4 steps to emotional selling

By Mary Ellen Fricke, Creative Director 

Think of the last time you bought a candy bar. Did you choose that candy bar because you weighed all the facts and made a well-informed decision? “This Snickers has the highest nut-to-calorie ratio for my dollar. Wow, what a ROI!”

I didn’t think so. Whether it’s a sugary treat or a legacy memorial, people base decisions on emotions and then justify them with logic. You wanted a Snickers because it reminded you of your childhood. Or because you felt smart buying it on sale. Or maybe it’s just because Snickers satisfies.

Once you understand that we are by nature, emotional beings, you can spend less time describing details that customers don’t care about and more time helping them find memorials that speak to their hearts.

Here are four steps you can take to help families make the decisions that are best for them.

1. Find out what families really want.
Maybe your customer is looking for peace of mind, fearing that tough decisions will fall on the family. Maybe they are looking for a sense of security, wanting to know the “right” decisions are made. Maybe they are looking for respect, desiring a memorial that reflects a loved one’s accomplishments. Listen to your customers. Find out what their heart wants, not their brain.

2. Ignore the feature. Focus on the benefit. 
Now that you know what your family wants, you need to give it to them. A woman nervous that she will be forgotten by time, doesn’t really care if her bronze memorial is carved or casted, but she does care that the precision of carved lettering will last for generations. Don’t sell the feature of your products. Highlight the emotional outcome of the feature.

3. Remember you are addressing emotions, not playing on them.
You are serving families during emotionally trying times. That’s why we in the death care profession need to give special attention and understand what families are really feeling and care about. You want your customers to feel good about their decisions and share that good feelings with their friends and neighbors.

4. Practice, practice, practice! 
This approach to serving families may feel awkward at first. It may feel time consuming, too. After all, it’s easy to give a family a catalog or quickly show them your “go to” choices. With every solution you find for a family, you will become more and more comfortable and confident with the process.

My advice to you? Sit down with your favorite candy bar in one hand and a product catalog in the other. Choose one feature and think about how it can fulfill an emotional need. By the time you’re done with your candy bar, you’ll have at least one new benefit for your customers. Now that’s a real treat!

This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.

Give your ads new life

The Trigard marketing team's job is two-fold: we raise brand awareness by communicating to you, members of our industry, and we create materials that you can use to communicate to your customers, the families you serve. It makes sense that we have specific tactics for each audience. We speak to memorialization professionals about providing value and increasing revenue; we speak to consumers about the importance of remembering their loved ones.

Even so, many of the materials we produce for memorialization professionals can be quickly adapted for consumers. Ads about Memorial Rocks, wall displays featuring custom memorials and literature can be ready for you to share with the families you serve with just a few tweaks. We can even personalize the materials, adding your name and contact information as the call-to-action.

The next time you see something from Trigard, consider if it might be a message you'd like to share with your customers. If so, give us a call at 800.798.4900 or email marketing@trigard.com. We'd be happy to put those materials to work for you.

This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.