In her book Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success, Colleen Stanley makes a case for the need to develop emotional intelligence in sales. This largely consists of being able to read people’s reactions and master ways to control the conversation so it leads towards a successful result.

Since a business website is largely a sales tool, it begs the question: can your website content be emotionally intelligent?

Our answer is that it must be, even when the conversion goal is not a closed deal, but just generating a lead.

For the lead-generation website, this falls back on neuroscience, and specifically what Seth Godin calls the Lizard brain.

The lizard brain is the amygdala and limbic system.   This is the oldest part of brain, with characteristics we share with reptiles.

The amygdala is necessary for our survival. It triggers the flight or fight response, causing us to react without rational consideration.

Of course, if the car in front of you slams on it’s breaks, this is a useful reaction. You hit the breaks without thinking. If you took the time to contemplate what you had to do, your reaction would be too slow.

This fight or flight response in sales, however, is bad news for the salesperson.   And it’s a problem that’s far worse with today’s skeptical, hyper-informed digital consumer.

It happens when the prospect gets the sense that you’ve cut into an aggressive sales mode.   In a face to face sales meeting, the salesperson might:

• Display aggressive body language like leaning forward or making excessive eye contact. Their speech gets loud and quick, their tone sharp.
• Go into a product dump to try to show how knowledgeable they are.
• Start asking overly specific questions
• Use clichés like “you get what you pay for” or “our success is your success”.
• Discount price too quickly.
• Agree to stalemate by offering more information or a proposal when one is not warranted.

With a lead-generation website, the biggest content issues come in with ABC: always be closing.

This is the overly aggressive sales tone that activates the visitors flight or fight: uh-oh, here comes the sales pitch. Let’s get outta here!

Here are some typical set-ups and leading questions that modern consumers want to flee from:

• What will it take to get you started today?
• Limited time offer! Act now or lose out!
• If we could solve this problem, would you be ready to move forward?

This is just to name a few. But just consider the last couple for the modern consumer.

They know they can always go online to find a deal. There isn’t really such thing as a limited time offer online anymore.

And the old “if we could solve this problem…” Duh. Yes, of you could solve the problem it could work, but you haven’t demonstrated you can solve the problem, or that’s what you’d be talking about.

Website content that talks like an old school salesperson is unlikely to connect with today’s consumers. Today, we live in the connection economy, where the connection itself is often as important as the service the business is trying to sell. The problem for the traditional method is that nobody wants to connect with someone who always takes – and that’s exactly how the ABC salesperson is perceived.

So what can you do to connect with modern consumers on your website?

Balance your communication.

As Stanley suggests, you need to move beyond the amygdala.   Instead of reacting with fight, balance your argument.

For example, she talks about the “safe approach”, where you are open to giving information with a non-threatening tone.

So instead of: Are you having problems marketing your business on Adwords? (This question, starting with “are you” immediately triggers a defensive response in the prospect. They start thinking “If I say yes, they’re going to suck me into their sales pitch”).

You say: Maybe you’re in a good position to do Adwords yourself, but if you’re not, it’s worth it to learn more about our services. We can save you time and get you lower cost-per-click, making better use of your budget.”

Furthermore, your call to action is more likely to offer some free information on how to better manage Adwords than it is to just try to sell your management services.

Why? Because it acknowledges what we already know: if someone wants to get trained in Adwords, they can. Google offers resources for free, as do many other marketing websites. State this honestly, then give your alternative, and you avoid triggering the lizard. Try to shove the close down their throat and they’ll run for their lives.

So much has changed in the last 20 years. If your sales pitch hasn’t it’s certain you’ll have trouble connecting with today’s consumers.