From The Detroit News | By Ken Calverley and Chuck Breidenstein
DETROIT, February 5, 2024 ~ We love to spend money.
If that weren’t true, credit card usage and personal bankruptcies would not be so prolific.
In what other place and time do people spend for portable personal currency counters, personal home vending machines and, for those who have been drinking and don’t know it, a personal digital alcohol breath tester?
We have heard of the $80,000 bath remodel that was undertaken because a client “saw one last night ” and had to have the same thing, or the couple that spent $150,000 on a new kitchen that included two each of every high-end appliance even though they admitted “they never cook .”
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We buy dirt, rocks, water, flowers, manure, and, for that person with no paper or pen, cards for every special occasion imaginable.
One of the largest purchases we routinely make is for one of the most plentiful gemstones on Earth, a diamond, because we not only love her today, but tomorrow and forever.
The keys to inspiring separation of a buyer from their money is knowing what motivates them.
First, we all have needs, and if a provider fulfills that need we will buy.
A leaking water line inspires a call to the plumber while a desire to have that really cool touch-screen device we’ve seen on television and in the hands of all our friends motivates us to overspend for a camera that happens to include a phone.
Second, we all negotiate based on our needs. Whether we are working toward a date with that special person we just met, making promises to our creator to get us out of a mess, or shooting for that bigger, better, newer purchase we just have to have, all of us negotiate at some level.
Quid pro quo is a common motivator. We exchange items or promises of similar perceived value, whether on Valentine’s Day or the first day of school trying to get that 5-year-old to step on the bus.
Urgency, like in the case of that leaky pipe or lost heat on a cold winter day, is a prime motivator.
Fear can motivate. Envision the ads for a home security system where they show a vulnerable woman with young children inside the home being scoped out by a darkly dressed male after dark.
Fear of loss motivates as shown by the proliferation of those “today only ” deals or those “only good for the next five minutes .”
Status often compels us to buy. A famous automobile badge from years ago was known to be very undependable, yet buyers who paid a lot of money to own these cars never surveyed them badly. A negative survey might indicate they weren’t the sophisticated buyer they felt themselves to be.
Great companies understand these motivators and structure interactions with potential clients to cement consumer relationships.
The ego is also a primary incentive to purchase.
Why else would a designer product have a label on the front that declares, “Look what I bought ?”
Price status can be important. When people bought a half-million-dollar home for $300,0000 in the depths of the depression, they still wallowed in the belief they were in a $500,000 dollar house.
Buyers need to feel good about a purchase. But “feel good ” can manifest in other ways as well.
Experiencing a trouble-free purchase has become huge for buyers, so smart companies do their best to create a predictable experience for buyers.
You can see this in the simple acquisition of a fast-food meal where the food is often mediocre, rarely fast, often unhealthy and never cheap; but it meets the criteria of being predictable.
Buyers want to feel involved with purchases. They don’t expect perfect unless you allow them to; but they do want to feel acknowledged. In support of this is the fact that, while around 80% of satisfied buyers are loyal to a company, that number jumps to over 90% when a company successfully handles a complaint or problem related to the initial purchase.
Negotiating tactics are the stuff of good sales and marketing. Just make certain you understand the issues in play for every transaction and commit to always dealing with ethical professionals like those you can find every day at InsideOutsideGuys.com
For housing advice and more, listen to “The Inside Outside Guys InsideOutsideGuys.com
