Skip to content Skip to footer

Pain Avoidance Closing

I also will talk about one of the best ways to do this for our industry and that’s “Pain Avoidance”.

People are massively motivated to avoid pain and people will avoid much MUCH faster then they will seek pleasure. So.. how do we use this to persuade our clients and candidates………

Emotions

Simply put and clinically proven…..People buy for emotional reasons… but they justify it with logic!

Yes. People are persuaded by EMOTIONAL reasons and then they will try to back up their decision and prove it was logical.  Yes, they really bought that rolex for prestige and not because it’s so well made (even though it is well made)

Therefore, you need to always be selling/ persuading using emotions!  Sure, you need to continue to throw out the usual pros/selling points/logic.. They’ll need that for sure!!!!  HOWEVER, it won’t really persuade them.. It will just provide the very necessary “justification”.

The Media world learned this decades ago, which is why just about every commercial is emotion based and not fact based! Heck, how often do you even ask “Now what were they advertising again??”.  Why do you think there are so many celebrity “pitch people”?  Do you think you buy because a favorite celeb of yours did a commercial?? YOU BETCHA! No. you also justify your logical reasons, but trust me, Nike wouldn’t pay millions to these people if they weren’t CERTAIN that the positive emotion that the celebrity conveys would be passed on your decision to buy!!

So, remember, your message should be crafted the same way.  You know the drill.  You need to find the hot buttons for your candidates and clients ..

You need to FIND THAT PAIN!

Why do they want to leave their job? why do they need to hire a star? What is at risk? Etc etc. All easy questions, but you need to put these to work!

For every person, their hot buttons or WANTS can be stripped down to an emotional level.  For example, if someone WANTS a fast paced environment for their next job, this can be stripped down, perhaps,  to the fact that they are actually currently very bored at their current job. They want this new environment so that they can be excited!

The emotions here are thus BOREDOM and EXCITEMENT.

Notice that we stripped the emotion into a both a positive emotion and a negative/opposite emotion.

One tries to achieve/gain/get EXCITEMENT but one also tries to avoid/eradicate, etc BOREDOM!

You can and should do this with every hot button ALL OF THE TIME!  Even if you are one of the good ones and constantly use emotions, are you using positive emotions or negative?  Do you CONSCIOUSLY think about both the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE sides or do you always sell one side? odds are that you are more positively focused…. For example, you sell a job to a candidate about how exciting and fast paced and challenging this new job will be…..

Just as emotions are so key, so are NEGATIVE emotions! They should outweigh the positive emotions.. At a minimum, sprinkle these in there all of the time!

Negative emotions work better than positive because of the fact that people will work harder or be more persuaded to avoid pain then they will to seek pleasure!

Pain Avoidance!

The truth is that people are far more motivated to avoid pain or to avoid something bad from happening then they are to seek something pleasant.  —We covered several examples of this this in Hypnotic Selling and now you see why you must also do this with the EMOTIONS that you are using.—  It’s also why people are very motivated to avoid being left out of something good. It’s why you always see “Limited Supplies” or “only 100 plates will be made”.

How can you apply this to your business?

Don’t talk about the fun challenge the candidate will have. Turn into YOU WONT BE BORED ANYMORE.

Tell stories about how miserable you were in a job when you just weren’t excited anymore

Don’t focus on how much faster their commute will be.

Tell them —“You must be so excited to not have to commute for an hour anymore? That must stink sitting in that traffic”.

Scarcity-Let the candidate know you will only present a few people and they have until tomorrow to let you know, otherwise they are out since the job is highly in demand.

—Let the client know that you are presenting the candidate to them first, but that they are highly in demand and that their shelf life is limited  They must act quickly.

—Create scarcity in your pricing approach by offering limited time discounts or limited interview guides to the first X candidates who reply to a web promotion

During interview —During match call —Curing prep/brief —During debrief —During sales calls —Always!

2 Comments

  • Jeff
    Posted May 19, 2010 at 2:41 pm

    Since most people tend to operate in a state of putting out fires and prioritize things by “what will cause me the most trouble if I don’t do it”, this approach to selling to them makes perfect sense. Get their attention with what problem they can avoid, and let them do the rest of the “logical” selling for you. Great tip!

    • Michelle
      Posted August 6, 2010 at 10:41 am

      One of the simplest ways to build and maintain relationships is a very old fashioned concept – the handwritten greeting card….Think about it, when trying to market to a new client – how can you really distinguish yourself with an email or a voicemail? Clients are being bombarded with dozens of them everyday….But imagine that they receive a campaign of personalized, handwritten cards from you with your picture in it – in the mail…. Do you think you would stand out?

      And we all know that it is much easier to maintain relationships with your current clients than to get new ones….but what happens when your client has a hiring freeze and there’s no activity for months at a time…how are you maintaining that relationship so that you are guaranteed the first call when there is a need? At times like this, we spend most of our time chasing leads and working “closest to the dollar” – but that is a very short –term view with no guaranteed results!

      We need to make sure that we are continuing to build relationships throughout the year – regardless of the market…..that’s how we distinguish ourselves….and that’s how we get more referral than we can handle.

      But how do we do it? Sales trainers from Jeffrey Gittomer to Zig Ziegler to Neil Lebovits have all spoken about how the important the handwritten card is – and Joe Girard, the greatest salesman of all time (as listed in the Guinness Book of world records for 12 straight years) attributes his success to the fact that he sent each and every customer a greeting card every single month. He sent so many cards that he had to hire two full-time assistants to address, handwrite and stamp them all!

      …and that’s the problem isn’t it? Who has the time or the money or the organizational skills to send all those cards?

      What if I told you I found a system that does it all for you! What if I told you there is an AMAZING on-line card catalog and contact management systems that allows you to send a beautiful, professionally printed greeting card with your personalized message in your own handwriting, with your own signature – in less than 60 seconds – directly from your computer!

      …and what if this system allowed you to create your own custom cards, create campaigns to send out cards in intervals, remind you of important dates (never forget a birthday again!) and even send gifts and gift cards with your cards…..without ever leaving your desk???

      Well, I’ve found it – and it’s as easy as 1 – 2 – 3

      1. Choose your card from the over 13,000 in the card
      catalog in dozens of categories (or create your own)

      2. Write your message – (you can upload your own
      handwriting and up to 8 different signatures), and add a photo, a logo or both!

      2a.Add a gift (or not!) (if you think it’s fun to receive a card in the mail – imagine getting a box of delicious brownies or cookies to go with it!!)

      3. Click send

      That’s it!!

      The company then prints it, stuffs it and mails it (with
      a first class stamp!), all for less than a greeting
      card at the store! (Average cost of a card is $1.04
      INCLUDING postage!)

      I have found this system to be the perfect marriage
      of hi tech meets hi touch!!

      Check it out here http://www.sendoutcards.com/robey and click on
      “Send a Free Card” to see how it works!

      I’ve seen amazing results by following up with clients, candidates – and references! Send a client a card on their birthday, congratulate them on the birth of a child (or grandchild), send a Happy St. Patty’s Day card, congratulate a candidate on a their new job (whether you placed them or not!!!), thank a reference for taking the time, ask for referrals….the possibilities to connect and expand your network are endless…and it couldn’t be easier!!

      Let me know how you like it!!

      Michelle Robey

Comments are closed.