Simple Marketing, pt iii

What Is My Customer Buying?

From this earlier post you now know who your customer is and where to find more of them.  The next question to answer is why do they buy from you.  So you have to determine what benefit your customers pay for.  To get best results, employ a skilled marketing consultant to guide you in this exercise.  But if you're determined to go it alone, you can get great mileage performing a thought experiment to uncover the true benefit your client realizes buying from you.

I explained in a previous column that people buy emotionally, not logically.  Our consumer culture so artfully manipulates us that we are often unaware of our own motivation.  For instance, examine the process of buying a new car.  Why does someone buy a new car?  What wants or needs does it satisfy?

Initially one might think a person buys a new car for transportation.  But wouldn't that be the last reason anyone would buy a new car?  Sit quietly and think about owning a new car.  What is it that one really wants out of the experience?  The new car smell?  The shiny object itself?  The lower mileage?  The monthly payments?  ("Hey, wait a minute...!")

If you sift through all the rationalizations you will uncover your emotional motives… you want it because it's exciting.  You can't wait to sit behind the wheel and drive something so sleek and elegant.

But we still haven't drilled down to the base reason.  You want the car because it's elegant?  What need does that satisfy?  So return to the thought experiment and imagine yourself behind the wheel of that car.  What thoughts and feelings are you experiencing?  Are you visualizing taking your sweetheart out in the car?  Or your friends?  Is it going to keep your kids safe or serve as a chick magnet?

If you sit long enough, you’ll sift through all the rationalizations and arrive at the fundamental emotional needs that buying that new automobile will supposedly satisfy.  Now do this for your product or service from a prospective client's point of view.

Once you've determined the emotional reasons your customers buy, couch your presentation to appeal to those emotions.  In your ads explain the benefit you can provide in a way that excites their senses.  Your objective is to make them want your offering more than their money.  The more time and energy you put into this exercise, the greater the return you'll realize.  We'll be honing your copy during the testing phase so we just need a good starting point.  If you don't get the marketing message perfect the first time, it'll improve over time.

Next week we’ll continue to develop your marketing plan.  We'll calculate your customer’s value to the company so you can determine what return each advertisement will produce.  That will define the cost per customer for your various advertising media which will allow you to plan your optimum advertising mix.

In one of the next few columns I'll discuss a proven easy method to ramp up new employees and get managers more invested rapidly.  This will greatly reduce turnover and build company morale.  I'll also be sharing a fantastic way to get your salespeople talking to more decision makers or what sales calls bypassing the gatekeeper.  It's a common problem among sales staff and this is a really cool original method to build instant credibility while getting the gatekeeper to put you right through to the right person.  There's lots more coming so stay reading.  If you haven't already subscribed, you can get this column delivered into your inbox as soon as its published by entering your email address on the upper right above the subscribe boxes.  Until then,

profitable business All!