Compel Customers To Buy, Buy More, and Pay More
In medicine, practitioners talk about situations that are “necessary and sufficient” to cause an outcome.
It might be necessary to have the influenza virus in order to get “the Flu”. But just having the bug might not be sufficient to mean you necessarily get sick.
Lung cancer might be caused by smoking. But smoking doesn’t explain the whole reason why we get lung cancer. After all, some people who do smoke never get lung cancer – so smoking isn’t sufficient to cause lung cancer by itself. Likewise, some people who get lung cancer have never smoked – so smoking isn’t necessary to cause lung cancer.
In the same (and much less dark) way, having an attractive offer is a necessary ingredient for making a sale.
But a great offer isn’t sufficient to guarantee your offer will sell successfully.
If you’re frustrated that your customers are buying your competitors’ inferior product instead of your superior offering – then what I’m writing here is for you. I’d like to help you to outshine your competitors’ offer in ways that make the decision to buy from you (and not your competitors) obvious and clear for your customers.
Because sometimes you need to give a good offer a “nudge” – and make it even more attractive – and put your product ahead of your competitors’.
We’ve already looked at how people buy on emotion.
We’ve looked at how emotions are driven by fulfilment of our core survival needs – as individuals and as a species – and how emotions are a hard-wired survival urge that helped to guide our ancestors through billions of years of evolution.
So we know that improving the attractiveness of an offer means we need to make it appeal to a customer’s core needs better.
Now, having (hopefully!) already built an incredible product – it’s time to look at how you might meet the customer’s needs best, and maximise the number of prospective buyers you turn into committed customers.
The American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, first published his prioritised hierarchy of needs in 1943:
Maslow wrote that human beings begin by fulfilling their base (physiological) needs, and once those needs are met they begin fulfilling their higher level needs: safety; then love and belonging; then esteem; and finally self-actualisation.
It’s a good place to begin talking about crafting an offer that is as attractive as possible – because it lays out all of the potential needs we could address in making our offer more attractive.
Often, if a business owner wants to increase sales, the first place where they think to tweak their offer is around price.
Pricing addresses needs on the second level of Maslow’s Hierarchy, as it conserves someone’s limited resources of money.
Often it’s effective.
But it’s not always wise.
Reducing prices might increase sales volumes – but ignoring the fact that it slashes your margins – it might not be the best way to meet your customers’ core needs
Perhaps your customers’ greater need is an achievement need – and that offering a higher level of done-for-you service helps them to achieve a more successful outcome.
For example, in an office context, an employee might be tasked with purchasing a new coffee machine. Wanting to appear competent (and be rewarded for a job well done!), and not wanting to risk the ire of under-caffeinated colleagues complaining about a job poorly done, the employee might be very willing to pay more to choose a provider who offers coffee machine installation.
And the manager who assigned the task to find and purchase a coffee machine also has needs too. They may want to increase productivity by preventing employees from slipping out for lattes during the workday, increase employee retention, and gain kudos for being “a great boss” for making such good coffee readily available.
Suddenly we see the coffee machine sale isn’t about the coffee machine as a product…
…It’s about all the needs that sit around the coffee machine.
And most of these needs have very little to do with the machine itself!
If we can pinpoint the specific needs that your offer addresses, we can avoid competing on price, and instead offer huge amounts of perceived value that helps us to charge more, enjoy bigger profits, and develop a competitive advantage in our marketplace.
We also make the product more attractive to our existing consumers – meaning we increase sales without needing to increase our marketing budget.
And we increase the number of potential customers outside of our existing customer base who may find our product attractive enough to buy – because it addresses their needs too. And that’s because when we look at the needs that your product addresses, often we find that the needs that are motivating your customers to buy mean your products are competing with a very wide range of different products – some that seem completely unrelated to yours.
For example:
A plumber, a plunger, a packet of Draino, a bathroom renovation, and a new house might all different solutions to the same problem: an unhygienic and smelly blocked drain.
In the same way that a new computer, an upgrade of existing parts, a clean-up of your hard drive, or using different software might solve the same problem: a frustratingly slow computer;
A hot dog, a salad, or a 7-course degustation paired with matching wines might all solve the problem of hunger;
Or that same 7-course degustation, a a picnic at a favourite romantic spot, a weekend away, a gift of jewellery, or a self-penned song might help to build intimacy with a romantic life partner.
So you’re not simply competing against companies that sell the same product – you may also be competing against companies that sell seemingly unrelated products that fill a very similar core need.
Let’s break down Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and look at the potential (deeper) needs that your product might address:
Self Actualisation
Gain clarity of purpose; Avoid confusion and lack of clarity.
Gain ability to act and be influential / self actualised; Avoid people, situations, circumstances, etc that would prevent self actualisation;
Enjoy greater levels of creativity; Avoid creative blockages;
Solve problems, be autodidactic, achieve mastery;
Gain mastery of self (habits, beliefs, prejudices, etc); Avoid habits, beliefs, etc that hold you back from greater being;
Gain deeper understanding of facts, and a more complete understanding of the world;
Enjoy expressing yourself through spontaneity;
Become wealthy;
Provide (intergenerationally) for children, and children’s children;
Leave a legacy;
Esteem
Enjoy greater personal self esteem, self-talk; Avoid negative self-talk;
Gain greater confidence in stressful, or social situations; Avoid loneliness and lack of belonging;
Gain a sense of achievement, or pride of accomplishment; Be recognised for that accomplishment; Avoid a sense of being “lost” (as one’s self), or being overlooked (by others);
Gain the respect or admiration of peers; Be envied by peers;
Be more attractive to potential sex partners; Avoid rejection of potential sex partners;
Gain career advancement; Avoid “languishing” or rejection in your career;
Love/Belonging
Enjoy the love of a spouse, partner, or significant other; Avoid their criticism or rejection;
Enjoy belonging to a greater family unit or tribe; Avoid rejection or criticism of family/tribe;
Develop deeper and more meaningful relationships with friends; Avoid loneliness and isolation;
Enjoy (and develop deeper bonds of) sexual and emotional intimacy with a partner; Be known;
Enjoy the acceptance of peers in a professional context; Avoid professional isolation;
Safety
Ensure the safety, security and protection of your own physical body, life and wellbeing; Avoid physical harm;
Ensure your own mental and emotional wellbeing; Avoid harmful risks to your mental and emotional wellbeing.
Enjoy security of employment and income; Avoid professional risks;
Enjoy present financial security; Avoid risks, investments or spending that may create financial insecurity;
Enjoy a financially secure retirement; Avoid insecurity over the long term;
Enjoy better (or maintained) physical health; Avoid risks to your health, or bad health itself;
Ensure the security of your possessions and property; Avoid theft, loss and damage;
Ensure the security and safety of family members; Avoid loss or harm to loved ones;
Enjoy security of beliefs and morals; Avoid attacks on your beliefs or morals;
Enjoy a sense of ownership over your own time; Avoid sales pitches and other time-wasters.
Physiological
Avoid hunger; Eat enjoyable foods;
Avoid lack of nourishment; Eat nourishing foods;
Avoid a lack of energy; Maintain (or enhance) energy platforms;
Avoid tiredness and fatigue; Enjoy better rest and clarity of focus and decision-making;
Avoid unclean water; Enjoy clean water;
Avoid being unfulfilled sexually; Ensure sexual needs are met;
Enjoy stability (homeostasis) as an organism in your environment;
Ensure successful waste excretion;