Your business case numbers need
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:58 am
2. Customers remember how you treat them during times of adversity
Science tells us that periods of adversity and hardship become etched into people’s minds. In fact, having your brain biochemically hit the record button when things go sideways is evolution’s way of helping us remember how to get out of sticky situations.
It also means that, as a seller, if you act in a pushy, inappropriate, or unempathetic way towards a customer during those tough times, the feelings of resistance left by those biochemical markers won’t fade easily.
In a pandemic where adversity abounds, remember to be kind to your customers because they’ll remember that too!
Related post: 3 Tips for Connecting with Customers During Times of Adversity
When times are tough, being able to craft a high-value business case matters, but the way you present your numbers matters even more!
Consider two COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine A comes with a 0.001% risk that taking it would cause a major adverse side effect. In the case of Vaccine B, one out of every 100,000 people like you who took it would suffer the same side effect. Which one would you prefer to get?
Nobel Prize winner and author of the bestselling ukraine telegram data book Thinking Fast and Slow (one of my top sales reads), Daniel Kahneman, would bet you picked Vaccine A. Why? Because even though the two statistics are mathematically equivalent, the way the data for Vaccine B is presented produces a vastly different emotional response because of the more vivid imagery it conveys.
Telling your customer that your solution can increase their efficiency by 10% or can give them 20 hours of their time back every month works the same way. If you want your case to cut through the noise and stick, make sure you’re presenting it the right way, according to science!
Related article: Here’s Why Your Business Case Numbers Are Falling Flat
Science tells us that periods of adversity and hardship become etched into people’s minds. In fact, having your brain biochemically hit the record button when things go sideways is evolution’s way of helping us remember how to get out of sticky situations.
It also means that, as a seller, if you act in a pushy, inappropriate, or unempathetic way towards a customer during those tough times, the feelings of resistance left by those biochemical markers won’t fade easily.
In a pandemic where adversity abounds, remember to be kind to your customers because they’ll remember that too!
Related post: 3 Tips for Connecting with Customers During Times of Adversity
When times are tough, being able to craft a high-value business case matters, but the way you present your numbers matters even more!
Consider two COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine A comes with a 0.001% risk that taking it would cause a major adverse side effect. In the case of Vaccine B, one out of every 100,000 people like you who took it would suffer the same side effect. Which one would you prefer to get?
Nobel Prize winner and author of the bestselling ukraine telegram data book Thinking Fast and Slow (one of my top sales reads), Daniel Kahneman, would bet you picked Vaccine A. Why? Because even though the two statistics are mathematically equivalent, the way the data for Vaccine B is presented produces a vastly different emotional response because of the more vivid imagery it conveys.
Telling your customer that your solution can increase their efficiency by 10% or can give them 20 hours of their time back every month works the same way. If you want your case to cut through the noise and stick, make sure you’re presenting it the right way, according to science!
Related article: Here’s Why Your Business Case Numbers Are Falling Flat