Marketing Products of Dreams

Consumers don’t care and don’t want to know what electronic parts go in an iPod. All they care about is if the little devil will make them look cool on the treadmill while listening to their favorite music collection.

They could have bought any other musical storage device, but then again – can any of these other spin-offs help them plant the flag of cool on the mountain of “Supreme coolness”? I think not. The market shows the same.

Consumers buy with their hearts and their hearts beat a bit faster when “elevated status” enters their realm. Are you selling a product solely for its technical wonders? I hope not! Unless you emphasize the benefits – you lose every time. WIIFM – What’s In It For Me. I’m sure you’ve heard this before.

Your sales pitch has to revolve around a story, a desire that is close to your buyer’s heart. Your job is to find what that desire is and feed it until the deal is done.

Several years ago, I was a partner in a small transportation company. Business was tight and heading inevitably down hill. We decided to sell one of the trucks. Hoping to get the cash flow going again, we listed the truck in one of the local papers. We focused on the technical aspect of the truck and emphasized the low price compared to similar trucks on the market.

Needless to say – we got no serious response what-so-ever. We even tried eBay but the bids came so low we might as well have donated it.

Anxious to get going, we tried from a different angle and constructed an ad that appealed to the human desire of owning a business; of being free and keeping all the profits for yourself.

Here’s the ad:

BE YOUR OWN BOSS!
Become and owner operator and drive this low mileage, excellent condition truck”.

We sold it within a week and did I mention we made a 7% profit?

So what changed? Before we sold the truck, we sold the dream.

The truck was nothing but the means to break into the world of ownership and work for yourself. That is a powerful message and marketers around the world express it and push it all the time.

Stop worrying if you are going to close the deal and start learning what your customer’s desires are. Find out what they precisely want and you’ll always close the deal. Selling desire is a very powerful marketing approach and you should harness this talent before selling anything.

 Claudiu Geanta is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Design by Satori Inc. & Satori CG Inc.. He helps businesses promote their presence on and off line. He is also an accomplished web designer, book writer and photographer. You can follow him on Twitter.
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