The 6 “Selling to the Old Brain” Message Building Blocks

The 6 "Selling to the Old Brain" Message Building Blocks

Here is the second post of our 3-part blog series around the methods given by Patrick Renvoisé and Christophe Morin to deliver messages to the old brain. In the previous post, we talked about the “6 Stimuli to the Reptilian Brain” from the Patrick Renvoisé’s Ted Talk. In this presentation, Mr. Renvoisé gives an overview of the stimuli that can directly impact the old brain, from his book “Neuromarketing: Understanding the “Buy Buttons” in Your Customer’s Brain”, co-written with Christophe Morin. Here we will take a deeper look at some concrete pieces of advice to reinforce your presentation and be sure to impact your prospect’s reptilian brain.

Here are some concrete actions you can take to be sure your message will not be another ‘boring monotonous PowerPoint presentation’.

1. Grabber

  1. To catch your prospect’s attention, be original and distinguishes yourself from the competition. Some grabbers you can use are:
    • Minis-Dramas : present 2 sides of a story, one without your solution and one with your product or service. You can even use mini-dramas for a job interview to sell yourself, you just have to present the issues the company is facing or the skills needed and present the company’s situation after you have been hired. Be sure to clearly show the gain of your product or service (or yourself) to create contrast.
    • Wordplay :  you can use humor to grab the attention of your prospects. However, be careful in using humor as everybody has a different sense of humor and does not have the same processing speed. Therefore, it often requires the help of an ad agency. It can be used in print ads so that colors and image can enhance the message.
    • Rhetorical Questions : What if you…? What do these words have in common? What do these numbers have in common? Here are powerful rhetorical questions that you can use to involve your prospect and to make him.her actively think about what you are asking. Be sure to make a pause after asking your questions to allow your audience to think about it.
    • Props : use a prop to illustrate a specific point of your presentation and be sure it is relevant. You can be sure that, if used properly, people will remember your presentation for a longer period (even years) than a traditional speech. Be sure to have a prop that is appropriate to your audience and the context in which you are presenting.
    • Stories : tell a story is a powerful tool to connect with your audience. You have to be sure that your story is centered on a specific point and that your audience can connect with it. Therefore, you should make your story personal and add passion and details into it to make it more realistic.

2. Big Picture

As you know “A picture worth a thousand words”. This sentence could be explained by studies done by Jean Ledoux, director of neuroscience at the New-York City University. He has shown that it takes about 2 milliseconds of your old brain to react to the sight of a snake and 500 milliseconds before consciously recognize it as a snake. This is due to the fact that the optical nerve process information 40 times faster than the auditory nerve. So, focus on your prospect’s world, pain and use contrast.

3. Claims

Edit your claims to make it the shortest possible so that it would be easier for your prospects to remember. Keep the claim relevant to your audience and repeat it so that their old brain will remember it without noticing it. To be sure that your audience can understand and process your claims, constrain them to a maximum of 3; It has been proven that we remember more information when it comes by steps of 3. However, the fewer claims you present, the more focus you can have.

4. Proofs of Gain

Your audience wants to have proofs of the benefits of your product or service. Therefore, if you can, use customer stories or at least testimonials or case studies.

5. Handling Objections

At the end of your presentation, be prepared to hear objections from your audiences. There are 2 categories of objections you can face: misunderstanding and valid objections. To deal with misunderstanding, restate the objections, then move toward your prospect, it will show that you are hearing the objection and you don’t fear or want to avoid dealing with it. Then hear what your prospect out and then deliver the proof. For valid objections, use the same first steps, reformulation, movement toward the audience, wait for the feedback. Then, present your personal opinion and finally try to give a positive side to the objection.

6. The Close

At the end of your presentation, repeat youR claim one last time. Apply the law of consistency that states that people are more willing to make a big commitment if they accepted a smaller before because their old brain wants to keep consistency throughout its actions. Therefore, ask for positive feedback (What do you think?) and then ask for the next step (Where do we go from here?).

If the presentation went well and you used the maximum of these message building blocks to maximize the impact, your prospect should give you the next step by him/herself. Don’t forget to use the maximum of message building blocks to be sure to have the best impact possible throughout your whole presentation. Try also to learn them so that you can use in any presentation you give, even last minute speeches.

In the next post, we will look at the “7 Impact Boosters” presented by Patrick Renvoisé and Christophe Morin. They will help you to further the impact of your message building blocks to faster reach the old brain of your audience.

Reference:

Renvoisé, Patrick; Morin, Christophe; “Neuromarketing: Understanding the “Buy Buttons” in Your Customer’s Brain“, Publisher: Thomas Nelson; Print, 2007