The Power of Visual Experiences

Customers judge with their eyes

By Jeremy Miller

Susan Boyle, of Britian's Got Talent, rocketed to fame in April 2009. To the media's amazement, physical attractiveness was not a good predictor of her singing ability. Susan Boyle proved that singers don't have to look like Britney Spears or Beyoncé Knowles to have talent.

On the surface the Susan Boyle story seemed ridiculous. Why was a great singer who was not a beautiful twenty-something making international headlines? Then it dawned on me. Appearance does matter. As a society we have been conditioned to judge value with our eyes. All of the singers we are exposed to on a daily basis are attractive and work hard to maintain their image. MTV foreshadowed this event with the first music video they aired in 1981: "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles. Celebrities don't achieve fame today without a total package.

Our eyes are our primary source of information. Whether surfing the Web, watching TV or reading emails on a Blackberry, you are dependent on your eyes. Technology has conditioned us to interpret and judge information visually. We evaluated Susan Boyle first with our eyes, and then were shocked when we heard her voice. The auditory experience was contrary to our visual expectations. Visual expectations are a big topic – much bigger than music and celebrities. Our visual dependence permeates all areas of society, and has a direct impact on how we sell complex products and services. Your customers are judging your company and its products with their eyes.

Take a moment and evaluate your company from a visual perspective. Look at everything a customer could see. Look at your products and their packaging. Look at your website. Take note of the images, the layout, the fonts and the colors. Look at your building and its surroundings. Look at the employees, and consider their facial expressions and body language. What do you see? What do these images say to you? Do you get a consistent message from each visual interaction?

The point is not to hire super models, and work in fancy office towers. The point is to evaluate what you are seeing, and determine if every visual interaction creates a consistent brand experience. Your eyes should validate what you read on the website and hear from a sales person. If there are any gaps in this experience, it will create doubt in the customer's mind.

Apple is a great example of a company that gets the visual experience. Their products have a distinct design and appeal. That style is reflected in their website, their ads and the people representing them in the media. When you walk into an Apple Store you are greeted by sales representatives that embody the Apple brand and look the part. The reps are young, hip and authentic. You can judge Apple solely with your eyes, and walk away with a positive experience. That's the kind of experience you should be striving for too.

Many sales forces defer visual questions to the marketing department. Marketing is responsible for advertising. Marketing is responsible for the website. Marketing is responsible for how your company looks. That may be true, but your ability to sell is directly linked to your customers' visual experience.

Your customers are judging your company with their eyes. Let's consider an example. You meet a new customer at a tradeshow. The meeting goes exceedingly well. You answer all of the customer's questions, and your products fit all of their needs. It's a great first meeting. That night the customer returns to his hotel and Googles your company, and up pops your corporate website. What he finds is a dull, disorganized site with stock photography. The site is filled with marketing mumbo jumbo, and is not visually appealing at all. How do you think the customer will remember your meeting when he wakes up the next day? Chances are the mixed experiences will put doubts in his mind, and he won't remember the meeting as positively as you did.

Sales people feel the repercussions of poor visual experiences. Sales people work very hard to build relationships, and demonstrate the value of their products. They rely on their product knowledge and interpersonal skills to connect with their customers. Yet all of their hard work can be shot down with a poor website, because your company is sending out mixed signals. The customers get one message from the sales people and another from the Internet. Which one do they trust? The mixed messages cause customers to oscillate between the two experiences, and try to determine which one was correct. This doubt may motivate them to seek out other answers, or engage more vendors in their selection process. No matter how you slice it, it's an uphill battle for the sales people. Now they have to work even harder to demonstrate the value and credibility of their products.

An organization can't expect its sales people to be successful if they are hindering their credibility with poor visual experiences. Customers are not basing their decisions just on what the sales people say. They are going online and validating that experience. They are using all of the technology at their means to make a sound purchasing decision. That means they are evaluating your company and your products with their eyes. Technology forces the customer to look at the information being presented to them.

Susan Boyle was at the right place at the right time. Her performance was contrary to the audience's expectations, and in the process she gained fame. She was one in a million. An organization cannot grow its sales with the same logic. Your customers have expectations. They expect their vendors to demonstrate their full capabilities at every interaction. If they don't, the customers question the capabilities of the organization. A negative visual experience creates doubt in the customer's mind. Sales and marketing have to come together to create a consistent customer experience. It's not just the sales people's responsibility to win sales.

Jeremy Miller is a Partner with LEAPJob. LEAPJob is a sales and marketing recruiting firm in Toronto, Canada. You can reach Jeremy at Jeremy.Miller@LEAPJob.com or 905.281.3090, Ext. 22. For more information on LEAPJob please visit http://www.LEAPJob.com.