Head, Heart and Gut
Did you know that we all have three brains? We use them every day when making make either simple or complex decisions, such as what breakfast to have, or which new car to buy. Whilst the thought process occurs in the brain most of us would say the drive for the final decision came from our head, heart or gut.
When designing the correct sales strategy for a specific audience, we must it is imperative to first understand how these three brains communicate with each other before beginning. Once you know what drives the user’s desires and emotions you can use that knowledge to create multiple brain integration strategies and designs, enabling you to design products and services (and the whole experience that surrounds them) that the user wants. Ultimately you will be creating a product, or service that will succeed in the market place.
The first thing you need to do is understand how people think and how our choices are formed.
The three brains are made up of - the Primal brain, Mid-brain and New-brain, all 3 parts are involved in the thought making process. By understanding the three brains we arrive at a point where we can make better design and sales strategy decisions.
Here’s an overview of what drives each brain and the language it uses;
The three brain conversation:
“Is it safe?’, Primal Brain (Gut)
“How does it make me feel?”, Mid-Brain (Heart)
“What is the logic?”, New-Brain (Head)
Primal Brain
It makes quick basic decisions without consulting the rest of the brain, e.g: cereal or toast for breakfast. It is driven by primal behaviour, far removed from rational thought. It focuses on basic priorities and needs, such as shelter, safety, food, drink and sex.
Mid-Brain
The Mid-Brain deals with emotional responses and emotional perceptions. It controls our emotional reaction to things. An emotional thought can directly influence a rational action.
New-Brain
This is the rational brain, it is where conscious thought occurs and where we hold our identities. It needs to feel involved in the decision making process. The more rational the decision seems the happier the New-Brain is.
The three brains don’t always align and one brain can sometimes override another brain’s decision. Have you ever made a decisions knowing your gut is telling you to do something different?
So which brain is the more dominant? Well that’s where our individuality, personality and learnings come into play. Some will lean on the gut instinct more,others will listen to head; The Myers Briggs personality type indicator test and/or user personas can help to determine how to successfully communicate with your audience. Having this knowledge will help to define the triggers to get the user to make a decision and ultimately make a purchase or form an opinion on your business.
Three brains one strategy
If you want to make a sale, you’ll need to be able to speak to all three of the user’s brains.
Primal Brain: Focus on safety - we feel safe when we are in familiar surroundings. If we feel like we’re in an unfamiliar place, feel threatened or unsafe we will be less likely to purchase something.
Take away: How professional is the website or brand? How intuitive is the software interface?
Mid-Brain: When making a purchase you want the Mid-Brain to make a perceived ‘Value Judgement’, you want the user to have an emotional response and make a judgement based on the emotional value to them. E.g: “I’m going to treat myself”, or “I’m doing a good thing donating to this charity”.
New Brain: Most rational thoughts are made after the event, evaluating the decision , such as “Did I do the right thing?, “Did I really need to buy that product?”and “Was it worth the money?”, so you should never let the user feel unhappy about a purchase; They should never feel tricked into buying something.
Take away: It is important to remember the sales strategy continues after the purchase has been made!
What can you do?
· Make the user feel safe.
· Design a website, software product or brand that feels familiar.
· Make them feel happy.
· Enable the user to justify their purchase in retrospect.
Why?
A viable sales strategy creates a continuous cycle:
PIC
it speaks to its users = customer satisfaction and loyalty = Repeat customer!
Who doesn’t want that?
UX Consulting
If you’d like to build a strategy that enables you to define and understand your users needs, values and actions, contact us for a free 30 minute consultation.
Reference
www.neuropsychotherapist.com/the-triune-brain
https://spinalresearch.com.au/three-brains-head-heart-gut-sometimes-conflict/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator
