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Is Fear Really a Great Motivator?

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: The idea behind Provocative Selling is basically to scare the heck out of your customer by creating Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about their business and its future. Since when did fear become the primary motivator for customer relationships?

Is Fear Really a Great Motivator?

My friend David Brock and I were discussing the idea of Provocative Selling this week. The idea behind Provocative Selling is basically to scare the heck out of your customer by creating Fear,

Uncertainty and Doubt about their business and its future.

Unfortunately this revamp takes a turn to the dark side. The strong implication is that to sell more in this tough economic time, we need to:

• Find or create terrifying outcomes our customers haven't thought about,

• Build a pile of evidence around that threat, and then

• Go scare the bejezus out of our prospects so they buy from us.

Since when did fear become the primary motivator for customer relationships?

Is that really the foundation we want? Do we believe such relationships will last? Ask yourself, "Would I trust someone who scared me to get my attention?" Maybe if I was going to step off a cliff, but in this case we're talking about making big mountains out of tiny molehills.

It's not just the article that has me on my Soapbox. It's the trend I see all around me. We market and sell around fear. Watch TV and you'll see how we've devolved.

• We have pharmaceutical ads for a limitless stream of scary diseases with oh-too-familiar symptoms.

• We have legal beagles looking for folks with every form of cancer, accidental loss or long term hangnail. You too can sue!

• Or there's everyone's favorite slime marketing - the poor old lady whose fallen and can't get up. I think that's the lowest - tapping into our elderly population's biggest FEAR to drive revenue.

Fear pops up everywhere in our daily lives. I don't know if the politicians started the trend or if they just picked up on a corporate dynamic. It really doesn't matter how this slippery slide started.

What matters is how we pivot toward the positive.

I know, there are experts who will defend the use of fear as a strong motivator in business and personal situations. There will always be those who view fear and intimidation - the Shock and Awe tactic - as the best way to motivate audiences, employees and partners.

I personally don't believe or support the idea that fear is a great motivator. How can anyone believe that relationships, based on fear have staying power.

I think it's time we took a hard look at our own marketing and sales tactics.

• Are we motivating our audiences with visions of opportunity for improvement?

• Are we offering to help them solve the problems that most matter to them?

Or are we scaring them into submission? What do you think? I think it's BAD form...tell me why I'm wrong!

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Article Tags: business growth, customer relationships, defy gravity, doubt, fear, leadership, motivator, provocative selling



Related Forum Posts
Re: What or Who Sparks Your Business Interest - It's interesting to see what the different motivations are by Age Category. I've noticed this around me: 20 to 29yr olds: Motivator: Money 30 to 39yr olds: Motivator: Success/Ambition 40 to 49yr olds: Motivator: Family comes first 50 to 59yr olds: Motivator: Leaving a legacy i've only gone that far in my analysis. Of course this is a braid generalization but I find that it helps direct my marketing to individuals in different age brackets. The product/service can be the same but the Marketing message (Benefit Statement) to a 20 year will revolve around "Money" vs. a 30-something would be on their "Self Image"
Re: Fear of Success - You don't need to fear success. We should embrace it. Fear is define by a man of God as False Evidence Appearing Real. the meaning is what we fear most does'nt come to pass
Other Great Books... - Feel The Fear And Do It AnyWay - Susan Jeffers How To Stop Worrying And Do It Anyway - Dale Carnegie ('What's the worst that could happen - the worst?' Then prepare yourself for that and reality is such a relief!).
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Oct 8, 2010 - these are great! In particular, I liked "you’re already perfect" and "Smashing through the Black Wall of Fear." That's exciting that there is a new 4-hour book out. I really enjoyed "The 4 hour Workweek."
Re: How to Promote Your Blog – The Definitive Guide to Promoting - Great information. Thanks so much for your help. I'm looking into google indexing right now and I'll be improving SEO moving forward. I checked out your blog and sites, too. Great content. Thank you...


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