Why Customers Really Buy
Uncovering the Emotional Triggers That Drive Sales
By: Linda Goodman, Michelle Helin
Published: Jan 15, 2009
ISBN: 9781601630414
Format: Paperback, 256pp
Publisher: Career Press Inc.
"The motivations customers act on are seldom logical, predictable, or even conscious," write marketing consultants Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin in their breakthrough guide to sales and marketing Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers That Drive Sales. The authors make the powerful case that buying decisions are based on emotional factors, and how to employ emotional triggers to enhance sales and marketing results.
Linda Goodman (photo left) and Michelle Helin recognize that buying decisions are made by human beings, and as a result, the choices made are based more on emotion than on logic. The authors define an emotional trigger as something that causes a reaction in a person. The event that drives the reaction can be real, or it can even be imagined, but it triggers an emotional response. In the case of buying decisions, the reaction is to purchase the product or service. While difficult to quantify, the authors employ various advanced research techniques to delve deeply into emotional triggers and the resulting human reactions.
Michelle Helin (photo left) and Linda Goodman understand that while the entire advertising industry is built on creating emotional triggers that elicit buying reactions, The advertisers are not the only place where emotional triggers are found. What appear on the surface to be rational economic decisions, including outsourcing, downsizing, and mergers, are very often reactions to emotional triggers in the form of fear of loss or of falling behind the competition. Business thinking has long considered its actions to be based on hard numbers and concrete data, but the authors point out that those human decisions are based on emotional triggers as well.
For me, the two fold power of the book is how the authors present research data to support their thesis that decisions are made for emotional reasons, and how to apply that knowledge to marketing and sales. Despite long standing claims that so-called Economic Man makes all choices based on rational and monetary data, the authors make a powerful case debunking that shop worn argument.
Through advanced quantitative research methodology, the authors demonstrate quite clearly that human reactions are emotional in nature, and not based on logic. The authors describe practical application of their emotional trigger marketing model to generate more sales. Through creating genuine empathy with the needs of the customer, and understanding their emotional triggers, the result is more sales and satisfied customers.
I highly recommend the ground breaking Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers That Drive Sales by Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin, as a must read for anyone who is serious about how emotions affect buying decisions at the individual level and business decisions at the management level. By better understanding how and why humans make the choices they do, marketers can better meet the needs of customers. At the same time, managers can recognize when their business decisions are being influenced by their emotions rather than hard economic data.
Read the essential book Why Customers Really Buy: Uncovering the Emotional Triggers That Drive Sales by Linda Goodman and Michelle Helin, and learn why your customers really purchase your products and services, and how to create more satisfied customers. By understanding and empathizing with your customers, you can meet those emotional needs that result in true long term customer satisfaction.
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