hear or read a claim we consider appealing, one that makes us feel good, it not only gets our attention (Isen et al. 1982), we want to believe it. It’s our adult conditioning, however, that tells us, “Be cautious. Don’t get ripped off! It’s probably a scam.”

Contrast a toddler. When he sees a commercial for a cool new toy that “looks so awesome, Mommy and Daddy,” he just wants it. If he had the cash, it would be bought before the commercial ended. There’s no left-brain caution, analysis, or discrimination. Most of those toys are not very good. The most exciting things about them are the wild and colorful illustrations on the boxes: powerful turbocharged cars shooting into space at blinding speed, lightning bolts blasting out from the monsters’ eyes, kids shouting with nearly psychotic joy with arms raised and mouths gaping in amazement and wonder. Open the box and you find three lame plastic cars and four cartoon monsters on sheets of perforated cardboard. Yippee.

With most purchases of personal products, it’s the promise of benefits that contains the fuel that fires up the brain’s “I want that” mechanism. Therefore, the secret to crafting persuasive sales presentations or advertising is literally machine-gunning out as many benefits in as many ways as possible, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to bring another audience that also notices the benefits into the picture. This creates a meta-perspective that causes your prospect to imagine the end results in multiple ways instead of visualizing them through her own eyes alone.

This process is extremely powerful—one of the most potent in this book—because not only does it drill deeper into the all-important means-end benefit chain, it also strongly taps into the ego morphing/vanity appeal principle. By showing your prospects how others perceive the benefits that they’ll enjoy after making the purchase, you’re creating additional scenes of the ultimate payoff, but experienced through other people’s eyes. Even if your buyer is somewhat hesitant and skeptical, your other audience script causes her to momentarily suspend her preconceived feelings and imagine what other people see. Here’s an example.

“Listen, Joe. Not only will [product name] help you lose weight and tone up, it will help you transform your current body into a lean, mean fighting machine. And you won’t be the only one who notices the changes; [bringing in the audience] so will your wife, your friends, and your family. Those who haven’t seen you in a while will be shocked. Friends will ask your secret because many will want to copy your system. Your immediate family will look at you with pride. Your little boy will want to feel daddy’s big biceps and triceps. (It’s a great way to model healthy living for your son!) And your wife, well, I don’t have to tell you how much she’ll appreciate your new body. If she’s not working out now, after seeing what it’s doing for you, I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts. And I can tell you from personal experience that when you feel tight, hard abs under your belt instead of a roll of fat, you feel so much more powerful and self-confident. [confirmation of typical self-talk] That’s because instead of your brain bombarding you all day with ‘I’m fat, out of shape, need to work out, ugh, that roll of fat, do other people see it? I’m tired, weak, feel like a damned blob’ [yes-set development], your brain will instead be blasting you with uplifting positive messages: My body is lean, strong, powerful, flexible, ready, and able to serve me. I look great in my clothes. Other people admire how fit I am. Some they’re even a little jealous. I feel awesome. I’m energetic, positive, and move with energy and confidence. [benefit string] The change is amazing!”

Don’t just tell them how they’ll benefit. Tell them how others, too, will notice the value and benefits that they’ll enjoy. Don’t think this principle isn’t applicable to all types of products and services. It works even if you sell $10,000 bronze or mahogany caskets,

“Such a tasteful casket is an especially heartfelt way to honor the value that your loved one brought to so many others, and its dignified beauty is sure to be admired by all those who come and pay their final respects. Such fine detailing is the ultimate expression of a life well lived, and your family and friends will see it as a beautiful and fitting final tribute for a man who brought so much love and happiness to others’ lives. And you’ll be comforted to know that unlike our more budget-minded choices, a casket of such quality lasts dramatically longer and is gasketed to delay water penetration.”

Bottom line: go heavy on emotion-packed examples; pour on the benefits but provide just enough stats for buyers to intellectually justify spending the money.