As a salesperson, do you try to appeal more to your buyers’ intellect or emotions? If you said “intellect,” you may want to consider a different strategy. Like it or not, emotion plays a role in your prospects’ buying decisions, and it’s up to you to trigger that emotion. Entrepreneur recently featured an excerpt from Craig Simpson’s book, The Advertising Solution, in which Simpson discusses the importance of selling with emotion. He shares his admiration for ad legend Robert Collier, who believed in the power of psychology when promoting. As a seller, you can be more successful by effectively using psychology to influence your buyers.

A key to successfully tapping into buyers’ emotions is to be subtle. "Of course, people don’t want to feel as though their emotions are being manipulated," Simpson explains. "They want to believe they’re making decisions based on logic (i.e., you have to placate that good old cerebrum).” The challenge is to target the buyer’s emotions while selling to the buyer’s intellect. Before contacting the prospect, think about what emotion(s) the prospect needs to feel in order to buy. “From there, they must consider what kind of argument should be presented to inspire that feeling in readers so that taking action will become irresistible,” Simpson writes.

He goes on to provide an example of two letters. One is written to appeal only to the intellect, and one appeals to the emotions. He explains that the emotional letter is more effective, noting that you need to make buyers feel good about what they are buying and themselves.

So, take a moment to consider your own selling strategy; you may find more buyers saying “yes” when you appeal to their emotional side.