Every time you walk into a store or pick up the phone to place an order, something has prompted you to take action and buy. Have you ever stopped to consider what that notice was? What thought went through his mind that led him to put his hand in his purse or wallet?
It all comes down to motivation: what motivates you to buy. Understanding your customer’s motivation will help increase sales and profits! So let’s spend some time looking at what motivates people to buy and how you can apply this knowledge to help make your business more successful.
Motivation: 3 basic drivers
Any purchase boils down to satisfying a need, a want, or a desire. These are 3 separate stages. You usually have to get your needs met before you can progress to meeting wants and needs. Let’s take a look at each of them in turn.
Needs
Abraham Maslow, in his work on needs, highlighted that at the basic level, before we can consider ‘improving’ ourselves, we have a set of requirements that are essential for survival. The most basic of these needs include food, water, heat, and shelter. This is a mass market draw, from the big box supermarkets to the corner store. You sell in the ‘needs’ category and are looking for high volume, low margin.
Aside from the odd special promotion, you rarely see the local store’s advertising; they know that they will always get a basic trade because they are meeting necessities (a bottle of milk at 9pm!).
Unless you have great market penetration, you will never make a fortune just by filling needs. Find another market if you want a luxurious lifestyle!
Wants
You’re getting hot now! You are entering the realm of people who have satisfied their basic requirements and can afford to climb the ladder to satisfy their desires.
These are ‘nice to have’ items, not essential, but they make life more comfortable. A car, a TV, a CD/DVD player – usually a decent standard of living. To capture the market of satisfying people’s wants, you will have to do a little more work on two fronts.
First of all, the customer can take it or leave it. At the end of the day you may not really need it, so you need to clearly highlight the benefits. Second, there is always someone else offering the same product. Today, it could be argued that wants, for many people, have become needs, so there is an element of mass selling in this sector. You are up against many other companies offering your product; you have to advertise, make people value you above your competition.
You will earn a decent living and create a decent business. But you should want more than this! For greater success, you must find a product that satisfies desires!
Wishes
Desires spring from emotions. Large and profitable sales are achieved thanks to emotions. Why? Because if someone has a burning desire to satisfy, then logic pretty much flies out the window! Someone who buys on emotion will pay a high price – a handsome profit for you.
If you’re in the want-satisfying business, then you’re probably selling niche products or services, something that doesn’t have mass-market appeal. You target people who are happy to pay a premium to get what they want. Heaven for a businessman!
Understand the real motivator
Having identified the 3 buying motivators, the next step in selling effectively to these groups is to see what the underlying need, want or want is. Having an idea of what drives your customer to buy means you can tailor your sales message accordingly.
The need motivators
· Eat and drink – to stay alive!
To keep warm
have shelter
To be healthy and clean
To avoid the pain
To ensure general safety and protection.
The motivators of love
To be socially acceptable – “everyone has one”
· To look and feel good: sex appeal!
To save time or money
To improve overall comfort levels.
The Motivators of Desire
Although some of these may be similar to Desire Motivators, Desire Motivators are more emotion-driven and therefore the need to achieve is more passionate – money is hardly an issue.
sexual attraction
To improve social position, not only keep up with the neighbors, but be better.
to show love
gain prestige or impress
Be popular
Recovering a forgotten youth
By comparing the various motivators, you can see that selling to the desired group can be easier and more profitable. They have more money and so you don’t have to work very hard to sell your product. All you have to do is find out what motivator is pressuring them to consider buying and exploiting it! There is nothing better than being in a niche market.
Steps to follow
In short, here are the steps you can take:
Identify which of the motivators you are trying to satisfy: needs, wants, or desires.
Talk to your customers and find out which of the specific motivators drives them to buy
Tailor your sales pitch and advertising to match
Spend some time thinking about and studying your customer’s motivation and you’ll be handsomely rewarded.
© Robert Warlow
small business success
