Games, sales and hearts are won when the subconscious of the audience is considered. We humans don’t make buying decisions based purely on features and benefits. There are years of information, tons of life experience and beliefs that effect what and when we are going to buy.

I was reminded of this in a recent cottage rendition of the party game Cards Against Humanity

The final black card drawn asked this…

Q: When I am a billionaire I shall erect a statue to commemorate                              .

After 7 white answer cards were collected and shuffled, the Card Czar, announced the winner. The point went to the answer…

A: The heart of a child.

If any of you have ever played this card game, the answers are usually a lot more colourful and soul destroying. But in this case the player knew her judge. The judge or (Card Czar as is called in the game) just happened to be a Director of Innovation and Education at a College. A slam dunk supporter of the advancement and education of everyone, but of course, especially of children.

In a recent article on the same topic, the Harvard Business Review reminds its readers that selling is happening all the time. From ideas to our bosses, dinner menus to our children, date night options to our beloveds and products and services to our customers we are all in the business of selling and when we think with our customer in mind our chances of closing get better.

This is what we marketers do and you can do this too. We try to understand our audience as best we can by asking and answering a series of questions. Some of them can sound like this:

What drives the prospect?

What do they worry about?

What are their values?

What do they really desire?

What keeps them up at night?

What insecurities can be alleviated?

When we can tap into a better knowledge of our target audience, their deep-seated patterns of thinking and their mindset we have a better chance of connecting with them and therefore helping to solve their problems with our solutions.

As the article states….”Think like a marketer and tap into your decision-makers’ subconscious as well. To win at work, just like in the marketplace, your business ideas need to win the largest share of mind.”

Who are you trying to sell to? What does your target audience really think and what will help them to understand that you are the perfect solution. Spending time on these questions with your audience in mind will never be a waste of your time.

And like the other night when the winning card was laid, the player of the card said – “Yes, but look at who my audience was?!…it was the only option for the win.”

She was right.