Understand What People Buy to Succeed in your Business

Understand What People Buy

You wake up every day to go to your business. When you sit in your store and receive or don’t get any clients, do you ask yourself why it’s like that? Do you try to understand what people buy? Have you ever endeavoured to know the psychology of your buyers? Are you aware of the factors that affect consumer buying behaviour? In brief, why do you think you buy goods and services?

Well, as you reflect on the above points, let me reveal to you that people don’t buy from you to give you money. They don’t come to your business to satisfy your financial needs. They instead want to fulfil theirs.

For instance, when someone buys a beer from a bar, it’s not just alcohol that they want to consume, but to enjoy the fun or social interactions with friends or family members perhaps. Likewise, when you go to a salon for a haircut, maybe it’s not short hair that you like, but the outcome of looking good.

So when you are in business, it’s essential to understand what people buy. They either want to satisfy a positive or avoid a negative outcome. The two situations I have mentioned in the preceding paragraph are clear examples of positive results. On the other hand, when you purchase a tracking device to install in your Smart TV, it’s not the tracking gadget per se that you need. What you want is to recover your television if, by bad luck, it gets stolen by thieves. You are trying to stop the negative occurrence of losing your valuable asset.

Do You Now Understand What People Buy?

Why People Buy Goods

By now, I believe you have some idea of why people buy goods and services. You have known that your customers spend money buying what you offer to either move towards pleasure or away from pain. Fear to lose can be as significant a driving force as pleasure in gain.

Let’s further look at some of the examples of the outcomes that people buy in various purchasing contexts.

• Benefits – For instance, people don’t buy a car for the sake of owning it. They instead want to fulfil the advantage of travelling in comfort, getting to their workplaces safely or even impressing the world.
• Protection – People buy guns to protect themselves against criminals.
• Move away from pain – The pain of losing a car to robbery drives people to install tracking hardware or alarm systems in them.
• Happiness – People spend money on someone they care about because they feel happier with them.
• Avoiding losing money – People purchase insurance covers to guard themselves against losses.
• Solutions – People go to dentists to stop toothache either by removing the teeth or sealing them.

What I have mentioned above are just a few examples of the outcomes people buy.  But there are others like value, freedom, advantages, results, avoidance of worry, prestige, reward, pleasure, improvements and much more.

How Is Understanding What People Buy Helpful?

Sell Products & Services

When you are aware of what your customers look for when they search out your products or services, it helps you to market your business effectively. Why? It’s because you create marketing messages that have a much greater impact or influence.

For instance, instead of telling your prospective clients to come and engrave their laptops, you tell them to prevent their laptop computers from being stolen by giving them a custom touch. The latter suggests an essential value or outcome that you, as the service provider, intend to satisfy. It’s more motivational and appealing than the former which just presents the laptop engraving service.

In another example, a bank that tells its customers to plan a secure future has a better marketing message than the one which merely asks them to open a savings account.

As a success-oriented businessperson, you have to understand first the most significant outcomes people want when they buy your products. Ask yourself the results they get satisfied when they buy your goods and services. It’s a vital aspect because it helps you not to promote your business blindly. It’s, therefore, vital to spend time researching the value your prospective customers get from what you offer.

Secondly, you have to think about how to create marketing messages that will have a bigger impact. It’s these messages that will motivate your clients to buy from you.

Final Thought

Business success depends on many factors. One of them is understanding what people buy. If you blindly promote your products without targeting the outcomes they look for when they buy your goods, you don’t motivate them to purchase from you. As you operate your business, do your research thoroughly on what appeals to people. That’s when you will win.