In my last post I shared the first 4 of the 7 buyer decision drivers.
Here are the final 3.
BUYER DECISION DRIVER #5 – Create “extraordinary value.”
Have you ever shopped for something and found yourself looking for the lowest price? Ever wonder why? As we stated earlier, all human beings, no matter who we are or what we do, we all want the best deal. But what is the “best deal?” Is it really the lowest price?
There’s that old saying that you get what you pay for. Would I shock you if I told you that your prospects could care less about price? They shop price because they’re forced to. Let me explain. What prospects really want is the best “value” for the price they pay. They’re more than willing to pay double the price if they perceive that you’re giving them four times the value. Now they know they’re getting the “best deal.”
So then why does price seem to matter so often? It’s because so few businesses are actually “unique.” They all look the same… and they all say the exact same things. They say things like “we’re the best, we have the lowest prices, the highest quality, the best selection, the most convenient hours and locations and we’ve been in business since 1431 B.C.”
We call these platitudes, and they mean absolutely nothing to your prospects. That’s because everything just mentioned was about the business, and your prospects don’t care one bit about your business. All prospects care about is themselves. They want to know how they will benefit from what you sell. How will their life improve if they purchase your product or service?
If what you sell solves a problem in their life… or if it removes a major frustration, fear or concern, then they see your product or service as “valuable.” Again, we call these problems, frustrations, fears and concerns “hot buttons.”
So after you select your niche market, you must find out what the “hot buttons” are for that niche market. And then ask yourself openly and honestly if your business offers a solution for those hot buttons. If you don’t, you need to “innovate” and create a solution. If you do offer a solution, is it unique… meaning is it really different from your competition… and does it offer extraordinary value? Or is it the exact same solution your competition offers? If it is, then you and your competition are doomed to forever compete on price.
You must “innovate” your business to create a unique, extraordinary solution that separates your business from all competitors. You see, there’s no magic involved in selling. All you have to do is find out what your prospects really “want,” and then give it to them.
Prospects love to buy, but they hate to be sold to. When you know and understand exactly what they want, and then you innovate your business to give them what they want, you make your business the obvious choice for them to buy from. They want to buy what you sell, and don’t need to be sold on anything.
Your job as the business owner is to make sure your business offers them exactly what they want, and that means positioning yourself in a niche market, and then innovating your business to give that niche exactly what they’re looking for. That creates “extraordinary value.”
BUYER DECISION DRIVER #6 – Be able to communicate your uniqueness and extraordinary value.
You must create a highly targeted, laser-focused message aimed specifically at the prospects in your niche market so you can tell them you have exactly what they want. We refer to this message as your Compelling Competitive Advantage™ that gets delivered in an “elevator pitch.” It’s basically a ten to thirty second mini-commercial for your business. We often refer to this as your “million dollar message.”
That’s what you can make when you get this right. We have had clients in the past that went from five figure annual incomes to six figure monthly incomes within sixty days of developing their highly compelling elevator pitch. But again, that pitch has to highlight the way you overcome their hot buttons in a unique way that offers extraordinary value. When you say your elevator pitch to a prospect, and they respond by saying “how do you do that?” then you know you have a terrific elevator pitch.
BUYER DECISION DRIVER #7 – Prospects buy what they want… not what they need.
This is another big one to never forget. This one ties back to the fact that prospects buy based on emotion and they only use logic to justify their purchase. When you “need” something, you’re drawing a logical conclusion. The problem is this. Prospects may or may not buy what they “need”… but they always buy what they “want.” Where needs are based on logic, “wants” are based on emotion. Here’s an example.
You look at your 3 year old car and notice the tires are almost worn slick. So logically you say to yourself, oh no, I need new tires. Oh heck, they’ll last a few more months. Even though you need new tires, you don’t want them. Why? They’re not cheap to replace… it’s inconvenient for you to take the time to hunt for the best deal on tires… then you have to make an appointment to have them changed, and then there’s the inconvenience of having to have it done while you wait two hours for the work to be completed. In short, it’s a hassle.
Now consider this scenario. You just purchased a brand new car, and as you’re leaving the dealership, you see the same car you just bought with a new style of tire on it that really compliments the car. In fact, it doubles the beauty of the car in YOUR eyes. You “want” those tires. Even though they’re twice as expensive as the ones you have already purchased… and the hassle factor is the same as the first scenario… you WANT those tires… and so you will have them. The first situation involved logic, and the second situation involved emotion.
So never forget that prospects buy what they want… not what they need. It all goes back to emotion. If you can create marketing messages that hit these major fundamentals, you will absolutely dominate your competition.
To Your Success
Scott
