What is the most psychologically powerful word in the world?
According to a study from the University of Texas, we can attribute our preference for personalized experiences to two key factors:
Even though a personalized proposal doesn't involve the recipient making any actual choice, receiving tailored content "tricks" the brain into thinking it's in control. People feel much more positive towards you when they feel like they're in control of the situation.
With personalized content, you aren't forced to sort through and consume lots of resources. You're given exactly the information you were looking for. This helps reduce our perception of information overload.
If you're at a party surrounded by dozens of people talking, you'll easily be able to tune out their conversations as background noise. But, as soon as you hear something that interests you, you will automatically tune into that new conversation. Important and relevant information always cuts through the noise.
Personalization can be something as simple as including their name. You should never underestimate the psychological effect this can create.
A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Research, compared the brain's reaction to hearing its own name against hearing other names.
They found that the brain lights up in certain areas when it hears its own name, particularly in the middle frontal cortex (associated with social behavior).
Other significant areas are the middle and superior temporal cortex (long-term processing and auditory processing, respectively).
The cuneus (visual processing) is also affected. It's amazing how one little word can cause such widespread engagement.
While including names in a proposal can be a powerful cognitive hack, some of the most effective personalization is the kind the prospect doesn't even notice.
Research has found that people prefer personalization even when they're unaware of it. This is all thanks to the brain's reticular activating system (RAS).
The RAS acts as a kind of gatekeeper, filtering out irrelevant information and allowing the information you need to pass through. If your sales proposal is full of information the prospect doesn't need or want to know, the RAS has to work overtime, creating cognitive overload. A well-tailored proposal customized to a prospect will pass right on through the RAS and make the biggest impact.
When it comes to writing your proposal, if you want to effectively personalize to your prospect, you have to make your content seem familiar. Here's how:
The first stage is to identify as many pain points as possible and record the exact wording they use when they talk about them.
Order the pain points by their priorities to make sure your proposal focuses on the issues that really matter to them.
When you have a comprehensive understanding of their problems in their language and context, mold your messaging and proposal to match. This prevents your solution from sounding too abstract or unfamiliar.
Retail salespeople who were told to mimic the nonverbal and verbal behavior of customers sold more products and left customers with a more positive opinion of the store, according to a 2011 study of 129 customers by French researchers
