Accentuate The Hate

In widely reported remarks to Reuters this week, ‘creator’ of the ‘internet’ in 1989 that we know today – interesting branding/pitch fact, before he plumped for World Wide Web, he’d called it Mesh – Tim Berners-Lee spoke one line that caught my eye;

“If you put a drop of love into Twitter it seems to decay but if you put in a drop of hatred you feel it actually propagates much more strongly”

He was talking about the perils of social media in general, although specifically here name-checking the short message echo chamber-cum-broadcaster.

I instantly thought of several conversations I’ve had where those connected with Sales have wondered why people aren’t interested in the wonderful positives their magical wares bring.

The simple truth alluded to above is contained within that benchmark favourite, prospect theory. (As I first blogged on way back in 2008, which also has its own wikipedia entry.)

In a shoot-out between making money or saving money, better to slant towards the latter.

To use more Solution syntax, preventing pain leads to way more decisions than possible pleasure.

It’s the old story that buyers move when they need to solve a problem. The nastier the quicker. The trip to rainbowed horizon lands of unicorns tends to seldom sell a ticket.

After all, what about that most classic of b2b selling themes; FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt)?

So, when you’re crafting your next pitch, consider whether the message is of love and doomed to decay, or if in fact, you focus on the hate (aka pain) they wish to negate, and so destined to thankfully propagate your fix.