When you’re speaking to prospects or clients, writing persuasive emails, or creating presentations, it’s important to think about the emotions behind what you’re saying. By evoking the right emotions, you can increase your chances of closing deals. People are moved to action by emotion responses. They buy in part because of their emotional state.

When communicating with prospects and buyers, you want to make them feel something, and then make them act on those emotions. This is key to success in sales.

Here are the most important emotions to evoke.

1. Guilt

Guilt is a powerful emotion, one that people want to make go away. Non-profit organizations are often very successful at gaining donations because they trigger the feeling of guilt in their audiences. They write sad stories about abused and injured animals and about starving children to make you feel bad, so you’ll donate.

2. Trust

Trust is an important emotion to evoke if you want to gain new business. Buyers will distrust you simply for the fact that you’re trying to sell them something. And you absolutely need to be able to overcome this distrust. Many companies are doing it, like financial companies that market “no hidden fees.” Trust is critical in sales, so this is a feeling you can’t forget to work on.

3. Fear

Deep down, your prospects have a lot of fears. Fear of failure, fear of inefficiency, fear of letting down their bosses. Fear of losing revenue. The list goes on. By targeting these fears and showing your prospects how you can eliminate them, you can sell more efficiently. For example, if you sell insurance, you can use messaging like “don’t lose out due to inadequate insurance.”

4. Value

People love to get a good deal. They feel successful and proud of themselves if they get good value. And this is a great emotional trigger, particularly if you have higher prices. You can appease the prospects’ price concerns by showcasing what value they’ll get for their money. Throw in some free shipping, free installation, or training and you’ll be closing deals much faster.

5. Belonging

Very few people want to be alone and feel lonely. Most people want to belong—it’s human nature. And buyers often purchase products or services in order to feel like they’re part of a group. Companies appeal to this by telling audiences that working with them is like “being part of the family.”

6. Competition

Most people are competitive by nature, at least a little bit. You can use this competitive desire to your advantage by showing prospects how your products or services will make them better than their peers.

7. Loss

People don’t want to lose out on a great deal. They don’t want to regret not taking action and missing out because of it. That’s why sales people often use words like “for one day only,” “now,” or “within 24 hours.” It makes people who might be hesitant to purchase that much more motivated to make a quick decision. It’s one of the best tried-and-true closing methods to use.

8. Time

Your buyers are busy in their work lives and in their personal lives. They want to do it all but have very little time to do so. That’s why sales messages that appeal to the desire of more free time are so effective. Showcase how convenient your products or services and how much time the buyers will save with it.

9. Pride

Pride is a particularly important emotion to evoke when it comes to alpha leaders, many of which are decision makers at big companies. The thinking is if they make the decision now and make the right decision by buying your product or service, they’ll look smart, and this will make people proud of them.

Morale of the story? Don’t sell the product, sell the feeling.