By
Simon Hazeldine
Mastering the Art of Contrast in Sales: How to Cut Through the Noise and Persuade Your Customers
In today’s fast-paced, information-overloaded world, consumers are bombarded with a constant stream of sales and marketing messages. From email campaigns and social media ads to traditional television commercials and billboards, your potential customers are inundated with content that’s competing for their attention. In fact, the average person encounters thousands of advertisements every day.
For sales professionals, this presents a significant challenge. With so many competing messages, how can your sales pitch stand out? The answer lies in creating clear contrast that appeals to the decision-making areas of the brain, specifically the more primitive “reptilian” and emotional regions that are deeply involved in decision-making.
To successfully persuade your customers, you need to understand how their brains process information and make decisions. One of the most effective ways to cut through the noise is by presenting your message with strong contrast. Let’s dive into how you can leverage contrast to capture your customer’s attention, clearly differentiate your offering, and drive better sales results.
The Brain’s Response to Contrast: Stay Away vs. Move Toward
The human brain is hardwired to respond to contrast, particularly when it comes to two major motivating forces: avoiding pain and seeking reward. These primal instincts play a huge role in the decision-making process and can be activated in a sales scenario when you present a compelling contrast between the customer’s current situation and the improved future they can experience with your product or solution.
1. The “Stay Away from Pain” Motivation
The brain is naturally programmed to avoid discomfort, challenges, or threats. This instinct, which is deeply ingrained in the reptilian part of the brain, helps individuals move away from situations that could cause pain, loss, or dissatisfaction.
When engaging with potential customers, you should first highlight the pain points in their current situation. This could be the challenges they are experiencing without your product, the inefficiencies they face in their business, or the costs they are incurring by not solving their problem.
For example, if you’re selling a software solution, you might point out that the customer is losing productivity and wasting valuable time due to outdated systems or manual processes. The more clearly you articulate their pain, the more their brain will be motivated to move away from it.
2. The “Move Toward Reward” Motivation
Once you’ve clearly outlined the current pain or discomfort, it’s time to present the solution. This taps into the brain’s desire to seek rewards and improvements—essentially, showing how your product or service will enhance their life, business, or experience.
Here, you provide the customer with a clear vision of their desired future state—a state in which their problems have been solved thanks to your product. This could mean increased efficiency, higher profits, better customer satisfaction, or a more enjoyable personal experience. In other words, you’re painting a picture of a future that is significantly better than the present.
The contrast between these two states—where the customer is now (pain) and where they want to be (reward)—is critical in driving the decision to buy. By moving from pain to reward, you are aligning your sales pitch with the customer’s natural psychological drivers.
The Importance of Highlighting Your Unique Value Proposition
After showing the customer how they can move from pain to reward, it’s equally important to highlight how your product or service enables this transformation better than anyone else. This is where you establish the contrast between you and your competitors.
Many sales professionals mistakenly assume that they know what differentiates their offering from the competition. However, your customers may have different perceptions. The best way to truly understand your competitive edge is to ask your existing customers directly. Why do they choose you? What advantages do they perceive in working with your company or using your product?
Once you gather this feedback, common themes will emerge, giving you a clearer picture of how your customers view your unique strengths. These insights should be incorporated into your sales presentations and messaging, ensuring that you stand out in a crowded marketplace.
For example, if your customers consistently highlight the superior customer service you provide, make that a key selling point. If they emphasize the ease of use of your product compared to competitors, highlight that in your sales pitch. Remember, the key is differentiation—showing how your product or service is uniquely positioned to help the customer achieve their desired outcome better than any other option available.
Providing a Path Forward: The Role of Your Product or Service
After establishing a strong contrast between the current painful state and the desired future state, and after differentiating yourself from the competition, you need to clearly communicate how your product or service acts as the bridge between the two. Your offering should be positioned as the enabler that helps the customer move from their problematic present to their ideal future.
To do this effectively, your sales message needs to focus on three core elements:
- Clarity: Clearly define the customer’s pain points and the rewards of solving them.
- Actionability: Show how your product or service directly solves the problem and leads to the desired future state.
- Urgency: Highlight why making the decision now will yield the greatest benefits, encouraging the customer to act promptly.
When you successfully present this progression—pain to reward, and you as the solution—the decision to purchase becomes a natural next step for the customer.
Final Thoughts: Harness the Power of Contrast for Sales Success
In today’s noisy marketplace, the ability to cut through distractions and reach your customer’s decision-making brain is more critical than ever. By employing contrast—showing the stark difference between their current challenges and the improved future your product provides—you tap into the primal forces of pain avoidance and reward seeking that drive human behavior.
Don’t forget to gather feedback from your customers to refine your unique value proposition and ensure that your pitch is clearly differentiated from your competitors. Once you’ve established that contrast, position yourself as the bridge between the customer’s present and future.
Provide their brain with the contrast it needs to make the right decision—the decision to say “yes” to you.
Good luck and happy selling!
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About the author
Simon Hazeldine works internationally as a revenue growth and sales performance speaker, consultant, and coach. He empowers his clients to get more sales, more often with more margin.
He has spoken in over thirty countries and his client list includes some of the world’s largest and most successful companies.
Simon has a master’s degree in psychology, is the bestselling author of ten books that have been endorsed by a host of business leaders including multi-billionaire business legend Michael Dell and is co-founder of leading sales podcast “The Sales Chat Show”.
He is the creator of the neuroscience based “Brain Friendly Selling”® methodology.
Simon Hazeldine’s books:
- Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
- Bare Knuckle Selling
- Bare Knuckle Negotiating
- Bare Knuckle Customer Service
- The Inner Winner
- How To Lead Your Sales Team – Virtually and in Person
- Virtual Selling Success
- How To Manage Your People’s Performance
- How To Create Effective Employee Development Plans
- Virtual Negotiation Success
