Usually, when people make purchases they do that with their emotions, and only afterwards they justify their decision with logic.
Thus, if you want to make your business a successful one, you have to go deeper in psychology of people and understand the ways of using it to differentiate yourself from the competitors and take your company to the next level.
So, why do people buy?
Psychology can be applied to all aspects of sales and marketing, and here are some motives why people make purchases and how they come up with these decisions.
1. Utility: why should I buy this?
Utility is considered to be the satisfaction that people get from consumption of specific goods. In other words, utility is the satisfaction and value that people get from that product. People pay not for your product/service, but for the utility they are going to get from it. There are two main motives for people to buy products:1. To get rid of their problems
2. To create results they desire
So, we can see that people do not make purchases to help companies get more revenues, but because they have some needs that must be satisfied. To become successful, your business needs to focus on “THEM” instead of “YOU”. Only when you start creating something unique for your customers, you will get people to buy whatever you offer. People need to see the urgency of buying your products and clearly see the utility they will get from it.
2. Credibility: Why should I buy it from you?
The second thing that affects people’s psychology when buying products is credibility. Most of the time, people buy things from those companies/individuals whom they trust most of all. So, after people see utility in what you are offering, the next thing they pay attention to is credibility. Is your company a well known one? Are you able to give them that utility? Do you deliver your promises on time? Are there any reviews related to your company or products? All these questions are crucial for consumers to make purchases.
3. Relevance: Why should I buy it now?
After the buyer notices the utility in your product and makes sure that your company is the one whom he/she should trust, the next question that comes to his/her mind is: how the product being sold is relevant to my needs and my situation? This is perhaps the most important reason for making purchases. In order to succeed in this phase as well, you need to have two very important skills: the ability to ask the right questions and the ability to listen carefully.
To show the relevance of your products, you need to go deeper in people’s psychology. Usually, it is very difficult for people to express their desires until they are skillfully led. Therefore, if you ask the right questions and listen to them carefully, then they will be much more open with you. In psychology, this phenomenon is called Freudian slip. According to many psychologists, if you let the person speak and listen to him/her carefully, then he/she will eventually say what problems he/she has.
So, the job of businessmen is to create an environment, where people will feel safe and feel. By creating such environment, you need to ask questions to find out their real needs and understand how your product can be relevant to them at the right moment.
Now, when you know why in reality people buy, I’m sure you would like to know what are the steps you should implement for making people buy your products and making them your customers. Here are some psychological triggers to use for increasing the number of your customers and for doubling your profits.
We cannot deny the fact that me, you and others like novelties. It is proved that novelty makes people feel pleasure, and it’s the main motivation they need novelties in their lives. Let’s think for a moment. Why Apple continuously releases iPhone models one after the other? We know that there are no big differences between iPhone models, like between iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S. Yet, there are huge queues in Apple Stores, when the new model is released. The answer is in people’s psychology. So, to convince people make use of your products/services, try to create some novelties, innovations or just make some small updates to your existing products.
Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, who is a psychology professor at the University of California, found that our minds are continuously looking for meanings and explanations, even if there is no meaning in the specific thing. The probability that people will do things you want increases when you give them a reason to do so. Thus, while promoting your products, make sure to explain their benefits and reasons you are selling that product.
People have been storytellers for many centuries. This is how stories have been transferred from one generation to the other. Stories make people feel an experience without really experiencing it. It is how people are taken to the other world where they can feel all the emotions that the storyteller had once. So, when you find stories about your product to tell your prospects, such as success stories from your existing customers, the chances increase that the number of your customers will double, because they would like to feel the same emotions themselves.
- Create excitement and anticipation
Have you noticed how many people are waiting for the iPhone’s next model to be released? The same goes for sport games. Months before the Super Bowl, there are millions of fans waiting for the moment when they can drink beer and support their favorite teams.
Anticipation is considered to be one of the key stages in happiness. When there is something good people are waiting for, it creates positive emotions in them and it brings happiness before the event actually happens.
To conclude, the more you know about your prospects, the better. If you know how to make people happy with your products, then the success will accompany your business throughout its existence. That is why it is so important to understand consumer psychology and create your marketing strategies based on that.
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