The 4 Reasons People Buy
This is the inside of my 1980s refrigerator. I think you can see the problem…
This past week, I decided I had to buy a new refrigerator.
As I found myself ramming two heads of Romaine lettuce into a small open cavity on the top shelf of my fridge, a jar of salsa slipped and fell on my foot.
Then the coffee creamer.
It was time to take action.
And so began my adventure into the world of appliance shopping. I pulled out my personal budget, checked for the next major holiday, and started looking online for deals.
When a consumer is ready to buy, the window is often open for only a short period of time.
How do you position your brand to take advantage of that window?
What was it that caused me to actually complete the sale? What tipped me over the edge? And what happened that made me feel good about my decision?
What if I told you there are 4 primary reasons people buy a product or service…?
If you’re in the business of selling something, wouldn’t you want to know what they are?
You better believe once I learned what they were, I made some critical changes to my marketing and sales process that have led to higher conversions.
I have a feeling you will too.
As you read through this blogpost, I want you to imagine a recent high-dollar purchase you made, and see if these four factors didn’t weigh into your decision-making process.
Then ask yourself if you’re leveraging them in your current business. My goal is to help you imagine how you can engineer these elements into your business to turn your warm leads into paying customers.
Reason 1: Solution to a problem
A sale often starts because a customer has a problem: My lawn needs to be cut. My tooth hurts. I’m hungry. My refrigerator is too small.
Figuring out what problem you solve for your ideal customer is crucial for driving sales. If you know what it is, you can highlight the problem in your face-to-face sales pitch, in your website copy, on your fliers, in your email marketing, or even your next Facebook ad.
Copywriters use this technique all the time as part of their sales pitch “formula” – identify the problem and agitate it so that a customer feels like you understand their pain.
What many business owners don’t know is that there are actually two kinds of customer problems – external and internal.
The external is just the obvious “surface” need you meet.
For a farm business, it might be “hunger.” For a chapstick company, it might be “dry lips.”
But the internal problem is deeper. These often reflect the other deeper feelings that are driving the sale.
And this is the stuff you need to dial into when it comes to marketing.
In my case, it wasn’t that my refrigerator was old, but
- that I was sick and tired of always having to re-arrange my overflowing fridge.
- Or fed up with condiments falling on my foot.
- Or annoyed at the lost time spent hauling gallons of milk out to my walk-in cooler.
- Or that I was embarrassed to invite guests into my kitchen to see a rusty 1985 refrigerator in my newly-remodeled kitchen.
- Or that, at the age of 44, I feel entitled to the fancy fridge I’ve always wanted.
Do you see all those internal feeling words lighting up?
Here’s the thing:
Customers don’t buy solutions to external problems. They buy solutions to internal problems.
So what is the internal problem you solve? How does your customer’s life transform after consuming your product? What results do they feel or experience?
Answer these questions and it will help you immensely as you engineer the words and sales pitch to attract them.
Reason #2: Logic and Research
After a customer feels a problem or identifies something they need and want, they will begin the research phase.
Buying is a very emotional process. As a result, the logical part of the brain needs to justify the decision to buy – especially if it’s a high-ticket product.
I wasn’t going to shell out $2000 for a fridge without first doing some research! So what did I do?
I jumped on the internet and looked at different models. I educated myself on the features, colors, sizes, options until I felt like I had a good idea of what I was looking for. I even asked my friends on Facebook, and got a lot of tips to help guide my decision.
As your customer prospect begins the research phase of their buyer journey, what will they find out about your business? Have you positioned your offer in such a way that it gives people the information they want to know? Do you make it clear how their life will be better after they use your product?
Or is your website so confusing that people will leave after 10 seconds?
Reason #3: Social proof and testimonials
This is big.
Before customers buy, they check for ratings and reviews. (You know I’m right!…)
In fact, while on Lowe’s website shopping for my fridge, one of the first things I looked for was the number of star ratings. Anything with a 3 or lower was passed over. I also skimmed the reviews looking for recurring issues. Several products were discarded from consideration based on the comments I read from actual customers.
There’s nothing as powerful as a referral by an existing customer.
In my CSA, my biggest lead generator is my current customer base.
When you embrace the reality that potential new customers need to experience social proof to get them to decide to choose your product, you will quickly create a mechanism to meet this need.
At the very least, your website should have a few well-written testimonials strategically placed in your sales copy. I’ve also seen Facebook ads and videos that are simple case studies of real customers who share how the product has helped them.
If you have an e-commerce platform, turn on the reviews and ratings feature. I also print postcard-size marketing materials to give to my CSA members, with instructions to share them with a friend.
Reason #4: Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
You may get a customer to a place where they like what you have to offer, and can even justify the purchase – but a highly-converting offer will include some kind of reason why the customer should buy now.
I was motivated to buy the fridge when I did because it was Memorial Day weekend, and I knew that the special sale price would disappear on Tuesday. “Fear of missing out” on the deal compelled me to make the decision.
Giving your customer a deadline for a special offer is a great strategy, but in order for it to work, the special offer has to expire. An open-ended generic offer that is “always available” is not as effective because people need to be given a reason to buy now.
Last fall was the first time I executed the FOMO principle in my CSA sales process. I created a short-term 2-week “launch” period where I marketed heavily to my email list, pitching a special valuable “bonus” if they signed up by the 2-week deadline. When the deadline came, the bonus disappeared and the price went up.
By the time the launch was over, my 2018 season was 94% full.
Yeah, I freaked out too. You can see why I’m a big believer in this marketing stuff now.
Knowing the 4 reasons people buy has been a game-changer for our business because it gave me direction on where to invest my marketing attention to get the biggest return. When you reinvent your sales system so that it leverages these 4 principles, you will help your customer feel ready to finally pull the trigger and make the sale.
And if you play your cards right, they’ll be buying from you.
By the way, I bought a SAMSUNG 25.5 cubic foot, French-door, stainless-steel refrigerator from Lowe’s for $1249. It arrives June 8.
And I am unbelievably excited about it.