Ever wonder how you buy? You buy food to eat, you buy coffee, tea, alcohol, clothes, cars, etc. but what process do you go through to make the purchase? Let me suggest that you discover your buying style. It's pretty simple, try to sell something.

1.     Take an idea of yours, an item you own, the job you do, and try to sell somebody on it.

2.     Set down and write out how you would pitch it, identify its benefits and features, and why it is so critical for someone to have.

A couple of things will emerge from this process that will clarify your buying style. First, take a moment to see what you highlighted as the key benefits.

Here is the principal: your style of selling is also how you buy something. This is the main reason most salespeople fail or make below-average income. They sell like they buy and miss their potential client’s buying style and subsequently losing the sale.

We all buy for one or more of these reasons. When you are aware of how you buy, you can begin to siphon through the information with your built-in filter(s). The five reasons are:

  1. Emotion
  2. Efficiency
  3. Cost
  4. Convenience
  5. Experience

These are the core reasons for buying, and each can stand alone independently or combined with others. It is essential to remember that many times there are several of these working at the same time, but they are usually in support of one core principle. The sport is to justify the core reason we are purchasing something.

For example, I want a Mercedes E63 AMG. Now, this is an emotional buy, pure and simple. In my defense of this purchase, I will talk about its performance, the experience of driving it, and the emotion it provides when I drive it. But remember all those other points support and justify my emotional buy because I am an emotional buyer. It's how I sell. Why is this important?

If you are crafting a campaign to grow sales, these buying styles must find their way into the brand story you will use (or should use). There are some examples in dealing with buying styles and reaching each type of buyer.

GEICO uses the absurd in each of their commercials: camels, to highlight "Hump Day", pigs that say "weee" all the way home, cavemen hopelessly attempting to adjust to modern life, etc. Why do they use his approach? Because insurance is a practical and cost buy which they include (15 minutes to save money) but, by contrasting the boredom of the subject, they emotionally engage you in the non-emotional purchase of insurance.

Apple does it differently. How can you practically pay $1,200 for an iPad for your child? Based on their commercial at Christmas, you put a short movie together on the iPad using photos and videos of your grandmother who recently passed away and showed it to your grandfather as a present on Christmas Day. Therefore, everyone watching experiences powerful emotions and begins to think that the cost of $1,200 is nothing for my kids to learn creativity, practical editing skills, and the value of family creating a moment like that.

Understanding how your customers buy is the first step in engaging them where they are at and creating a meaningful relationship.

To talk more on engagement and marketing strategies go to our website storifystudio.com and give us a call at (541) 543-0634 today!