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“Your Prospects’ Brains Need to Feel”

March 17, 2010 by Lizabeth Phelps

It’s Brain-Awareness week, according to the Dana Foundation,
and as the Brain-Sticky Communications trainer, I’m honoring
the advancement of neuroscience this week with relevant
information for entrepreneurs–who have to grab the attention
of their prospects, or die.   

Brain Attention-Grabber #1 from Monday was “novelty.” Your
business must be different and new! Brain Attention-Grabber #2
was “relevancy”–your prospects need to know “what’s in it for them”
right from the start. And what’s Brain-Attention-Grabber #3? Emotion.

You must stir emotion in your prospects or die. The sooner
you do  it, the faster you grab their attention. But at any point that
you stir emotion, you begin the critical process of creating neuronal
connections in their brain (i.e. learning and processing begins),
which means they “get” you and remember you. “Emotion” and
“memory” are inexplicably tied.

This is Aunt Ug, our ancestor. She’s just rubbed 2 sticks together
and is rather excited about her new find and is running to tell her
tribe about it. The emotion she feels creates a cascade of hormones
that allows one brain cell to talk to another, or in other words,
allows learning to occur. 

If she observed the fire merely intellectually, stripped of emotion,
those hormones would not be released abundantly and the likelihood
that she would forget her world-changing invention 3 weeks later is 
increased many-fold. Emotion creates memory.   

Then she returns to her tribe, and because of mirror neurons in
their brains, her emotion is contagious. They feel what she’s feeling,
so as she explains how she created fire, her words are Brain-Sticky.
Neurotransmitters (those hormones) are released from one
neuron in their brain to the next, fusing the neurons
together and creating a pathway of learning and memory. 

Uncle Ug and all others in her tribe will remember how to make
fire because emotion sent critical chemicals through their body,
imbedding the lesson. 

You are “teaching” your prospects about your business
whenever you speak about it. They’re not going to remember
unless they’re FEELING something. The neurotransmitters just
won’t be released. 

How do you get them feeling? Start by feeling yourself! See Aunt Ug
up there? Imitate her! Be passionate about what you’ve got to offer.
Your emotion is (a scientific fact) contagious. If you’re passionate,
their brains will make them passionate–whether they want to be or not! 

Another key emotion to stir, of course, is pain. Your prospects will
be more interested in you if you solve their problems. So it’s your
job to get them connected to how they FEEL with their problem.
If only their intellect is stimulated–no emotion is attached –they won’t
remember that you are their solution. 

My favorite emotion to tap is inspiration and hope and I believe
it is one of the most Brain-Sticky emotions of all. It’s worked with my
prospects and clients time and time again. They feel my inspired,
impassioned promise and it gets transferred to them–and they
remember me and want more. 

Today’s Challenge: What emotions are you stirring in your
prospects? Are you speaking very “intellectually”–thus stimulating
only the intellect in them–thus releasing virtually none of those
Brain-Sticky hormones? Think about it. And share below! I’d love
to hear your experiences!