At KU Innovation Park’s recent Lunch and Learn, Grant Gooding, founder and CEO of PROOF Positioning, unpacked more than a decade of research on how people make decisions. The takeaway? Emotion drives action. If your messaging is built on logic alone, you might be missing the mark.
Business is emotional
Customers don’t buy based on rational analysis. They buy based on how something makes them feel. Even in B2B transactions, human emotion is at the core. Gooding shared that people may rationalize decisions after the fact, but the decision itself happens in the emotional center of the brain.
That means your job isn’t just to inform but also resonate.
Focus on benefits, not features
Your audience doesn’t care how your product works. They care what it does for them. Talking about features may sound smart, but it rarely connects. Instead, emphasize benefits that feel personal: Will this save me time? Make my life easier? Help me avoid a headache?
When customers understand the emotional upside, they’re more likely to act and more likely to remember.
Hear from PROOF Positioning founder & CEO Grant Gooding on communicating your company’s selling point objectively vs. subjectively.
Speak their language
Vague buzzwords like quality and trust don’t create clarity. Specifics do. Gooding recommends translating your values into tangible “proof points,” simple statements that show rather than tell.
It’s not about having excellent customer service or even saying you have it. It won’t connect with a customer unless they experience it. An example would be giving a client your cell phone number. Concrete actions build emotional resonance. Using the word trust doesn’t mean anything until you show up on time to an appointment or meeting – that’s a unit of earned trust.
One message ≠ universal
There is no one-size-fits-all pitch. Different roles within the same organization respond to different value triggers. A CEO might care about innovation, while a purchasing manager prioritizes reliability. Gooding encourages tailoring your message to the audience because relevance wins attention, and attention drives decisions.
Bottom line: Emotion is the engine of innovative business, not the enemy. Understand how your audience feels, and your message will have a stronger landing, stick longer, and convert better.
