Who’s your #targetcustomer? Who’s your #idealclient? Who and where are they? That’s the million dollar question most business owners and marketers ask. The first and most important question of any #leadgeneration campaign. Know the answer and you have a guaranteed ROI on any of your marketing activities.
Not so fast! I honestly don’t care who you customer is and you shouldn’t either! In fact, a marketing guru colleague of mine said it this way, “Demographics are the least important factor in creating customer connections. After all, who wants to get an email addressed to: ‘Dear female 25-49’ . . .”
You do need to know the answer, of course, but the point is what you really need to care about is why they buy and why they will buy from you. That’s a far deeper question that requires a level of introspection, research and analysis few business owners and agencies do.
The customer’s why is way beyond who they are. Their why encompasses their needs, wants and desires, values and motivations. Their why drives the buying decision.
The Problem with Pain Points
While we are on the subject, a short rant on the ubiquitous focus on ‘finding their pain.” That’s another antiquated adage that needs to be discarded to truly find the customer’s why — as humorously illustrated by sales guru Jeffery Gitomer, author of the classic Little Red Book of Sales.
Here’s his take:
“My insurance agent came over last week to update my portfolio of policies. I like to make sure I’m more than covered. I asked my agent (who I have been friends with, and loyal to, for fifteen years) how he engages a prospective customer.
“Well first I try to find their pain,” he said with that all-knowing smile. “What!?” I screamed. “When did you learn that? 1972?
“Why aren’t you trying to find positive things instead of negative things? I’ve been your customer for fifteen years and you never found my pain. I never had any pain. I just needed some insurance. I wasn’t hurting for insurance. The only pain I had was writing you a check. In fact, that’s STILL a pain.”
We laughed. But “finding the pain” is not a bit funny in sales. In fact, it’s somewhere between sad and manipulative. Somewhere between negative and dark. In short, if you want to find pain, become a doctor—people will come to you with pain by the thousands. If you want to make it in sales, there are other things to find. Pain does not drive a sale.”(1)
Finding Their Why
What does drive a sale is uncovering needs, wants, and desires instead of pain.
- Needs. What problem do they need to solve? Needs can be challenges, obstacles, or even a puzzle. It might be painful. It might not be.
- Wants. What do they want to change about their business or life? How will changing that make them happier, more fulfilled?
- Desires. What do they desire to have to make their life/business better? As opposed to wants, desires can be more of a wish—something that feels far off, out of reach. Provide that to your customer and you’ve found the real gold in the marketing and sales opportunity.
Like needs, wants, and desires, people are motivated by what they value. Today, value-based purchasing is trending, becoming, in some cases, the primary motivator for a purchasing decision.
According to a survey by the consulting firm Accenture (2), “Post-pandemic soul-searching has caused consumers across the globe to rethink and reimagine their priorities in life, including how the goods and services they buy are produced.”
That opens a golden opportunity to discover your customers’ why.
With values-based buying as a framework, we can now look at motivations. People are motivated to buy to achieve or acquire what they need, want, or desire most. Here are a few examples:
Example A: If your customer needs to save money, they value the best price for their purchase and they are motivated by cost savings.
Example B: If your customer desires to lose weight, they value healthy living and they are motivated to purchase low-fat foods, an exercise program, and health supplements.
Example C: If your customer wants automate their business they value efficiency and they are motivated to purchase digital/software for running their day to day operations.
Want some help moving beyond who your customer or client is and uncovering their why? Book a discovery call today.
Sources:
[1] Jeffrey Gitomer and Randy Glasbergen, Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness: How to Make Sales Forever (Austin, TX: Bard Press, 2004).
[2] Mark Curtis, Kevin Quiring, Bill Theofilou, and Agneta Björnsjö,“Life Reimagined, Mapping the Motivations that Matter for Today’s Consumers” (Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Research, 2021).