Intellectual vs. Emotional - Grasshopper

If you ever have the occasion to make a pitch to someone, business, personal, or otherwise, you would be wise to consider the approach you want to take before you take it. Intellectual or emotional are your choices.

Intellectual proposals usually work with like-minded people, especially those interested in facts and figures. Emotional approaches dig deeper than the data and target your heartstrings.

 

It may come as a surprise to you that most decisions we make are emotional and then we justify them after the fact with the facts.

 

With that in mind, it’s more productive to appeal to someone’s emotions more so than their intellect, especially if we want to connect.

 

Reminds me of a story . . . Years ago NLP pioneer Richard Bandler told a tale about an obsessive-compulsive woman who routinely vacuumed footprints on her carpets away soon after they were made. She sought his help. It was mainly her children making the indentations in the carpeting. Bandler could have easily cited all the reasons not to vacuum so often but knew those suggestions wouldn’t hit home.

 

After a little probing about her habit, he asked her to imagine this: How perfectly vacuumed the carpets would stay when her children were old enough to move away. That’s all it took. The footprints now served as a reminder of how much she loved having her children around.

 

You may have the most sensible line of reasoning at the ready, but many aren’t ready to respond to that offer. They need a little more suction than intellectual deduction.

 

All the best,

John

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