Following on from the last 2 weeks worth of Marketing Basics articles, today we try to understand why people buy by looking at WIIFM …. What’s In It For Me!

WIIFM

Understand the power of WIIFM … “What’s in it for me?”

Here’s a poem with a very powerful sales-generating, profit-making message… as told by the very person who gives you bankable dollars each and every day:

“I am your customer.  Satisfy my wants with personal attention and a friendly touch and I will become a walking advertisement for your products and services.  Ignore my wants, show carelessness, inattention, and poor manners, and I will simply cease to exist – as far as you are concerned”

“I am sophisticated, much more so than I was a few years ago.  I have grown accustomed to better things. I have money to spend.  I am an egotist.  I am sensitive.  I am proud.  My ego needs the nourishment of a friendly, personal greeting from you.  It is important to me that you appreciate my business.  After all, when I buy your products and services, my money is feeding you”

“I am a perfectionist.  I want the best I can get for the money I spend.  When I criticise your products or services – and I will to anyone who will listen when I am dissatisfied – take heed.  The source of my discontent lies in something you or the products you sell have failed to do.  Find that source and eliminate it or you will lose my business and that of my friends as well”.

“I am fickle.  Other businesses continually beckon to me with offers of more for my money.  To keep my business, you must offer something better than they.  I am your customer now, but you must prove to me again and again that I have made a wise choice in selecting you, your products and services above all others.”

Now, remember, this could well be a poem written by your customer.  Did you notice the number of times the word “I,” “me” or “my” was used in the poem?

Thirty-four, to be precise.

Customers aren’t interested in you or your staff or your product or your service or your suppliers… they’re only interested in: “What’s in it for me?”

Compelling Reasons Why People Buy:

People don’t buy products or services.

• They buy benefits … benefits… benefits!
• They buy solutions to their problems
• They buy other people’s opinions of you, your business and your products
• They buy credibility and believability
• They buy your promises and guarantees (don’t ever let them down)
• They buy your business and product “reliability”
• They buy “value”… and, please, don’t confuse value with price
• They buy certainty, honesty, convenience, and timeliness
• They buy hope, comfort, success, wealth, security, love, and acceptance
• They buy expectations of being pleased
• They buy product selection options
• They buy freedom from making a wrong buying decision

How many from this list can you line up against your product or service?

How can you explain to your staff the way they should go about selling these BENEFITS to your potential buyers, and not the product or service itself. REMEMBER … people don’t buy products or services!  They buy benefits to themselves.

Main Point:       

Do you and your staff understand and appreciate the real reasons behind why people buy things?  Have you explained it to them?  You must include as many compelling reasons as possible when trying to convince potential customers to buy your products and services.