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The Most Dangerous Half-Truth in Sales
I keep hearing this incomplete advice everywhere: "All sales is about the transference of emotion." It's a Tony Robbins thing, and it's not wrong—but it's dangerously incomplete. I work with a lot of MSP and IT sellers who rely purely on their tech stack, response times, and spotting network problems, thinking logic alone will close deals. Spoiler: it won't. But here's where the "emotion-only" crowd gets it wrong too. People make buying decisions emotionally—they want the transformation, the feeling, the status—but then they justify it logically. Think about wanting a sports car: you want the feeling of driving it, but you justify it to your wife with "special deal, waitlist, investment value." If you only appeal to emotion without giving buyers the rational argument they need to justify the purchase to themselves (or their boss, or the committee), they'll want your stuff but never commit. This episode breaks down why technical sellers need to get past logic and understand the deeper transformation buyers want, and why emotion-focused sellers need to give the logical case that enables people to say yes. You need both.
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Welcome to Repeatable Revenue, hosted by strategic growth advisor , Ray J. Green.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
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Transcript
One of the most incomplete pieces of advice that I’ve heard recently is that all sales is about the transference of emotion. It's an old Tony Robbinism; I think it is, that's actually where I heard it. It's not that it's wrong. There is absolutely a deep emotional aspect to all sales, including B2B sales.
I work with a lot of MSP sellers and IT sellers who rely on their cybersecurity tech stack, rely on their response time figures, and rely on all the technical features. Logically, they are correct. They go in and often spot problems within somebody's network or something, and they assume that because they spotted that problem, it will result in getting a sale. Like, "Hey, we found all these holes in your network." And somebody says, "Okay... I'm not experiencing any problems though." There's no pain. So, a lot of technical sellers often rely on the logic of their argument to expect people to buy. That motivation in and of itself is rarely enough.
All sales at every level—Enterprise, B2C, you name it—there is an emotional aspect to making buying decisions. People are human. At least as of right now, we haven't hybridized ourselves yet. But people are human, and we make decisions consciously or unconsciously to buy something based on how it makes us feel. There is usually some transformation that we want, some change that we want to occur. That change may be a feeling inside, that change may be the perception of status, whatever it is. But we make these decisions often times emotionally, and that's what makes us want something. That part of the advice is accurate.
But what happens is people make the decision emotionally, and then they justify it logically. So if I make the decision emotionally to get something that I want, I don't want to be seen as an emotional, irrational person. I need to be able to explain that. You can see this with kids all the time; they say they want this thing and will give you a hundred reasons afterwards.
It's the same thing if I want a badass sports car. I want the feeling that I'm going to get from it. I'm going to want the perceived status that it gives me or the feeling of driving it—those are the things that compel me. And then what I'll do is I'll try to justify it to my wife with some type of logical argument: "Yeah babe, but it's a special deal, time of year, it's this specific model, it's a waitlist." Whatever it is. So I take the emotion and I justify it with logic.
If you only appeal to people's emotions and you don't give them a sound, logical argument, then they may want your stuff, but they never commit to moving forward with it. That's why I say the advice is incomplete.
So for the technical seller, part of that advice you need to hear is: Listen, it's about emotion. You want to understand what transformation they are trying to achieve. What do they really want from this purchase? What is motivating them at a deeper level? Get past the logic of spotting problems and get into what is really moving this buyer or this group of buyers at an individual level. In a B2B environment, you may look at that and go, "Maybe they want a promotion. Maybe they want to impress the boss." Something is driving that at an individual level. They are then going to justify it logically. So for the technical seller, we say: You have to appeal to the emotion, the person, and the true underlying transformation that they want from this transaction.
To the person that gets that and just tries to purely rely on that without giving the rational, logical case for a buyer to justify it with, you are also missing the boat. Because you're only going to get that person compelled to want your stuff, but you're not going to give them the rational argument that they need to make to themselves or to the other buyers that are in a decision to complete the transaction or move forward.
So, yes, sales is about the transference of emotion. And yes, sales is logical and rational. They make the decision to buy your stuff on emotion, and then they justify it with logic. You gotta give 'em both.
Hope it helps. Adios.
