The Buying Decision Process is driven almost entirely by emotion.
We have a desire, a need or a want for things to be other than they are right now.
There are two reasons we buy anything, and emotion drives both, more on that in a second…
We drive the entire process of making a purchase, a buying decision of any kind because we want our state, who we are, what we are, to differ from what it is right now.
It's important to grasp the role emotions play because when you appreciate and understand the driving force behind somebody buying what you do, you're able to create communication that speaks to that person, that resonates with that person, because you understand them, you get them; you can speak to them and meet them where they're at on that journey.
One of two things trigger the Buying Decision Process: Moving away from pain or moving towards pleasure.
We seek to move away from something that's hurting us, move away from pain, move away from fear, move away from not having, from feeling a deficiency in some form or other… or we're moving towards a desired state, a pleasure towards pleasure towards desire to feel this way, to be this way to be seen in this way, to have this thing and the feeling and the reward that that will bring.
We're escaping the pain and the fear and the negative emotion, or we're moving towards desire and the positive emotion.
The underlying theme throughout the buyer decision process is emotion.
Everything that we do, everything that we buy, every decision that we make in buying anything is driven entirely by how we feel now and how the purchase will make us feel. The outcome or solution we get as a reward for buying.
The difference that purchase will make in our lives is a perception we create as buyers before we decide. We make a judgement call as we evaluate our options. Will this diminish the negative side or stress the positive?
Once you understand the principal behind the purchase decisions your buyers make, the next step is to ask: “How does this apply to what I do?”
What do your ideal clients want to gain?
What's the desired state your ideal clients want to achieve?
What pain do your clients want to ease with your product or service?
These are the questions you need to find the answers to.
How do you find the answers?
Well, you speak to people. You speak to your clients; you speak to prospective clients; you identify what your ideal client looks like.
Figure out through conversation, through discovery, through a research process.
Surveys, quizzes, questionnaires, interviews, research, these things allow you to create an understanding of what the emotional drivers are for your clients.
You want to capture the language your ideal client uses to describe your solution.
This language becomes a 'word bank'. A dictionary of terms used to describe the problem and solution your product or service brings.
You can reflect their words back to them from the word bank and speak to their emotions.
When you understand what that emotional driver is, you know the language that they use, then the job of marketing becomes so much easier. Now it's just a case of you curating all of that research into compelling headlines, into content, into material that really speaks to people on a deep, emotional level.
What's the pain? What prison state are they in right now with what you can help them with? What does that prison state look, sound, and FEEL like?
Contrast this with the pleasure or paradise state they are seeking. What does paradise look, sound and FEEL like?
Check out this article on the Prison to Paradise exercise.
What pain are they trying to move away from? What pleasure are they trying to move towards?
How does this emotion influence the decision to buy what you do?
Nobody buys your product or service. They buy the outcome or solution that your product or service can deliver to them.
The decision to buy your solution is emotion driven. What are the emotional drivers behind what you do?
That's the question you need to focus on.
