Gratification and Purchase Preference

Ask a business owner why customers buy their products, and you will hear various answers:

• "I have no idea, but I hope they don't stop."
• "It's because they like what I'm selling."
• "People aren't buying and I don't understand why. I have a great product and use it myself all the time."

Armed with an understanding of customer motivation, you can design a strategy to make your products more appealing. Key to an effective sales strategy is knowledge of your prospects' demographics and motivations to buy.

Purchase Decisions

Every buying decision is a composite of emotional and rational justifications, mixed in a series of split-second, conscious and unconscious associations with attraction and avoidance.
Consider a man shopping for a sports car and checking out a red Corvette. His thought process will be a flood of impressions, memories, emotions, desires, potentials, calculations, hopes, dreams and rationalizations. Imagine an internal conversation;

• "Corvettes have exceptional handling."
• "Red cars attract more speeding tickets."
• "The Volvo is burning more oil lately."
• "My wife will like this color."
• "It won't get great gas mileage."
• "I could use the kitchen remodelling money."
• "I can avoid the local radar traps."
• "It will be a stretch to make the monthly payments."
• "These cars hold their value."
• "I would look good in a Corvette."

This conversation is tilting towards a purchase. If you're selling this car, you will be more likely to close a deal with knowledge of his emotional and rational preferences.

Personal Preference

A simple method can be applied, grouping people into three emotional "gratification modes," and associated rational "purchase preferences." associated purchase preferences:

• Interpersonal / Experimental - people of interpersonal gratification mode, and experimental purchase preference respond well to sales people, talking product information with their friends, and trust recommendations from people they know. Interpersonals tend to have experimental purchase preferences in that they like new, revolutionary products.
• Objective / Performance - people with this mindset like to inspect inanimate objects, e.g., test driving a car, and objectively evaluating the handling, acceleration and leg room. Their purchase preference is to understand the facts on the product's performance, and price is typically a factor.
• Introverted / Value - people with this style respond in a solitary fashion to their internal predispositions, and are less likely to be swayed by outside influences. A Mercedes, for instance, may be the only brand they consider a true luxury car, and a Lexus will never be quite as wonderful. Their emotional decisions are supported by perception of value, and purchases will be made considering whether its the best price in its class, or "worth the money".

We all relate to each emotional and rational style to a certain degree, but we usually exhibit one predominant style. Use of even a simple system matching your products with your customers' innate preferences has the potential to enhance your sales.

Do Your Homework

Understand how your target customers spend their recreational time, what they do for a living, and how much money they make. Some professions more commonly draw certain styles, for example, real estate agents tend to be 'Interpersonal / Experimental' in nature. They enjoy the interpersonal sales process, like to share product information with others, and gravitate toward trendy, innovative purchases.

Added elements in a purchase decision process will be intrinsic cues, like taste, design, performance, comfort, and extrinsic cues, like brand, price, recommendation and country of origin. Other behaviorial predispositions enter into purchase decision-making as well, and copious additional research is available.
The American Marketing Association is a great resource for further research into purchase decision-making. An interesting summary of articles is their 2006 Winter Educators’ Conference on 'Marketing Theory & Applications'.

Once you identify your target market’s psychographic profile, you will be able to design lead generation and lead conversion systems which emphasize your product's appealling features.