Let's Get Back To Marketing...Knowing Your Prospects

I don't care what you're selling. If you don't understand what makes your
prospect tick, you're not going to be able to reach that person. In other
words, you have to know what words are going to push his buttons to make
him buy.

Can we agree on that much?

Okay, so how do we push those buttons?

Well, let's start with the reasons why anybody buys anything to begin with.

This list isn't all inclusive but they're my 10 favorites.

Relieve Stress - If you don't think this world is stressful, just check out
some of the stuff that goes down at this forum alone. People are
constantly stressed about something. I'm the poster boy for stress.

So if you can show the prospect how YOUR product will relieve their
stress, that's a point in your favor and one button pushed.

For example, say you're selling a book on debt relief. You can point out
how getting out of debt is going to relieve their stress because they
won't have to worry anymore about making payments on their credit
cards or whatever.

Replace Item - Stuff breaks. I just replaced a 5 year old synth module. It
was painful. But I was given a great deal on a replacement item by a
competing company that was even better than my original and it cost
less.

If you can show your prospect how your item is better than what they
already have (you need to know your top competitor) you can actually
convert them to your product.

Emotional Satisfaction - Let's face it, emotional satisfaction is big. So
much of what we do and want all relates to this one desire, to be
emotionally satisfied.

I didn't buy my new synth module because it had all these cool sounds. I
bought it because when I heard them, it made me feel good because I
knew that when I recorded my own songs using it, I would sound good
to others. That gave me great emotional satisfaction.

Entertainment - This is a big one. Look around you. Everywhere is some
form of entertainment. Even this forum is a form of entertainment.

This won't apply to every product, but if you can show your prospect how
they're going to be entertained by your product (great with software
games, CDs, DVDs, etc.) and tap into that need for entertainment, you
have a much better shot at converting the sale.

Planned Purchase - From time to time we plan to buy something. The
key here is to show the prospect that YOUR item is the one that they
should get and NOT your competitor.

This is similar to the replacement item. You want yours to be the item of
choice. So again, you have to show how you beat the competition.

Yes, knowing your competition is very important in this business.

Relaxation - Sometimes when you come home, all you want to do is
relax. There are many ways to do this, and those ways also can cross
over to entertainment. Sometimes we'll throw on a CD to relax.

This will also not apply to every product. When I'm using my synth module
I'm anything but relaxed. I'm all fired up and ready to make music. But if
your product is one that lends itself to relaxation, tap into that need.

Education - This is HUGE especially in the IM make money niche. That's
what the whole niche is about.

I don't think this needs much explanation. Show the prospect what your
product is going to teach them. Make it damn crystal clear. This is where,
I feel, so many marketers drop the ball. They make their product too
vague. When I sell an IM related product I tell them right up front what
they're going to learn. I don't make them guess.

Improve Surroundings - People buy things because they want to improve
the way their surroundings look, whether it be at home or at work or out
in the backyard.

Again, this won't apply to many products, especially digital info products.
But if you're selling a physical item and it can relate to this need, stress
how much better their (home, office, etc.) is going to look and how when
people see it they're going to be so impressed. This feeds another
emotion called ego.

Pleasure - Well, this needs no explanation. Just look at all the porn sites
online.

People want pleasure. They want to feel good. If your product is one that
will make them feel pleasure, stress it. Tell them how it's going to make
them feel pleasure. Be descriptive. I won't get descriptive here because
this is a family forum.

Quality Of Life - This may be the biggest one of all. We want the quality
of our life to improve. Every product, in some way, should improve our
quality of life, even if just a little.

That ebook I bought on Adwords will improve my quality of life because
it will make me more money if I use it.

Okay, what you need to do is LOOK at the product you're selling and see
if you can't plug it into at least ONE of the above. If you can't, you need
to seriously reevaluate your product.

Is there REALLY a market for it?

Will anybody REALLY want it?

Be honest. These are 10 hot buttons.

If you can't push even ONE of these, you're dead.

And so is your product.