Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt Don’t Belong in Selling Anymore

Somewhere I read that if you can make woman feel insecure enough you can sell her anything.  I think that’s true of men as well, and a look at the pop up nonsense in my Facebook feed is ample evidence that grown-ups are terrified of everything from radon gas to neck wrinkles to bad breath.

We’re much more terrified now, for example of cancer than we were a generation ago, even though we are less likely to die from it and no more likely to contract it. Forty-one percent of Americans fear cancer more than any other disease, yet  even though heart disease kills about ten percent more people, only eight percent of Americans fear it above the rest.

One of the unintended consequences of the very successful campaigns to raise funds and awareness about cancer is that now we’re a lot more afraid of it.

This, my friends, is FUD marketing at work. Fear, uncertainty and doubt are a long-standing foundational trinity of sales and marketing strategies. As early as the 1900s, when Procter &  Gamble capitalized on the discovery of germs to sell factory-made soap, right on up to hand sanitizer brands jumping on the Swine flu outbreak and Allstate’s current campaign starring Mayhem (which is frigging hilarious), marketers have looked to fear, uncertainty and doubt to help separate people and their money.

Even in B2B, we love to play with FUD, either as an end-of-cycle nudge by our sales teams to deposition a competitor, or as a top-of-funnel way to get a little attention for our content.

Who among us hasn’t written a subject line or headline that asks B2B buyers if they know where their revenue is at risk or their competitors are gaining on them or their employees are stealing or quitting or both? You know you’ve done it. I’ve certainly done it, and I think it’s time to stop.

Facts, Not Fear

Let’s tackle fear: we love to help our customers and prospects understand all that they lack; all that threatens them; all that should be keeping them up nights. They know what they’re afraid of: you’re not really introducing any new information, are you? You’re selectively spraying a few statistics to create a sense of urgency that doesn’t exist and benefits only you.

Instead, what if we stopped trying to scare the pants off people and started giving them the facts they need to make an informed decision? What if our content spent less time constructing a horrific picture of the future and then framing our product as the antidote and more time educating the buyer to the point where they can make a decision fueled by fact, not sleep aids.

User Experience, Not Uncertainty

When we target uncertainty, we are generally trying to dislodge a stalled or delayed decision. Sometimes we have a P-Cube bottleneck or, more likely, a dithering F-worder who just can’t decide which problem they need to solve first.  The game here is to work on prioritizing your thingy over competing, but different needs in the business. The real enemy is usually inertia, though uncertainty is a fun thing to sprinkle all over any competition, and if your competition is doing it to you, then your task is to scrape all the uncertainty off, usually with tons and tons of testimonials.

I’d like to propose we stop playing head games with our customers and show them a bit of respect in the form of a decent user experience. Both during the selling cycle and once we’ve cashed their cheque, it is a far more constructive thing to deliver a kick-ass products, services and experiences than to keep them off balance and wondering.

Difference, Not Doubt

Then there’s our friend doubt.  Doubt is the tool our Sales Squirrels will use to dislodge competitors or current practices. This is where marketers supply those competitive battle cards. The ones that crow about our market share, employee count, number of offices and awards, while reminding prospects that our competitors’ share price has been a little wobbly and they had that unfortunate C-suite perp walk last year. Complete nonsense, of course.

Let’s try making the D stand for difference. If we can create a conversation that paints the picture for the buyer of how things will look once they’ve bought our stuff, then we’re working with a much more positive set of emotions.

Pitching doubt is about selling the terrific feeling you’ll have when you stop banging your head against a wall. Talking about a (realistic) different and better future is an endorphin-fuelled trip to a deal.

Time to stop playing with our customers’ FUD, people.

Related Posts

Is Your Brand Hard to Quit?
Is Your Competition Making Stuff Up? Good.

BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
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