won’t determine whether you pay your bills this month. But if you
are selling $400,000 items, then whether you pay bills this month
could very well turn on the decision of one customer. Experience is
very useful to deal with the increased emotional intensity of higher
stakes. It is impossible to do your best selling job if you are dis-
tracted by your fears.
The horizontal axis has two scales. First is product versus ser-
vice. A product is easier to sell. With a product, customers can get
much more information about what they are buying before making
a decision. For example, if we offer to sell you a book, you can leaf
through it to find out whether you like it before you make your de-
cision. But if we are selling you a haircut, you know less about what
you’re getting. Even if we show you a roomful of people whose hair-
cuts you like and who tell you we give the best haircuts they ever
had, you still don’t know what yourhair will look like until after you
have made your decision. Thus, you must trust the seller more to
buy a service than a product.
The other scale of the horizontal axis refers to the degree of
personal content. If we sell you a pen, there’s low personal content.
How to Reduce Emotional Overload 213FIGURE 13.1 Evaluate Your Sales Ability