Illumin Blog

#7   Identify Customer Motivators

My husband and I started looking around at cars almost a year ago knowing that our son's baby gear would soon overtake our 4-door sedan. The new car would really be for my son and me. Cars aren't of great importance to me, they're merely a "vehicle" to get me from point A to point B. However, since this would be "my" car and we were spending a lot of money, I was striving to get both what I wanted in the car--various features, as well as what I needed--space.
 
Through this process I observed how sales people worked with us and how identifying very critical information--customer motivation and the bottom line--was not addressed.

Find the Client's Trigger Points

Why is the client considering your product or service? Most buying is based on one or more of these emotions:

• Pain - feeling of stuck or overwhelm, don't have answers, or know where to find them
• Fear - of making a wrong decision, the unknown, being "found out", losing control
• Pleasure - desire to feel good, to do good, to reward oneself or others

Clients may have one or more trigger points. The more trigger points you can identify, the greater your opportunity for a sale. For us, the purchase of a new car was addressing the pain of being in a car that was becoming cramped with baby gear and encroaching on our son's space which we felt was dangerous - fear.

Is the Purchase a Want or Need?

Appeal to both your customer's wants and needs to increase your rate of success. Often clients don't know what they need, but they know what they want. Customers often justify spending money, or spending more money, than they may have budgeted for, if they are emotionally (want) triggered, rather than intellectually (need) driven. Once you uncover what they want, you can show them how it can be applied to what they need.

Strive to get a clear understanding up front of what the motivation is behind your customer's want in purchasing your product or service. Ask questions to determine which emotion(s) is motivating the purchase. In our case, we already owned a car so it wasn't a need. We could have worked with the space limitations. Rather, it was a want driven by my husband's desire to drive to work. We both wanted our son in a safer car, and I wanted more leg room and storage space.

Offer Benefits, Not Features

Look at your marketing--websites, brochures, advertising and collateral. Are you offering benefits or features? Because most purchases are driven by emotion--pain, pleasure, fear and want--we are usually seeking an emotional salve. The more ways you can articulate benefits that meet these emotions, the greater the chance of a sale.

In our case, we wanted the benefits of an easy to clean interior, warm bums in winter, easy entry into our narrow garage, and legroom. The features that provided that were leather seats, heated seats, power fold side mirrors and more cubic inches interiorly.
 

Know Who the Real Client Is

Do you have a product or service that is intended to be used by one demographic, but is often purchased by another? Men's retailers are a great example. The product line is designed for men, but marketing will target women since wives and girlfriends often buy for their guys.   

Find out who is the real client, or user, of your product or service. If you're selling services to corporate clients, should you be targeting the manager who is experiencing the day-to-day challenges of a problem or someone more senior who has the ability to approve the expense, or is responsible for the revenue for that division--or both?

During our car hunt, most salesmen addressed my husband regarding the car. What a mistake! Since the car would be "my" car, the decision of which car we bought would ultimately be mine.  

What's the Bottom Line?

As customers, we all have a bottom line. It could be financially based (need), emotionally based (want)--or both. Your goal is to uncover your client's bottom line and provide solutions to meet that bottom line as painlessly as possible. In order to do that find out what the customer is willing to negotiate or compromise on in fulfilling their ultimate need or want? Where are they not willing to compromise? When the bottom line is met, customers often find rationale for spending more.

My husband and I had a set budget for our new car, yet we spent $5,000 more! We didn't get a car with leather seats, power side mirrors or heated seats. But we did get a car that was a lot more spacious. We passed on the other features. Why? Because we wanted the benefit of more interior room. More space was our bottom line.

Getting to the Bottom Line

• Ask probing, open ended questions. Also, don't be shy about asking the client what is their bottom line. Is it emotionally driven (pain, pleasure, fear)? Is it a want or a need, or both? Is it financially driven?
• Listen to what is being said, and not said. Listen for intonations that express joy, anxiety, frustration, excitement, enthusiasm and hope.
• Watch facial expressions and body language. They are key indicators of what is resonating for the client or not.
• Do prospect and client surveys to elicit wants and needs in a non-confrontational or anonymous way.
• Run focus groups that are fun and engaging to elicit direct feedback on client's desires and wants, on where clients would negotiate on your product, or not.