Why People Buy – According to the Experts
People change when the consequences of staying put are worse than the consequences associated with changing. There is a large body of psychological and organizational research concerning the dynamics of change. The research shows that the decision to change is usually made as a response to negative situations and, thus, is driven by negative emotions. People change when they feel dissatisfied, fearful or pressured by their current problems. Similarly, customers are more likely to buy in those same circumstances. Conversely, people who are satisfied with their current situation are unlikely to change and thus unlikely to buy.
However, it’s not what they think about the notion of changing its how they feel about it that matters. Good businesspeople know to focus on the consequences associated with action or inaction and people’s feelings and emotions associated with those consequences.
Dale Carnegie may have been the very first person to articulate this fundamental truth about marketing and sales: “When dealing with people, let us remember, we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”
Similarly, Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach explains it this way: “Humans are emotional beings first and foremost, who use reason to make sense of their emotions. You may use every rational argument to demonstrate why it makes sense for them to do business with you, but if you don’t appeal to them on an emotional level, you’re just another salesperson – and you may be missing a big part of what’s influencing their buying decisions.”
The late Bill Brooks of the Brooks Group put it a little differently. One of his favorite lines was “People don’t always buy what they need; but they always buy what they want.” Think about it for a minute. Do most people eat more granola bars (what they need) or candy bars (what they want)? Do they eat more bran muffins (what they need) or sugarcoated doughnuts (what they want)? Do they prefer to buy beer or books? Do they initially work to solve problems they really need to solve or the ones they want to solve? Needs are intellectual, while Wants are emotional.
If people bought only what they needed, 80% of our GDP would evaporate. Ultimately, the world doesn’t really care about your products and services. It only cares about how those offerings will help it to eliminate the problems or dangers it’s most concerned about, or focus on and maximize the opportunities it’s most excited about.
For lack of a better word, this gap – the gap between what their current situation is and what they would like their current situation to be – is what we call “Pain”. There are many emotions that drive people’s behavior including pain, fear, pleasure, hope and curiosity. However, the most compelling of these emotions is pain.
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