Why Will They Buy

March 18, 2010 - Author: Tony

Before you can answer this question, you have to find out what your customer wants. What are the benefits and features of a service or product which your target group rates most highly? Research is essential.

Once you have the framework of your customer needs, you can begin to vary your service or product with the aim of meeting those customer wants and needs more successfully than any other supplier. There are a number of ways in which your sales package (that is, your product/service plus a range of other sales features of your business) can be altered to achieve the desired objective. These include:

? appearance: what material is the product made of? Does it look stylish? How about the color? How is it packaged or presented? All these can be changed to match your target customer profile. If appearance is an important feature for your target group, it may be worth using a designer to help you achieve this
? delivery time: if speed or reliability of delivery is important to your potential customers, concentrate on how you can improve or stabilize your delivery times
? maintenance: does your target market look for very prompt attention to faults? Or very frequent maintenance visits? Whatever it is, adjust your strategy to allow for this
? performance: identify the main requirement – for example, it may be speed, reliability or a low level of noise. This sort of consideration should be taken into account when you specify your product. If it is already past the specification stage, can it be altered?
? quality: this is rather an ethereal topic, as quality can be subjective, existing in the eye of the beholder. Or it can be objective, for example, the evenness of the stitching. You can create an impression of quality by building up the image or reputation of the product to suggest this. The appearance of quality tends to depend on all the variables of a product: appearance, service, packaging, reliability, performance and so on.

By adjusting your service/product in this way to meet the wants and needs of your target market, you are trying to establish that you have at least one unique feature which your competitors don’t have. You can use this as the basis of your selling message to persuade people to buy. Your target market will purchase the product if you convince them that it meets the need which they have, conscious or unconscious. Of course, if your competitors already meet these needs, it is difficult to see what additional benefit your product can offer, but usually there is something.

It would be a mistake to believe that buyers act in a rational way, comparing products and choosing their purchase on the basis of some organized assessment. Even in an industrial market, buyers are affected by a number of emotional factors, sometimes not openly admitted. These can include wanting to be like someone else, to be considered stylish or a leader, or to be liked. Your potential customers may also want the best, a change, or to improve their personal standing. They may be trying to outdo the competition or to gain revenge on another person or business. So, if you do not believe your product can be differentiated in practical benefits, can it be distinguished in emotional ways?

One possible way you could think about your target market is to consider how they would match up to the range of cars available. The variety of cars available is very wide; each car model has tried to establish its own niche and it is possible to categorize buyers in your target market by the car you imagine they are most likely to buy. For example, if your market is likely to buy a Ford Fiesta, you can picture them as young, wanting something cheap and cheerful and not minding the lack of comfort. If it is a Rolls-Royce segment, your customers are looking for the ultimate in prestige, comfort and specification. A BMW is an executive car, indicating business success and achievement; the car is stylish and luxurious. And so on.

Once you have a mental picture of what your target group is looking for in a car, you might be able to use this picture to adapt your service or product to meet those same needs.