Legal Marketers Need to Remember that a Decision to Buy is an Emotional Choice

It is my understanding that when a buyer or decision-maker has heard all the facts, reviewed any information available and heard any anecdotal evidence, will ultimately rely on emotion to state, "yes" or "no" in making a decision. I know I do.

There is an old joke about a prospective car-buyer walking onto a auto lot. The buyer looks at a lot of cars, reads the spec sheets, kicks tires and looks under hoods and finally states, "I want a blue one".

I believe that every decision, in its final moment, is an emotion-based choice. A person that has a hard time making decisions is facing an emotional difficulty, not a lack reason. Robert Plutchik's psychoevolutionary theory of emotion is one of the most influential classification approaches for general emotional responses. The words, "logic" and "reason" are not on his list.

My advise in this matter for you and to myself is to always consider the emotional leap that you are asking of a buying audience. What in your message or materials are aimed at the feelings of your audience? Can you show them somehow that there are no bogeymen beyond their choice? You can't just point at the closet and state the bogeyman is not there -- your buyer has to see it, feel it and touch it emotionally to believe you.