What causes someone to buy something?
Why are they willing to give you their money?
I know it seems like a basic question, but to be honest, most creative types and business people get it wrong.
Many new products DON’T get sold. There aren’t any buyers. All those entrepreneurial hopes and dreams fall by the wayside.
I want to save you from this pain. If you apply this filter, you’ll virtually never have to worry about getting customers again. How does that sound?
The video below walks you through this concept so that you can apply it to your own product launch.
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1. People don’t buy products
They buy the results that those products will confer on their life. Hear me out…
When you buy a product, you’re giving someone money because:
- You want the RESULTS that the marketing promises
- You want to FEEL the way the marketing promises
- You imagine you’ll be CLOSER to your goals, whatever they are
There is a positive benefit (in many cases many) that you will receive when you buy the product. Otherwise, you wouldn’t do it. There would be no point. What’s in it for you?
What’s the point of owning a fancy drill if you can’t put a hole in a wall?
Why would you want a super cool-looking car that can’t drive fast or take you from point A to point B?
All marketing makes promises about the benefits that a product will confer and it’s your job as an entrepreneur to live up to these promises.
I go in-depth in the training video on this point and why people buy products, but basically, you’re imagining that your life will be enhanced in some way.
2. All products solve problems
Every single product solves a problem. Otherwise, it wouldn’t exist!
“Wait, Sal, what about entertaining books and movies and board games?”
They solve a problem too. They eliminate boredom.
Some products will alleviate negative emotions, like make you FEEL happy instead of sad or part of a community instead alone.
Others will solve a tangible problem, like a phone that solves your need to stay in contact with your friends and family.
All products solve problems. If they solve them well, the products stay around. If they don’t, in time, they usually go away.
Rather than focusing on the cool functionality that your product has, what it can do, and how neat the technology is, you have to start with the customer. You then work backwards to figure out what functionality is most important.
3. You must talk to customers (no way around this)
So far, mind-reading has not yet been invented.
The only way to figure out what people like, don’t like, and get a sense of the language they use when describing a problem is to ASK THEM.
Send them surveys. Pick up the phone. Have email exchanges. You gotta get inside the head of the customer so that you can tailor your marketing to them.
These customer conversations will also help you design a product that is a better fit for their needs. It will help you figure out which functionality matters and which doesn’t.
At the same time, no matter how much you listen to your customers, their behavior is what matters MOST. People can say they want a faster horse and buggy, but really, they want a car. They just don’t know it yet.
4. People don’t make irrational decisions
I sincerely DO NOT believe that people make irrational decisions.
Sometimes, it may appear that way, but under the surface there is ALWAYS a logical process at the foundation of our decision making.
Customers need to justify their purchasing decision in some way. It could be to justify that decision to their spouse, their friends, or even themselves. They have to latch on to something that gives them a “reason” to buy the product, aside from the way it makes them feel.
While you to have to make your product benefits front and center, you also have to follow that up with the details regarding the technology and functionality of the product. You have to prove to people that it will do what you say it will do.
The quality of the material. The patent-pending technology. The player-tested board game. You gotta follow up your “selling” with some “proving.” Otherwise, people won’t believe you and they’ll think what you’re saying is too good to be true.
Discover other Kickstarter secrets…
If you want to discover other Kickstarter selling secrets, then I have a great announcement for you. I now have a course out there on Udemy where you can access all of this!
You’re about to discover:
- A remarkably easy way to get instantly funded in record time
- How to engineer a viral Kickstarter campaign
- A surefire storytelling formula for a killer pitch video
- How to be successful on Kickstarter (without a big following or “crowd”)
- Powerful weapons of mass influence that work every time
- And much more..
