The John F. Kennedy School for Government at Harvard University recently released a study that found that even momentary sadness causes people to increase spending.

We know, as persuaders, that consumers buy based on their emotions and gut instincts. Part of how we access these emotions is through criteria elicitation and appealing to their core values. The Harvard study, entitled, "Misery is Not Miserly: Sad and Self-Focused Individuals Spend More" will be published in 'Psychological Science' in June 2008. The study shows that people spend more when they are in sad or inwardly focused states of mind as opposed to people in neutral states of mind.

When we as persuaders use anchoring and peak emotional states to sell, we are utilizing a feeling of self focus (and on occasion, sadness, especially in the case of people with an 'away from' orientation.)

The researchers incited a heightened self focus with the participants and combined that with the participant being shown either a sad video clip or a neutral video clip advertising the product in question. The people who watched the sad clip offered 300% more than the neutral participants.

My guess is that a positive, happy and upbeat video clip would have had the same effect of increasing spending. Why? It's an increased emotional state. If the researchers were aware of towards and away orientations, they'd have further developed a deep understanding of peak emotional states.

The towards and away continuum is powerful in determining how your prospect responds in specific contexts. Not everyone views the world through rose colored glasses. There are people who will respond positively to a negative associations.

In the instance of financial advisers, when you determine if your prospect is towards or away, you can fashion the language you use to their orientation. Eliciting a prospect's criteria will give you their trigger. Say that criteria is 'security'. By asking the question, 'What will having financial security do for you?' you will find your prospect's orientation.

If they say, 'Well, I'm tired of worrying about my finances. . .' That's an away from. If they say, 'Well, I just want to stay in control of my finances. . .' That's more of a toward orientation.

With the away from person, you don't want to be optimistic, just as with the toward person, you don't want to be pessimistic. Tailoring your language in such a way that you bring more "pain" to the away person and more "ease" to the toward is really the key to selling.

While the Harvard study has some interesting points, I don't think they got all of the story.

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.