← Box #7 Disqualifying · BOX #8 EMOTIONAL FAVOURITE · Box #9 Won Sales Analysis →
Become the person they call you first
when they’re ready to buy.
The Doer Beats the Expert
74% of customers choose the person who brought value first. 37% of the time, the person who is easiest to do business with wins — regardless of product quality or price. Being the emotional favourite means your prospect trusts you, likes you, and feels connected to you before the sale even happens.
You cannot outspend larger competitors on marketing. You can outrelate them through personal connection. The doer — fast follow-up, quick replies, consistently present — beats the expert who is hard to reach every time.
How to surface AVI without being forced: Before any call, spend 5 minutes on your prospect’s LinkedIn profile. Look for sports, causes, schools, or side projects in their bio or recent posts. Ask “how long have you been managing this location?” and listen for what they mention next. You do not need to engineer common ground — you just need to be genuinely curious. The information surfaces freely when you are actually paying attention.
The AVI Framework
Propinquity — the feeling of closeness — grows fastest through genuine common ground. Use the AVI framework to find three types of overlap between you and your prospect. One strong AVI connection accelerates trust faster than any product demo. It takes 90 hours to make a friend, but shared AVI cuts this dramatically.
Aspirations
What they want to build, achieve, or grow into. Shared aspirations bond people quickly because they reveal where someone is heading.
Values
How they treat staff, how they think about quality, what they refuse to compromise on. Values overlap creates deep trust.
Interests
Hobbies, sports, family, causes. The easiest dimension to surface — and often the fastest way to build genuine connection.
A — Aspirations — What they want to become, build, or achieve V — Values — What they believe matters and refuse to compromise on I — Interests — What they spend time on outside of work
Build Trust Through RIPES
AVI creates propinquity — closeness. RIPES tells you why they’re buying emotionally. Match your relationship style to their primary RIPES driver and every interaction lands harder.
| Driver | What they want | How to match it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R | Risk Avoidance | Proven, safe solutions that reduce uncertainty | Lead with case studies, testimonials, guarantees |
| I | Image | To make themselves or someone else look good to stakeholders | Show how choosing you reflects well on their judgment |
| P | Productivity / Expenses | Same money, more done — or same output, less cost | Lead with ROI, time saved, cost reduced |
| E | ESG | Values alignment and social impact | Share your mission, your practices, your community ties |
| S | Simplicity / Speed | Ease of use and fast implementation | Lead with "set up in 10 minutes," not feature lists |
Example: restaurant managers consistently value Simplicity/Speed — emphasize ease of setup and fast results, not AI features.
- Invest in propinquity. Find common Aspirations, Values, or Interests (AVI) with your prospects. Shared backgrounds, shared challenges, shared networks all accelerate relationship development. You do not need all three — one strong overlap is enough.
- Show up consistently. The doer wins more than the expert who is less available. A manager emails you at 9pm — reply within the hour while their current vendor takes 3 days. Fast follow-up is the cheapest relationship investment you can make.
- Find excuses to connect. Do not wait for a sales reason to reach out. Connect on LinkedIn, comment on their posts, share relevant articles. Forward a labor-shortage article to 5 prospects with “Thought of you when I read this.”
- Be visible and findable. Google Business profile, LinkedIn presence, email signature with phone. They need to have heard of you before they will buy. If they can’t find you, you don’t exist.
- Speak their language. Say “know who is working today” not “workforce visibility optimization.” Match your language to theirs and they feel understood — which is the fastest shortcut to trust.
- Bring a second person to every customer meeting. Founders default to 1-on-1 meetings because it feels simpler. But adding a second person makes you 3× more likely to close. This is one of the highest-leverage changes you can make and costs nothing. Shadow meetings, peer introductions, or even a second team member joining a call all count.
Validating Your Emotional Favourite Status
Three signals that confirm you've earned the relationship advantage.
Test 1: Do They Call You First?
When your prospect has a question, do they reach out to you before calling a competitor? If they're calling you first — before anyone else — you are the emotional favourite. If not, you're still just a vendor.
Test 2: Have They Introduced You Without Being Asked?
Has the prospect introduced you to other people in their network without being prompted? Unsolicited referrals are the strongest signal of emotional favourite status — they only happen when someone genuinely trusts you.
Test 3: Are You Connecting for Non-Sales Reasons?
Are you reaching out to prospects for non-sales reasons at least once between meetings? If every touchpoint is a sales conversation, you are a vendor, not a trusted relationship. One genuine, non-sales connection changes how they see you.
ICP: Maria — new owner-operator of a non-chain restaurant, scored 9/10 in your disqualifying matrix. Now you need to win her over as a person, not just a product.
AVI Discovery: During the intro call you learn Maria coaches her daughter's soccer team on weekends (I = Interests). You do too. You spend 3 minutes on this before talking business. Propinquity established.
RIPES Match: Maria's driver is Simplicity/Speed — she needs scheduling fixed fast, not a feature tour. Every interaction you lead with: "It takes 10 minutes to set up and your team is running it by Friday."
The Doer Move: Her current software vendor took 3 days to answer a support ticket. You reply to her 9pm email by 9:45pm. She mentions this to her business partner. You are now the benchmark.
Non-Sales Touchpoint: Two weeks later you forward her a restaurant industry article on staff retention with: "Thought of you — ties into what you mentioned about scheduling fairness." No ask. No pitch. She replies within the hour.
The Result: When she's ready to buy, she doesn't send out an RFP. She calls you first.
"It's not the expert that does the best — they're the second worst person. The doer wins."
3 Common Mistakes
- Relying on expertise instead of reliability. Many founders think “I know more about this space than anyone” will win the deal. It won’t. The doer who shows up reliably beats the expert who is hard to reach. Reliability beats expertise every time. Instead, find one shared AVI — Aspirations, Values, or Interests — with every prospect, then show up reliably until you’re the person they call first.
- Treating every touchpoint as a sales conversation. Founders reach out only when they have something to sell — a demo to book, a follow-up to push, a contract to close. If every interaction is transactional, you are a vendor, not a relationship. Vendors get replaced on price. Instead, connect for non-sales reasons at least once between every meeting — comment on their posts, forward a relevant article, share industry news with no ask. One genuine non-sales touchpoint changes how they see you.
- Skipping the second person in meetings. Founders default to 1-on-1 meetings because it feels simpler. But adding a second person makes you 3× more likely to close. This is one of the highest-leverage changes you can make and costs nothing. Instead, bring a second person to every customer meeting — and when they choose you, Box 9 shows you the 5 questions that turn every win into a pattern you can replicate.
What’s Next
Download the fillable Traction Canvas template and map your AVI overlaps with your top 5 prospects.
Work on Box #9 — Won Sales Analysis. Emotional Favourite gets you to the close — Won Sales Analysis documents which relationship tactics actually converted, so you can repeat the pattern on every deal that follows.
← Box #7 Disqualifying · BOX #8 EMOTIONAL FAVOURITE · Box #9 Won Sales Analysis →