Emotion and reason mix very well together to make excellent sales techniques. Expert copywriters, while writing their sales copy in a systematic and methodological way, use emotions and emotional triggers all the time.

The famous Robert Collier must have been a real master of this technique. When I studied some of his letters, I discovered the use of emotional triggers so subtle that you hardly notice them. What a wonderful way of selling.

Using emotion sales techniques brings results, as the example of Collier may show.

Some people however, consider such methods, especially when emotion is used, as some sort of persuading "art".

It isn't!

On the contrary. Sales techniques and methodological selling are systematic processes of measurable and iterative milestones, by which the offer enables the buyer to visualize the end result or how to achieve her goal in a profitable way.

Emotion in daily life is the reflection of someone's mental state of existence. Commonly emotions are based on physical (internal) and social (external) sensory feelings. Pleasure and sadness, delight and disgust, love and hate, bravery and anxiety can all be described in both physiological and psychological terms.

Sometimes emotion is considered to be the exact opposite of reason. Indeed, occasionally emotional reactions, often undesired by the individual experiencing them, can't be controlled by reason. But most of the time in daily life this isn't true.

More often than not, passion, emotion, or feeling is backed by logical arguments. Moreover, researchers suggest that typically there is no thought based "purely" on emotion or "purely" on intellectual logic. Most cognitions and conclusions are founded on a mixture of both.

That's why emotional sales techniques work.

In our modern society most people's basic needs like physiological, safety and belonging requirements (the lower levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs (http://www.maslow.org/sub/mas_notes.htm) are fulfilled. So their needs come from the top of the pyramid: the need for status, fame, glory, recognition, attention, reputation, appreciation, and dignity, even dominance. Higher (sub) levels involve the need for self-respect, including such feelings as confidence, competence, achievement, mastery, independence, and freedom.

As Maslow pointed out so perfectly, in order to achieve a higher level on his pyramid you need to have your lower needs taken care of, at least to a very considerable extent. That's where the fear of loss comes in. Almost always triggered by an emotion, followed by logic and reason that tells us that this indeed could happen.

Insurance companies know this. And they use it in their commercials. A perfect example of emotional sales techniques. Another one is used for skin care products: 'Because You Deserve It!'.

You see, we are emotional creatures. We think emotionally, act emotionally and make decisions emotionally.

I can proof that, but I don't want to be flamed, so I'll take my own spouse as an example. If I ask her why she bought that new pair of shoes, she will say, 'I need it!', of course. Sounds familiar?

And how about this famous ad by David Ogilvy:

"At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock."

Reading that, wouldn't you want to experience that noise for just once?

So, we are emotional creatures indeed. Yet nobody wants to be thought of as 'emotional' and therefore we use 'logical' arguments to justify our purchasing habits.

People buy things they don't need just to satisfy a desire that can't be eliminated any other way and then justify their decisions by using logical arguments.

That's why emotion and reason mix very well together to make an excellent sales technique.

If you really use it, I guarantee you will profit from it.

Case Stevens, owner of AnOwnSite Internet Marketing, now has a new sensational product:

Discover the '22 Secret Emotion Hot Buttons' to Sell More Things ... To More People ... More Often

Subscribe to his newsletter at Affordable Online Strategies