 All human beings are creatures of emotion. Welcome to the We Are Slam show where we share marketing insights, best practices and ideas to help your business grow. My name is Tyler Kelly and I am the co-founder and chief strategist here at Slam Agency. Today we're talking about why people buy. So this morning I was on a radio show with a friend of mine talking about business and some of the lessons that I've learned in business over the last 10 or so years. And being in that recording studio this morning got me thinking and reminded me of this station that we all love. It's the one that we're all tuned into most of the time. It's called WIIFM. And what does that stand for? What's in it for me? That's what we're tuned into as people, as human beings, as buyers, as sellers. It's what's in it for me, WIIFM. And today we're talking about why people buy. The first thing I want you to know is that you have to know that most of the time people are tuned into the station, WIIFM. Don't forget this, WIIFM. They're tuned into this station. So what does that mean? It means that with the tips I'm getting ready to share with you, you always have to think about how can I convey my messaging in a way that fits into the what's in it for me frequency that we're all tuned into. So why did people buy? Well, Del Carnegie, famous author, he wrote the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. And Mr. Carnegie has been quoted as saying that all human beings are creatures of emotion, not logic, but emotion. And he said this many, many, many years prior to any scientific understanding or discovery or proving of this fact. But he just knew that in his work with human beings, that people are creatures of emotion. And then along comes a scientist, a neuroscientist by the name of Antonio DiMazio. Now, Antonio DiMazio is a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California. And he made a groundbreaking discovery. The participants of the study were at lunch. And Antonio's in line with everyone else grabbing a bite to eat. Now, that day, the options were ham or turkey. And what he heard in line while everyone was just going through the line, what he heard was that every single one of his participants were having difficulty deciding what sandwich to choose. They were actually incapable of making a decision between ham and turkey. They were going through the logical reasons why it would make sense to pick one over the other. But for some reason they were unable to actually make that decision. Interesting lunch, right? Well, rewind it just a bit. And who are these people? Well, let me tell you, they all had one thing in common. And that was that they were all missing a key part of their brain, either through, you know, some sort of surgery, brain cancer or accident that had happened. But they were all in that space with one thing in common, they were missing the part of the brain that's responsible for emotions and feelings. Now, this part of the brain, the amygdala was missing. And so they were not able to make decisions. And so what he was able to do was first of all, he pivoted his study. And he was like, this is something that I need to look into. And then he was able to scientifically prove that all decisions are based on and influenced by feelings. We as marketers, as advertisers, we know this, although sometimes it's a lot easier just to, you know, throw a bunch of bullet points on there that make logical sense. And it's a lot more difficult to try to engage in a story or develop a story that brings out this visceral connection with your buyer. But the thing is, if you invest in that, if you invest in telling a story in engaging your user in a way that drives emotion and that captivates, motivates and inspires them, then through that feeling, they're going to make a decision to choose you to choose your product, to choose your service. And then later on, they'll go back and they'll make sure that that decision was the right decision through facts and numbers and statistics and these types of things. But at the heart of it, there is an instant where we all make that decision and that decision is made on feelings. And the great thing is that this is scientifically proven by Dr. Antonio Demasio, neuroscientist at the University of Southern California. It's been quoted in Oxford and Harvard and, you know, this was in the 90s. And so this study has been around and it has been challenged. And what they've found over and over and over again is the same thing that Dale Carnegie has told us is that people are creatures of emotion, not creatures of logic. You know, Simon Sinek has some great findings in this area. If you haven't read his books, start with why. I suggest that you do. You know, there's some books that you can just look at the cover and you can get everything that is, you know, in the pages. This isn't necessarily one of those books because you can read it and you can get it. Yeah, I need to start with why. But if you don't understand why you have to start with why, then you're not going to be able to do it at the level that's required to drive results for your business. And here's the Cliff Note version. You start with why because why can connect you instantly with emotions? It can connect you with that visceral part of the brain, the neocortex, rather than what most marketers are doing, which is just providing a list of facts, of benefits, of features. These are the types of things that if they're not connected to your why, if they're just the how and the what, then what happens is it's just connecting with the limbic system. And the limbic system is very picky, right? You don't want to connect with the limbic system, at least not initially. Instead, you want to start with feelings, start with emotions, start with why. Connect there and then rather than going like most marketers do with the what, then the how and then the why, start with the why. So go the opposite direction, why, then how, then what? Why connects with your amygdala? How with your neocortex? What with the limbic system? It starts with an emotion, an emotion that drives decisions, and it follows that up with the details that are needed for buyers to come back and in their mind. And all this happens like pretty quickly, but to come back in their mind and say, yes, I made the right decision. So the next time somebody asks you why the people buy, your answer should be science says people buy based on feelings. Now, if you've enjoyed this show this week, do me a favor, subscribe, rate and review if you're listening on a podcast network. If you're watching on Facebook or on YouTube or something like that, leave us a message in the comments. I check those messages and I will be happy to engage in conversation on those platforms with you. If you're a marketing director and you have a vision, you know where you want to go, but you don't have the team, the time or the bandwidth to get you there, call me and let's talk about how SLAM can help you execute on your vision. You can reach out at slamagency.com and you can hit us up at We Are SLAM. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you next week.