Brand Publishing And The Sale Are Perfectly Natural Partners

I recently read a blog post from Christopher Dessi called The #1 Mistake All Salespeople Make.  He tells the story of how he got started in his sales career.  He begins his historical narrative with how he was able to upsell a large account at the very beginning of his career, without even being in a sales role at that point in his professional life.  Due to his success on that specific account he was moved into Sales, and either surprisingly or not surprisingly, found it hard to actually sell when he was trying.  All the cold calls and sales pitches weren’t getting him anywhere.  So what gives?  How could he sell when he wasn’t trying but struggle so mightily when selling became his job?  The answer he gives is scientific and VERY relatable to marketing and Brand Publishing.

You see, he describes our human brains as being divided into three sections.  First, the reptilian part of the brain is responsible for the “fight or flight” response.  Second is the limbic system which handles emotional aspects of our lives and processes those complex highs and lows.  Finally, there is the neocortex which covers the “big thinking” you do in the midst of life’s daily grind. 

Anytime you are pitching or overtly selling it is coming from the neocortex of your brain.  The prospects brain however is receiving your message in the reptilian part of their brain.  They are sizing you up and measuring you up on the most primitive of levels.   They need to decide if it’s a good idea to trust you or to simply run away from you.  In the marketing world, that can manifest itself in simply giving you no mind.  It’s a conflict of cerebral proportions.

Your chances of actually impacting a sale hinges on your ability to RELATE and their ability to TRUST you.  It’s primal and methodical by nature and it makes so much sense.  You’re basically communicating on two completely separate levels with thousands and thousands of years working against you.

In his article, Dessi goes on to say, “Storytelling, dreaming, and evoking emotion and powerful feelings of connection will always win over tactics, technology and numbers in sales.” THIS is the ESSENCE of Brand Publishing.  No more loud, noisy, threatening “Hey look at me!” sales pitches. Those days of predetermined failure are over. 

As marketers, we MUST be smarter than that and embrace what we have learned from nature and the current art of a business deal.  The “evoking emotion and powerful feelings of connection” is done through content.  Content that tells a story and speaks to those who should listen because it is about them, for them and because of them.  Trust is built over time.  Sales take place when you DON’T try more often than when you do try your hardest to be heard.  As Dessi puts it, “You cannot successfully pitch ideas formulated in your neocortex that will resonate with your prospects reptilian brain. Stop selling. Selling makes you feel gross.”

Stop being gross and start being likeable.  Success walks that path, shouldn’t you?