Excite Positive Emotions in Expert Sellers

Being recognized as an expert brings pleasure. However, the process of becoming an expert often deadens some of the enjoyment from consuming hedonic items—such as wine—or engaging in hedonic experiences—such as watching cinema. This finding by researchers at University of Massachusetts-Boston and Northwestern University has implications for recognized experts when they’re attempting to make sales. A widespread finding in consumer psychology is that people buy more on the basis of emotion than logical reasoning.
     The numbing of emotion is because advanced expertise leads to overanalyzing, which moves the consumption away from raw feelings. The effects hold for both positive and negative emotions. Based on her University of Alberta studies, Prof. Sarah Moore wrote, “Explaining why a chocolate cupcake tasted so divine makes us love the cupcake a little less, while explaining why a movie was so horrible makes us hate the movie a little less.” With utilitarian items, it can work in the opposite direction. “Explaining why a USB stick is so great makes us like the USB stick more, while explaining why a cleaning product is so horrible makes us dislike the cleaning product more.”
     Since it’s positive emotions that make the sale, the Massachusetts/Northwestern researchers recommend that, with hedonic items, salespeople strive to focus on their feelings. You can then portray the pleasant feelings to the shopper. Use your expertise to decide what purchase decisions would best benefit the shopper and your organization. Then shift away from analyzing with your domain knowledge. Instead, capture the joy the shopper would experience in consuming the item you’re recommending.
     In the studies, this method worked. When assessing professional photographs, people with higher self-rated expertise were less emotional. But this difference was significantly reduced when the participants had been asked to focus on their feelings.
     Related to the problem of experts becoming emotionally numb is that of them becoming explanation dumb. Researchers at University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, New York University, and University of British Columbia found that product and service experts don’t stay sufficiently familiar with details of their logic. They’re accustomed to giving advice from habit rather than tracing out the details each time. If pinned down by requests for those details, experts often make up reasons for their conclusions. The experts tend to consider the reasons as genuine. They’ll create false memories on the spot and then accept those memories as real. They don’t realize they’re lying.

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