Paul Cherry featured in April 2007 Sales Power — The Buyer’s Emotional Side: New research reveals a buying bias based on emotion.

FREDERICKSBURG , VA | Apr 26, 2006 | As seen in Selling Power Magazine - April 2006
The Buyer’s Emotional Side: New research reveals a buying bias based on emotion. BY ROBERT MCGARVEY

There’s an old sales adage: People are moved by emotion but they buy based on logic. In fact this adage is so old it dates back to that ancient Greek sales superstar Aristotle. Well, as in all things, new information has come to light. In fact, according to reams of research by highly respected professors at some of the nation’s top universities – Harvard, Cal Tech, Baylor, Emory and more – buying is a lot more emotional than anyone thought, even big-ticket b-2-b buying.

In a new book, Questions That Sell (AMACOM, 2006) by Paul Cherry, who is a senior vice president at Performance Based Results, much selling misses the boat because it doesn’t have a clue as to how buyers really make purchasing decisions. Cherry’s argument, backed by the wave of paradigm-shattering research that has poured out of leading laboratories, is simple. Buyers go by feelings, not logic. But he goes further. According to Cherry, sales executives aren’t leveraging this insight and they may even be fleeing from it.

He adds, “A lot of salespeople can be like a gerbil on the wheel, where they get set into motion and they keep going and going but not stopping and saying, ‘Wait a minute. How do I get deeper?’” In other words, the rut you’re in may be your downfall.