It’s all a matter of consumer need. If you can understand the consumer need your product satisfies then you can tell prospective customers about it and they will buy it.

And the great news is that you find out what consumers’ needs are in relation to any product or service by asking them.

So, if you aren’t currently succeeding you have a simple route to turn things around.

1. Find out what the consumers needs are by asking them.
2. Tell them your product meets them.

What could be easier?

Well, the great news is that I can save you the trouble of step one. Because I’ve done the research already and I can tell you the answers.

Consumers don’t really need anything. Ok, the basics, food, water, heat, shelter. But unfortunately (or not depending on how you look at it) someone has beaten us to all these markets.

And the only people left who don’t have these needs met can be grouped into a segment based on their behaviour – the only sort of segmentations worth using – called “poverty-ridden”. These people have the temerity to lack disposable income, so marketing to them is, frankly, a waste of time.

“OK,” you might say, “but consumer ‘wants’ are really what it’s all about. If you know what consumers want you can sell to that.”

Here yet again I can save you some money.

Consumers “want” what they’re already getting, just cheaper. They’re very clear on this, adamant in fact, so it must be true.

They also want things that make their lives better by freeing up their time from things they don’t like doing so they can spend more time doing things they do like doing (usually watching television).

These products tend to be the preserve of genies in bottles. Paint that puts itself on the wall, a dishwasher that puts the dishes away, something that walks the dog when it’s raining and clears away its poop too or grass that cuts itself.

Of course, these are just few examples to get you started. But if you exist in the same environment as your target audience, the chances are that you will be able to write your own list and check if your product or service does any of these things.

Although that doesn’t mean that anyone will buy it. It may cost too much, seem too good to be true or cost you too much to let people know it exists and convince them it’s worth what your selling it for.

In the end sales and marketing is about influencing.

Persuading someone that your gadget will make painting the wall easier; that your dishwasher is easier to empty; that your dog will enjoy running on a treadmill instead of going outside with you; that the plastic handled trowel is preferable to scooping the poop straight into the plastic bag that you bought your groceries in or that your robot lawn mower makes economic and practical sense.

In the last case I can confirm that it does. I recently purchased a robotic mower and it has quickly become a domestic hero. It is certainly far better than, for example, an automatic washing machine.

The washing machine still requires far too much human involvement for my liking. The mower takes care of business all on its own. All that is required of me is an occasional inspection of the blades; it’s virtually as good as self-cutting grass.

But for as much as self-cutting grass was something I wanted, I only bought the machine because I was influenced. The brand name, the sales person and the offer all contributed to my decision to take a risk on this product.

And it was a risk. I didn’t know anyone who had one and could reassure me that it would do what I wanted it to do. But the potential upside was so huge, and the economics of it in comparison to the alternative so attractive, and the persuasion skills of the retailer sufficiently compelling, that I took the chance.

The fact is that most people’s homes are full of things that not only did they not need, they didn’t even want, at least not until someone told them that they should want it.

There is far more to be gained from understanding how people are influenced than by asking them what they think they want.

Of course, long term success comes from them deciding that they do want what you have, but they will only really “decide” that once they have it. And in most cases that will require influence and persuasion somewhere along the way.

Image courtesy: Raymond Larose