Why Psychology Is Key to Successful Sales and Marketing Communications
Do you know exactly how you want prospects and customers to view your business, your products, and your services?
Do you know exactly what influences your prospects and customers to make buying decisions?
Do you know exactly what gives you advantages versus your competitors?
Do you have a plan for converting what you know into an exact roadmap for success?
There is an old truism that says: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” In the business world, where decisions are never-ending, and every decision reflects exactly who you are, knowledge is power. Gaining that knowledge demands a positive and progressive mindset. Establishing and building from that mindset demands an appreciation of the psychology of sales and marketing communications.
The natural question that now pops up:
“How is psychology related to effective sales and marketing communications?”
In short, succeeding in business is possible only when:
- You know who you are.
- You know the needs of your customers.
Psychology is the bridge between you understanding your true strengths and capabilities and simultaneously understanding what motivates a customer to make purchasing decisions.
Because decisions can be shaped by many factors, the psychology of sales and marketing communications can become a critically valuable filter for structuring content, key messages, and methodologies for delivering communications, creating effective support material, building effective campaigns, and launching new products and services with optimum positive impact.
To gain just a surface-level appreciation of how psychology dovetails with decision-making, consider that any given purchase might be determined by influences beyond quality, price, and availability. For example:
- Are purchases motivated by the psychology of what the buyer sees others doing?
- Are purchases motivated by the psychology of what the buyer senses are a scarcity of availability or the opportunity to acquire something others do not possess?
- Are purchases motivated by the psychology of “fear”, or a drive to minimize risk or avoid loss?
- Are purchases motivated by the psychology of a mindset developed from information, true or false, that has been accepted by the market as an imperative to buy certain products or services?
All of this leads us to recognize that for you to understand what’s in the mind of your customer, it is absolutely essential for you to get “outside” your own mind.
Don’t assume that because something has always worked that it will work well forever.
Evaluate, re-evaluate, and re-evaluate what you believe to be true.
Ask yourself again, and again, and again: “Is this what my customer really wants and needs?”
Answering that question will help you truly understand the psychology of your customers.
Answering that question will help you answer the ultimate question: “Who exactly am I?”