If you’re still trying to selling your product, you’re doing it wrong. Customers aren’t buying your product, they’re buying a vision of how they will feel by using your product. In this article, we highlight how Apple does a great job at selling a vision and how business owners can create their own.
- How to Create a Buying Vision
- Understanding Buying Motives
- Understanding Your Niche
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Have you ever owned an Apple product? If so, I’m sure you can remember the feelings you first felt once you bought that Apple watch, iPad, or iPhone.
Some words that people have used to describe this feeling include “sophisticated,” “elite,” or “luxurious.”
This feeling that Apple users have when purchasing these products have contributed to a brand loyalty rate of around 92%. Because they feel these positive emotions when purchasing, they will continue to purchase, almost exclusively, Apple products.
Apple knows this, of course, through target market research and analysis. As a result, they do their best to incorporate these positive feelings into their marketing, which they have to do very little with their high brand loyalty.
What Apple understands is that the company has a defined niche and using that niche they know how to sell a vision to customers and not the actual product.
When creating marketing for Apple products, they know to convey the feeling of prestige or style because that’s what customers buy.
So, when customers see an ad for Apple and see this branding of their vision, they are more likely to buy because it taps into the buying motives of the customer.
In the same way, we must create a vision that customers will want to subscribe to. We need to create a vision that not only guides our business but attracts our ideal customers.
How to Create a Buying Vision
The first step is having a defined mission and vision for your business. Having these things in place established the culture of your business and the message you want to convey.
But for some business owners, there is a lack of cohesiveness in what the business is trying to say. These are the businesses that throw lots of money into their marketing, sales, and branding efforts, but get little out of them. Internal organization is just as important as sending a powerful message, and the two must mesh together perfectly if your business is going to succeed.
So the first thing we need to do, as mentioned before, is to create a company-wide vision that all departments are aligned to. This vision will guide all sales and marketing activities. The next thing we need to do is to ensure that these departments are aligned with each other to ensure the messaging that they are sending out is aligned with each other.
As far as your branding efforts are concerned, make sure you know which customers you are appealing to! You can’t expect to win over every single person that walks in your door, because there is simply too much variation in people’s likes and interests. Don’t try to appeal to everybody, because you won’t make anybody happy. Instead, focus your efforts on appealing to a certain demographic. When you know what your customers are going to look like, you can then refine your message and branding towards what they want and what they will likely respond positively to.
Once your branding is set, your marketing team can then sell your business as the preferred choice for your chosen customers. An established branding guideline will enable your marketing team to create targeted advertisements that will appeal to the demographics your business.
Understanding Buying Motives
To create a buying vision, you must determine your customers’ buying motives. We do this by viewing our product through the lens of the customers. Therefore, if you are to make a successful sales presentation, you must first find out the problems your prospective student needs you to solve, and what feelings he hopes to obtain from your product or service.
Some of the more common buying motives include:
- Security
- Appreciated
- Reduce fear (real or perceived)
- Happiness, fun, pleasure
- Enhance self-image
- improve, grow and enjoy new experiences
How customers express their buying motives
Customers won’t come right out and tell us what their motives are. We have to deduce this information through a series of carefully worded questions. In interviewing a prospective student, we will often hear these needs and desires expressed as:
- I want to be more confident in my ability (eliminate the fear of failure).
- I want to have fun (enjoyment). I want to improve my self-image (security, improvement).
- I want to solve a particular problem, (growth, improvement).
- I need to feel important (security).
- I want to be respected (security).
- I want to be successful (improvement)
- I want to experience something new (enjoyment).
- I want to be liked by others (appreciation).
- I want to make new friends (appreciation).
- I want encouragement (appreciation).
By listening intently to discover our customers’ true motives, we can structure our selling and marketing strategy to reinforce these motives and provide answers that meet their objectives. When a prospect can clearly see that they have something to gain by using your product or service, they are eager to purchase.
Understanding Your Niche
As mentioned before, Apple has defined its niche and as a result, has attracted loyal customers who are aligned with the company’s vision.
We must do the same if we want to see more sales of our product. One tip that I have for you is to NEVER compete on price. If you’re known for offering “the best rates in the market”, you’re killing your business. To learn other ways that you can define your niche, join us at our next 6 Steps to a Better Business event. We have them twice a month in Greenwood and Carmel, IN.
