How Brands Use Psychology to Create Sales Pitch Ideas You Can’t Resist

It’s important to understand customer needs and pain points when developing sales pitch ideas, but it’s not enough to look at what’s obvious. You need to really drill down below the surface, like Dick’s Sporting Goods did.

Source: Dick’s Sporting Goods via YouTube

Can you guess why this video works?

Introducing the Life Force 8 to Help You Come Up with Better Sales Pitch Ideas

Dick’s Sporting Goods’ video works because it uses the psychology of sales and marketing described in the book Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman. There’s a way to “tap into the very essence of what makes humans tick”, he writes.

According to Whitman, “Human beings are biologically programmed with the following eight desires”, which he calls The Life Force 8:

1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages.
3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
4. Sexual companionship.
5. Comfortable living conditions.
6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses.
7. Care and protection of loved ones.
8. Social approval.

Whitman points out in his book that most of us can’t turn off our desire to eat (LF8 #2) or our will to survive (LF8 #1). “Can you stop caring whether or not your child looks both ways before crossing the street?” he asks.

Want to Activate the Life Force 8 in Your Sales Pitch? Use the Cashvertising Formula

To get your audience to feel something and take action, you need to leverage desire. According to Ca$hvertising, desire is “a type of tension you feel when a need isn’t met… If your office chair breaks your back after just 10 minutes of use, the tension to be comfortable arises, and your desire to buy a new chair (LF8 #5) kicks in.”

Whitman then provides the formula you need to use in your content in order to get results:

“Tension => Desire => Action to Satisfy the Desire”.

Let’s see this formula in action.

Discover How 3 Brands Use the Psychology of Sales and Marketing and Brainstorm Irresistible Sales Pitch Ideas of Your Own

The best way to get your mind in brainstorming mode and come up with great sales pitch ideas is to look at pitch psychology in action. It’s just the easiest way to understand how to leverage the psychology of sales and marketing in your own content.

Here are a few brands that follow the formula and trigger the Life Force 8 desires described in Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman.

Dick’s Sporting Goods

Let’s go back to the video that started our article.

Source: Dick’s Sporting Goods via YouTube

• Tension: It’s early and the mom is tired (LF8 #1). The house is a mess (LF8 #6). The baby needs her (LF8 #7). Even getting herself to start exercising is tough. She wants to be a good mom (LF8 #6, 7 & 8), but she also wants to invest in herself (LF8 #1 & 3), and she’s not sure the two can co-exist.
  
• Desire: To take time for herself. To fulfill herself. To still be a good mom.
• Action to satisfy the desire: She gets out of bed early. She puts on her Dick’s Sporting Goods shoes. She ignores the mess, and puts the baby in the crib. She gets on that treadmill. She pushes herself at the gym beyond what she thought was her limit. She becomes someone new. And then tomorrow, when it all starts over again, she’ll be stronger. She’ll be a better mom because she invests in herself and fulfills herself, too.

Foundr

Need sales pitch ideas in the business sphere? Look no further than Foundr Magazine’s Instagram feed.

• Tension: Foundr’s audience are people who either started or want to start their own business. They’re tired of working for someone else, of not fulfilling themselves (LF8 #1), of making too little money (LF8 #5), of nobody believing in them (LF8 #8).
• Desire: Foundr’s audience members want to believe they’re that special someone who can make their dream a reality despite the odds and everyone’s disbelief (LF8 #6 & 8). They want to stop worrying about money (LF8 #3), and enjoy the life of their dreams (LF8 #1).
• Action to satisfy the desire: Foundr’s Instagram feed is filled with motivational messages that speak to these needs exactly. Some messages encourage them to make a goal (“I’ll be a millionaire by age…”). Some remind them what separates winners from losers is commitment and hustle (LF8 #6). Others emphasize they shouldn’t be hard on themselves, because every successful entrepreneur failed once or 30 or 300 times (LF8 #8).

The Foundr team leverages the psychology of sales and marketing to grow and engage its audience. Thanks to these strategies, they’ve been able to build a following of over 800,000 people on Instagram, which has led to a 6 figure business. They use the same pitch psychology in CTAs that encourage email signups, which then transfers followers into a sales funnel.

Ben & Jerry’s

Now let’s talk about ice cream.

I mean global warming.

You know what? Let’s talk about both.

Source: Ben & Jerry’s via YouTube

• Tension: The voice over explains what happens when the global warming gets worse and the planet is merely 2 degrees warmer than it should be: it melts. The video helps you visualize the destruction that could happen if we keep abusing our planet (LF8 #1). But more than that: The visuals get you salivating over their ice cream (LF8 #2).
• Desire: To prevent global warming. And to eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream – fast.
• Action to satisfy the desire: Demand that governments, policymakers and business leaders do what it takes to stay below those 2 degrees, so we can reverse the trend of climate change. The video hints at innovative solutions as the visuals show their ice cream un-melting. The CTA asks you to join the climate movement, and when you click the link, you reach this section of their website that not only enables you to sign a petition, but also helps you learn about Ben & Jerry’s “long history of fighting for climate justice and finding ways to reduce the environmental impact”.

In other words, this is the pitch psychology Ben & Jerry’s uses: You can do your part to solve this serious issue and help your fellow humans and animals survive (LF8 #1), plus feel better about yourself for making the effort (LF8 #6)… all by buying the right ice cream brand you just salivated over and have to have now (LF8 #2).

What helps you create irresistible sales pitch ideas? Share it with us in the comments!