by Tom Reilly

The heart has reasons reason cannot understand. (Blaise Pascal)

For the past couple of years, I have invested my professional study time in the fascinating and emerging field of neuromarketing. It is the nexus of neuroscience, marketing, behavioral economics and psychology. Researchers are mapping the human brain to gain deeper understanding of our perceptual and cognitive processes. Simply, they are studying our decision-making process. For salespeople, this insight is vital to our understanding of how customers decide. After reading dozens of text books, articles, and scientific studies, I have come to this conclusion:

Humans are pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding, cognitively biased, emotional and irrational decision makers that prefer simple, sure-fire solutions that generally result in trade-offs.

If this statement makes you scratch your head, that is my intent. Read this again. Think about it. Study it. Once you feel you get it, send me a note with your interpretation of this. Caution: There is a lot to work with here. You may find that you need a couple of Holiday Cheer refreshments to lubricate your minds.

Have a blessed and great holiday season!!!

Tom

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