You are thinking about starting a new business soit’s important to know why people buy. You want to make a lot of money. To do that, you need to sell something. You have an idea, but it is not great. Here are the secrets of psychology that will help you generate ideas that turn into life-changing businesses and products.
Buyer psychology is the hidden key to creating new ideas that ignite businesses, products, traffic and marketing campaigns. In this post I will teach you how to unlock the power of buyer psychology. This post will teach you how to use the secrets of buyer psychology to easily generate groundbreaking ideas that quickly turn into life-changing businesses, products, traffic and marketing campaigns.
When a prospect is considering a product or service, the #1 question on his/her mind is “What’s in it for me?”
The not-so-smart marketer will try to answer that question by simply listing the features of a product. But the smart marketer — usually by painting a compelling visual picture –explains how the features will benefit the consumer.
So in your sales copy, you may list features, but you’ll want to be sure to describe the benefits they offer. That’s the way to answer “What’s in it for me.”
Why People Buy?
See if you can you pick out the feature vs. the benefit in the product sales lines below:
- Widget Motorized Golf Caddy mean no more huffing and puffing on your way to the 18th hole
- Widget Umbrella Policies protect you and your house for up to £250,000 so that you can sleep in peace even when there’s a tornado on the horizon.
In the first example, the feature is a motor that pushes the caddy, but the benefit is not appearing out of shape when you stagger, out-of-breath to the 18th hole. The umbrella policy feature is a tangible quarter-million pounds of coverage, but the benefit is peace of mind.
Consumers buy products and services for their reasons, not yours. It’s the reason you’ll want to use the word “You” more than the word “We” in your messages. When you present the benefits of your products or services, frame them with your prospects’ emotional interests in mind, not your own.
Can you see the difference in the two pitches below?
- Widget sells the best lawnmowers in the county
- Your lawn will look better with less work with Widget lawn mowers
In the first pitch phrase, the message is about the company “We are the best.”
In the second, the message is about the consumer, “You won’t have to work hard to make your lawn look better.”
Message #2 is the perfect answer to every consumer’s question: “What’s in it for me?”
Even if they’re the nicest people in the world, your customers and potential customers don’t care about you, your philosophy, or your business. But don’t take it personally. They don’t even really care about the technical specs of a product, either.
Their concern is much narrow.
What “floats the boat” of a consumer are the benefits they’ll receive from buying a product or service:
- how it will make their lives easier,
- how it will make them irresistible to the opposite sex,
- how it will make them the rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Don’t say you’re great in your marketing efforts; demonstrate the benefits of buying from you, using specific facts and figures. Tell your prospect in simple, straightforward language how your products or services are better than all the rest.
It should be all about them and very little about you. Everything you say and write should answer the question “What’s in it for me?”
Consumers are especially interested in extra incentives, bonuses, and “value-added” packages because when they’re considering a purchase, they’re constantly trying to figure out what they’ll gain.
Food for Thought – “Greed” Self-Exam
Want a simple well to test whether your copy is good for the greedy? Count the number of “I’s” you have in your text and then compare it to the number of “You’s.” and you’ll know in an instant whether you’re writing to your prospect…or to your ego.
If your offer is greed oriented, then words and phrases like “money”; “get rich” ; “six-figures”; and “make money easily” will excite your readers. Ideally you want to use many small, one syllable words that your prospects can relate an emotion to.
Pick five or six key words that will stir up the need for greed and plant them liberally throughout your marketing copy to spark the emotional reaction that’s the catalyst for a sale.
Greed, no matter what anybody says, is a part of the human psychological make-up. Everybody wants more…especially for less. If your message promises to help the individual get a bigger piece of the pie, then it will attract attention and generate sales.
Just remember: Greed is good. Maybe not from a societal point of view, but from a marketer’s perspective, it sure is! But its a human trait we all need and if we didn’t have it we wouldn’t function. It’s good to learn yourself and others so that you can create an authentic message which resonates and attracts. Remember that your intention is what its all about, so come from an abundant mindset of serving others as that will help you stay humble genuine. Even if you are speaking to the prospects greed, your intention is to help them solve a problem. So tapping into these things is not bad as it boils down to the intention behind what you are doing.
We Are All More Susceptible To Persuasion Than We Think
- Emotion – people buy with their hearts, not their minds
- Logic – how we use our mind to justify what we want to do emotionally
Aren’t Today’s Consumers “Wise” To Sales Psychology
One thing that psychologists will tell you is that there’s a big difference between what you know in your mind and what you feel in your heart.
Despite all consumers know about how advertising and marketing works…despite all the built-in sales resistance they’ve developed over a lifetime…despite KNOWING that a salesman’s job is to convince us to do what’s good for him (buy the product)… Despite everything we know:
We are all more susceptible to persuasion than we think
The essence of marketing is helping prospects make the right decisions — the decision to buy from YOU. If you can get a handle on the emotional reasons your customers use to justify their decisions, then you can push those emotional hot buttons in all your printed materials, advertisements, and presentations, as well as in your face-to-face meetings and on your website.
Are you marketing to your prospects hearts or to their minds? If your marketing materials and presentations lead with a presentation of your product’s features and/or your own credentials, you’ve lost before you’ve even begun.
Why? Because…
BENEFITS appeal to EMOTIONS
FEATURES appeal to LOGIC
LOGIC JUSTIFIES EMOTION and EMOTIONS DRIVE SALES
Emotional marketing, the ‘psychological operations’ side of sales campaigns, is used to overcome any objections consumers may have about making a purchase.
Just as on any battlefield, the most effective psy-ops ‘weapons’ are the least obvious…stealth operators that work regardless of who is doing the selling or what exactly they are selling.
Food for Thought: Might for Right
The mind-influencing sales language and techniques which get used are powerful…effective…and at times virtually irresistible. They can actually give you a somewhat unfair advantage in dealing with people who aren’t familiar with them.
This means you must use what you learn with care, applying what you learn in an ethical way to unsuspecting consumers…and not try to cheat people. Because proven tactics can alter the mindset of your prospect and can make them at times unable to resist what you’re offering. Because as you come to understand the mind of the consumer…and as you learn the how-to’s of emotional marketing, you’ll be able to tap into emotional states to craft your message in a way that resonates with your audience and compels them to take action. So use what you learn wisely and lead with value so it benefits prospects and one way you can do this is to come from a place for serving, sharing and an abundant mindset. As a wise internet mentor once said to me “I truly believe in abundance and infinite opportunity.”
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