Consumer buying habits are becoming more complex. For many businesses, just as you identify a pattern in their customers’ buying behavior, economic conditions, technological advances, and new brands on the market will change everything you thought you knew.
However, in psychology, certain stimuli tend to get a predictable response. Every sales and marketing team’s dream is to gain insights into the customer’s mind, finding small commonalities in human behavior that can give us a deeper look into why they buy what they buy.
Here are some basic principles in psychology to apply to sales:
Understanding Pleasure vs. Pain in Sales
It’s essential to understand that most people buy for one of two reasons: to move closer to pleasure or further away from pain. When developing a marketing strategy for your product or service, be aware of why your customer is buying what you’re selling to them.
Credico’s top tip: It goes far beyond the physical product. Learning the psychology of selling is much deeper than just an either/or comparison. Humans are complex creatures, and emotion plays a role in buying behavior.
Impulsive and Emotional Buying Decisions
Tapping into impulsive and emotional buying tendencies can be advantageous for a business that experiences seasonal sales trends or an unexpected sales slump. Humans are emotional beings who make emotionally-charged buying decisions, especially when the product or service they buy falls under the “pleasure” category. According to Repsly, 75% of Americans have admitted to making impulse purchases, 16% of which are worth over $500.
When selling a pleasurable product to your customers, consider appealing to their emotions. Make them feel something and build that connection.
Help Your Customers to Justify with Logic
The late great sales trainer, Zig Ziglar, used to say, “People buy on emotion and justify on logic.” While marketing your product to your customers by evoking their emotions, you should reinforce the sale by giving them solid facts, good data, and studies that help them justify their purchase to friends and family.
Your customer needs to be able to walk away and readily explain why their purchase was a good decision.
FOMO and the Jones Effect
There is a concept called “herd mentality,” meaning that humans can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain emotionally charged behaviors. Peer pressure is intense when it comes to buying. How often have you seen a pair of shoes on one of your friends’ feet and been tempted to go out and buy the same pair?
This is linked to wanting to ‘keep up with the Joneses” and a primal instinct to follow the pack. There is also a very logical reason customers like to see that others are using a product — trust. While salespeople can be seen as slimy or unethical, friends are deemed trustworthy.
Credico knows that understanding customer buying psychology is essential to be successful at acquiring new customers. Get in touch to discuss how Credico can help you improve your sales and customer acquisition.