If you’re selling to business customers, there’s an additional target market dimension you may not be aware of when suspecting and prospecting. Motivation to Buy! This may be familiar, however, as the market changes our customers’ knowledge increases. Therefore, motivations to “buy” can change.

This article is part of Effició’s blueprint series. In this blog series, we share the resources, tools, advice, and infrastructure changes you need to get to the CORE of your business. In this installment, we share how to deep dive into buying behavior using motivation.

Another Dimension to Target and Acquire

We spent years targeting based on needs and defining those needs as wants. Although this still works well, we added another dimension to how we target and acquire customers, motivation to buy. Motivation seems simple, at least that’s what I thought. When we began to survey our current clients, students, and customers, it was hard for them to communicate their motivations to buy.

Let’s go through one of our favorite scenarios on how to pin-point motivations to buy beyond needs, wants, pains, and problems (keep in mind that you cannot change the dynamics of the scenario):

You have to go to two stores; the grocery store is on the right and the discount store is on left.  Let’s say you need to buy deodorant, which store will you buy your deodorant from? Remember, you have to go to both.

Which store did you choose? Why that store?

We have used this scenario many times and here is what happens…every single time:

  • Some people say I am going to the discount store because the price is better; we say, “the price is the same.”
  • Some people say I am going to the grocery store because it is more convenient for me; we say, “but you have to go to both.”
  • Some people say they will go to the grocery because the packaging is better; we say, “the packaging is the same.”

Clearly, at this point, the strategist is driving our students crazy.  The point is – to understand the motivation of “your” target market to buy your solution over your competitor.  And the motivations are not always price, convenience, and packaging – it could be many other things. Think about their values, their beliefs, their professional work environment, the type of business they own, and their workload, this is a lot to think about. But it’s worth it! The more you understand your customers, the more you can clearly articulate why they should buy from you over and above a foundational need.

Starting with you and your motivations is a good strategy to deep dive into buying behavior.

Think about the top three brands you buy from all the time, for your business, and personally.  Whether it’s your laundry detergent, your car, or your computer.  Think about “why” you buy from these particular brands.  The answers may reveal a lot more than you think.

As you continue to target and scale, include characteristics that motivate them to buy from you other than needs, wants, pains, and problems.

Strategically researching buying behavior trends that include characteristics other than needs, wants, pains, and problems in your industry and within your customers’ industries is a great strategy to scale and operationalize.

© Effició, Inc.

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