You need more than need to make a sale

Almost every business exec thinks that if their products or services meets people's needs then they should be successful selling them. Yet, the same business executives are frequently and constantly frustrated with how much better their products and services are than their competitors, but people still choose to buy and use competitive products.

What's the issue? Why is it so difficult for business strategies to create more sales?

I believe that traditional sales and marketing practices are focused on product features and price and creating more knowledge for customers and consumers so they would choose their products. While all of these are important tenets of strategy, they are necessary, but not sufficient to convert someone to a customer.

Ultimately for someone to buy your product or service if they have not before or to buy more than they have in the past, the customer must behave differently than they previously have. Sales is the product of volume and price and volume is the product of penetration, frequency and transaction size. Other than raising price, increased sales can only occur when someone buys that hasn't before (penetration), buys more often than they have before (frequency), or buy more when they purchase than they did before. If increased sales is primarily a behavioral change event, why don't business executives view their strategy through the lenses of behavioral change.

This would involve realizing that no matter how much one knows that a product will meet their need, if they are not willing to abandon their status quo, they will not change. This willingness is the first step to changing behavior and is called "unfreezing" (Lewin's change model).

Therefore, for sales to increase through increased penetration, frequency, or transaction size, customers have had to be willing to do something different than they are currently doing. What causes this desire to change (unfreezing)?

"Unfreezing" is about willingness, which is a motivational process. At the heart of motivation is valence and saliency. Valence is the degree something is important to us. This is in a sense "the need". However, valence is not sufficient for someone to change their behavior. The behavior and its associated outcome must not just meet a need, but be salient. This aspect of behavior often escapes sales and marketing practices. Most businesses just think their products must be important and have value (meet a need) to someone for them to become a customer. NOT SO!!!

Many people know that eating better and exercising more would make them feel better and add to the quality of their life. However, obesity and diabetes is rampant. Is this because people do not feel a need to feel better and live longer? I have met with several insurance salesmen recently. After they give me a spill for how their products meet people's needs for protecting income and/or saving for retirement, i ask why doesn't everyone buy? Everyone has the need. To what degree do people really shop around for anything but term insurance? The failure to sell retirement or savings oriented products is rarely that the individual bought someone else's product but that they did not buy at all. Why?

Retirement or savings are not usually salient to the customer. What makes something salient? A behavior is salient when the outcome is urgent and can't be delayed. It is salient when the outcome is likely, practical, and normal (legitimate). Change occurs when someone believes the status quo is riskier than the new. Saliency occurs when the new behavior "must" be engaged. Saliency is often prompted by disequilibrium occurring in the status quo. For instance the stock market drops significantly or interest rates take a sudden rise. The need is not in the value of the outcome but in the risk avoidance of the outcome (this is what gets the individual's attention). For someone to take income from today and invest it for the future must realize that the risk of losing today in creating net worth is greater than the risk of not spending for today's pleasures. I do not find insurance salesmen, even the best, focusing on this risk assessment. they usually focus on the need to retire and knowledge of "time value of money". Those are important to people but often not made salient AND sales often fail to occur.

One note about customers. they are the ones who purchase the product or service. They are usually concerned about price and the service experience (convenience, "top of mind" awareness, ease to obtain and accessibility). These will be the purchase criteria unless the consumer controls the purchase. the consumer is concerned more about psychological and physical attributes of the product. Price is more about fairness and value and usually is not a factor unless price is prohibitive. Product features inform the consumer's experience associated with the outcome from using the product (trust, quality, pleasure, legitimacy, social and personal identity, ease of use).

The customer's risk is that there is a better deal otherwise or that the product will not meet the consumer's desired experience. These risks must be eliminated for the customer to buy. The more the consumer influences the customer (even if it is the same person), the less the risk there is for the customer to purchase. Consumer's risks are generally reduced the greater the social and personal identity and legitimacy (acceptance by others) and the greater the trust and dependability (reputation) of the product.

There's a lot here but you can read more about it in "Winning in a Hostile Environment", available at Amazon.com