Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
Issue link: http://elmezine.epubxp.com/i/134584
potential role in sales and marketing — in particular, the neural processes underlying an individual's buying choice. "Tis three-year project will be the frst large-scale study of how emerging neurological knowledge about human decisionmaking is transforming the techniques of those who seek to infuence the behavior of consumers," says project leader and Professor Steve Woolgar. "It has far-reaching implications for what we know about how humans make their choices, the role of the brain and the factors at play in everyday decisions we all take." A major advance in the feld of neuroscience that has particular relevance to selling has been the discovery of mirror neurons in the brain. Basically, motor neuron theory says that when you watch someone perform an action, you automatically simulate the action in your own brain. More recently, scientists have discovered the existence of strong, pervasive mirror networks for emotions. For example, when you experience a friend exhibiting distress while telling you a sad story, your brain simulates similar distress. Activating the mirror neuron system is one of the most efective ways to connect with customers. Show products being consumed. Celebrate the frst sip of hot cofee. Let the customer revel in the action being performed. In the same way as a yawn spreads around a conference room, think of the many ways you can use action and emotion to ignite the mirror neuron system in your customers' minds and bring them subconsciously straight into the experience of your product or service. WHAT THE BRAIN LOOKS FOR Familiarity is about security and feeling safe. We seek the familiar, pleasing and reassuring. We seek the connection that we have had before, because we anticipate the rewards that we know the connection will bring. Customers like to buy from those who are like them and who display the same values, styles of communication and behaviors. Tis is why efective behavioral adaptability is so important for salespeople. Paradoxically, the brain is also drawn to novelty. It values and seeks out what is new. Novelty is the single most efective factor in efectively capturing its precious attention. A novel message, product, pack- age or layout is the key to penetrating busy and selective sub-conscious minds. And of course, pleasure or reward images are irresistible to our brains. Te trick is to fnd out what those are and how to present them to each consumer group. Brain imaging technology is moving this goal from pipe dream to reality every day. Here are the fve main senses and what they mean to the buying brain: Vision - About one-quarter of the human brain is involved in visual processing, more than to any other sense. About 70 percent of the body's receptors are in the eyes, but vision does not happen in the eyes, but in the brain. Te easiest and most successful way to capture the "buying brain's" attention is through good visuals. Smell - Smells are mainlined directly into our centers for emotion and memory. Smell cues are hardwired into the brain's emotional center to stimulate vivid recollections. We make such immediate, deep and emotional connections with the smells we encounter, it makes perfect sense to make scents available to delight or engage the brains of our customers. Once a scent is embedded in a person's brain, even visual cues can cause it to be resurrected and even experienced. A television commercial showing a person savoring the aroma of freshly brewed cofee can trigger these same smell sensations in viewers through what is known as mirror neurons. Taste - Although diferent, smell and taste share a common goal and ofen operate in synchrony to distinguish thousands of diferent favors. Te interaction between taste and smell explains why loss of a sense of smell causes a serious reduction in the overall taste experience, which we call favor. We tend to smell something before we taste it. Smell hits our brain very quickly. Taste stimulation is one of the senses most easily set of by mirror neurons. Anytime that an appetizing product is displayed, it is important that salespeople show it being enjoyed by others. Tis is most important Elearning! June / July 2013 31