By Don Price We live in a world that for many has become technologyadvantaged in business and life. Imagine, for a moment, just how communication, science, art, medicine, automation, supply chain and products have all been reinvented. Even consumers’ behaviors have been unearthed and changedbeyond recognition. Consumers have become more assertive, demanding, highly skeptical, and more cynical, lesstrusting and with less loyalty to brands and companies. With all the reinventing and shifting in a diversity ofindustries and cultures we find however, little has changedin the process of how marketers and sales proceed tounderstanding why consumers’ buy and how they think. Most marketing methods and selling techniques probe forsurface understanding and not the core emotions andfeelings of consumers’ behaviors. Marketing and sales people rely on worn-out familiarcampaigns and techniques that simply obtain less thanmarginal results and then place blame on their products,services or the economy. This become more apparent withsales and marketing people in hot industries where demandexceeds supply - sales skyrocket with little effort orskill on the part of sales and marketing. Then, when supplyexceeds demand and there are too many sellers chasing toofew consumers’ — the blame sets in and the excuse makingerupts, causing products and services to fail or dropdramatically below projections. Change doesn’t come easy when you’re entrenched in deeplyrooted behaviors of which takes much courage to change.Change means thinking differently about how one doesthings, which sometimes goes against all that you werebrought up to believe in. People who hold stubbornly totheir view and can’t envision a different world will fightto maintain their current one. To maintain a competitive edge in your business willrequire stepping outside your comfort zone and thetraditional methods of conducting yourself in business. Theworld has become a melting pot of various nationalities andcultures creating the backbone of our economy. Regardless, if you have a world vision of your business or not, theeffects of you succeeding are influenced by yourunderstanding of how consumers’ think and how they buy. Consumers’ ask for one thing and do another. They makeillogical leaps of judgment and come to unreasonableconclusions based on their experience, memory andunconscious thoughts. The truth is most customers formopinions about you before you ever get a chance to deliveryour service or product. That opinion is formed mostlyunconsciously. Customers’ are your only business and requires you to reachbeyond product features, benefits, quality and reliabledelivery methods. Sales and marketing people service theirconsumers in a more efficient manner when they understand how consumers feel, think and experience you and your products and services. The interaction between the confidence of your marketingmessage and the confidence of a salesperson in his/herproduct or service sets the stage for how, when and why theconsumer will or will not purchase goods and services. Whena salesperson conveys confidence in his/her company, product and service, it delivers subtle nonverbal cues tothe consumer. That confidence, if perceived by theconsumer, as authenticity on the part of the salesperson, adds great persuasive power to the decision making of theconsumer. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence and scientific brainresearch showing that human emotions and the unconsciousplays a major role in consumer selection of products andservices. As our multi cultural society matures; it becomesevident that those companies and individual who what toadvantage themselves in sales and marketing must understandthe perception and mind of other cultural groups. That willrequire a better understanding of your conscious andunconscious mind - how memory, experience, and associatedemotions exert a force on the thinking and buying behaviorsof consumers. According to Gerald Zaltman, Professor of Marketing atHarvard Business School — says that 95 percent ofconsumers’ thinking occurs in their unconscious minds. Muchthinking surfaces through metaphors and consumers’ memories, which are much more malleable than previously thought –which is why “confidence” adds great persuasive power.Artificial confidence does not work, but authenticconfidence will decisively engender a winning edge everytime when a salesperson truly believes in his/her productsand services. Fostering a shift in sales and marketing will require adeeper understanding of how pervasive the unconscious mindof the consumer works. Breaking into new ground requiresbreaking out of traditional thinking about features andbenefits selling. You need to enter into the mentalactivity of unconscious thoughts, feelings, memories, intentions, metaphors and just how they direct consumers’attention, influence perception and manipulate theirdecisions and actions. 6 key strategic solutions for sales and marketing. 1. Metaphor making in the mind of the consumer is apowerful fundamental that helps them make sense ofinformation received. When eliciting information from apotential client. I asked him what success felt like. Hismetaphor was; “Success feels like the power of driving aPorsche down the highway at top speed.” Tying his metaphorto several service benefits closed the sale securely.Understanding and having collected a large range ofmetaphors consumers’ use to think about you, your servicesand products enable you to sculpt a more effectingcommunication strategy and increase the potential of apurchase. 2. Improve your mental outlook about you, your products andservices. “You Are The Message.” Eliminate negative cluesby preparing yourself with the confidence of a winner. Usefriendly language and genuine enthusiasm; reflectingenergy, trust and openness will open up the consumer whenprobing for their thinking and core metaphors. Assertiveand outgoing personalities, regardless of ethnicbackground, will outpace those people whose characteristicsdisplay shy and timid behaviors. 3. Design your office, retail store layout, waiting rooms, ads and brochures that reflect the Metaphors of yourmarket. Example of how one Doctors office focused onoutpatients care as being more nurturing and responsive.Patients view rooms with chairs lined up in rows as boring, frustrating and long waits. The office was rearranged topromote friendliness and privacy and was supplied withseveral TV’s and a computer. The results were a decline inwaiting time complaints and patients felt they werereceiving a better quality of care, referral ratesincreased more that 18 percent and patient cancellationsdecreased by 23 percent. 4. Build into your oral and written marketing/salescommunications stories using metaphors gathered from yourmarket. 5. Probing the mind of your customer/client requires youuncovering the metaphors they use when thinking aboutpurchasing your products and services. Once you haveuncovered their metaphors you can identify some or most ofthe important and hidden drivers of your customer/clientbuying behaviors. 6. Develop an organizational climate and a workplaceattitude that strengthens sales and marketing creativity.This requires breaking into more boxes and not applying themetaphor that suggests you step out of the box. Breakinginto more boxes enables you to gather gleaning newknowledge and will help pry you loose of conventionalthinking. How you think is more important and will producemore productive and innovational ideas than what you think. Don L. Price: Coaching Minds to Succeed — Author, Sales/Marketing & Positive Change Solution Provider, International Speaker & Mental Fitness Coach http://www.donlprice.com Invite Don to speak at your next Convention, Meeting or Retreat. Optimize your Power to Succeed with Strategic Performance Marketing/Sales and Success Coaching, for Reaching Higher Performance in Your Personal and Business Life. — Seminars, Keynotes, Retreats, Consulting — http://www.donlprice.com Subscribe FREE to Price on Success e-Newsletterhttp://tinyurl.com/5bz7w101 W. 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