A commonly held faux belief is that one just goes out there and convinces people to do as they say. Unless you are either paying or bullying them to follow your orders, they won’t. That, or because they want something from you and need your approval or blessing, then they might be so inclined to buy what you say.

Perhaps this  is why we still see sexy images of beautiful young women, scantily clad, trying to seduce us into buying a product or service. It’s approval.

Among the false beliefs that happens in people’s minds are that one just goes out there and NEEDS to buy your product or service. This is unlikely nowadays because many marketplaces are saturated. The next hurdles marketers face are the assumption that people are naturally inclined toward conscious and rationale decision making. This is not the case.

The Neuroscience clearly shows that this is clearly NOT the case. If you You would only be right 5-10% of the time. If you like those odds, and are happy with that return, play them. You will be dominated in nearly any modern market ecology.  

These old market approaches have worked well before the new, improved and impending digital age. In the culture we are living and loving in today, we are dealing with a very new beast of beauty in an time of a huge shift in the cultural ecology.

How do we solve this?

We’ve found that the optimal approach is to
1) identify an audience that already wants to buy your services and products and,
2) address them politely and properly.

According to Boston Consulting Group and some professors at Harvard University, three methods have been used to enter a product into a market (from oldest to newest):

1. Make and Sell.
2. Ask and Sell.
3. Anticipate and Provide.

Make and Sell was what business owners used to do from 1900-1940s and the more successful companies are pretty much way beyond this today. It doesn’t work anymore and won’t make someone $1,000,000 without capital. Today, it’s fantasy-based and the stuff dreams are built on.  It is NO longer an option for the reality-based business owners of the 21st Century.

Ask and Sell is when marketers put together Focus Groups and ask potential customers what they want. The problem with this is

1) they are being paid to tell you what you want to hear.

2) When customers are asked what they want, they often don’t really know (see the New Coke fiasco).  They tell you what they and then the manufacturer develops the said product or service. Remember:  no one comes with their wallets opened dying to part with their money. Their wallets open under seduction rather than logic. Yet, so many companies still try it. Don’t worry about these companies: they’ll be gone tomorrow. This, ask and sell also doesn’t work today and won’t make you over $1,000,000.

Anticipate and Provide is a good working model.Audiences aren’t CREATED for said markets. They never were. AUDIENCES already exist. Playing on their heart strings is what they want.

Anticipate what they want and lead them to the promised land. Markets and locating these people today is what your research will tell you  already exists. The AUDIENCE was here first and the IDEA of markets came later. This Anticipate and Provide model is about locating an audience and making their lives easier or better with your product or service.

“Everybody” is not an audience. In marketing “Everybody is Nobody“.

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Another commonly held misconception in marketing is the Old English (O.E.) form of advertising and marketing. This worked really well in the rockin’ 1800s—the days when England still ruled as a world empire.

These O.E. marketers will tell you:
“You must give them a good reason to buy.”

It’s not true and the worst of these “market experts” will tell you to offer them a discount or sale price. This marketing belief is not a belief at all. It is  NOT a brand but a commodity. It may work a little but only for a small segment of the population (11-18%) at best. Discounts and sales are the last refuge of business owners that falsely believe that sales or discounts motivates human decision making. It doesn’t.

Neurochemical Tip #63:
People don’t buy what you do.

They buy why you do it.

Let’s test it. See the chart below…

Which one are you?

I have quite a few friends and family that fall in the Laggards portion of the above chart. They’re the ones carrying the turkey leg in the last column. They were still isob BlackBerry when everyone else was already onto the iPhone and Android. 😀

Neurochemical Tip #63:

People don’t buy what you do.

They buy why you do it.

Neurochemical

People don’t buy what you do.

They buy why you do it.

Will people buy what you do or will they will why you do it?