Understanding your customers is key to earning their business. Once you have determined WHAT a customer wants, it must be determined why they chose one company over another and why they buy.
Determining why customers choose one company over another is challenging. Customers themselves don't always know. They may think they patronize a business because the products or services are better than another’s when, in reality, it's something else. Perhaps they know, like and trust the employee or salesperson who is the company spokeswoman. Or maybe their business associate or friend mentioned it to them last week.
The reason customers buy is based on logic from “their point of view.” Understanding customers derives from this fundamental premise. Every client has unique and individual goals, pressures and purchase criteria. The astute business deduces and accepts the buying logic of customers and serves their customers accordingly.
Some buyers hide their true motivators. In many cases their reasons are obscure, even to the customers themselves. Sometimes emotions can be more powerful than facts. Emotions drive decisions while logic and facts justify the purchase. People decide emotionally; they use facts and logic to justify their decisions. An emotional connection can be developed and discerned when there is a focus on relationships with your customers. The best marketing sounds like a letter from a good friend, and is not a sales pitch.
Sometimes the reasons why customers buy are trivial. If customers feel indifferent toward a product or business, the selection is more apt to be happenstance. Perhaps several rival offerings meet all the conditions that a customer deems important. Consequently, minor factors will govern. This explains the rationale of the customer who chose a $28,000 car because its upholstery was most attractive. The point is to pay attention to details. They may be crucial to customers.
Consider this: How do shoppers select the tastiest oranges? Most people consider a deep, rich orange as an indicator of the freshness, flavor and juiciness of the orange. Oranges are as ripe, tasty, and juicy as they'll ever be on the day they're picked. After being picked they are processed, gassed, and a chemical reaction causes them to be more orange. The resulting color doesn’t really affect the taste and juiciness of the fruit, but orange growers understand why shoppers pick one orange over another and process the fruit accordingly.
Shrewd businesses respect what customers say, and also pay special attention to what customers do. More important than why customers buy is why do former customers take their patronage elsewhere? Also, why are qualified buyers not buying? What is keeping them from buying? Can this obstacle be surmounted? Businesses monitor competitive offerings and buyers' reactions to determine purchase motivators. Informal conversations may also reveal some reasons. Special offers may overcome resistance and boost profits.
Many factors affect why a customer will buy products or services from you rather than your competition. They may include:
Awareness
A customer knows you exist through advertisement or location.
Features and Benefits
The specific attributes of a product or service that distinguish it from the competition with benefits to improve a customer’s life or business.
Price
Setting the right price comes from knowing your customers and not merely knowing what your competitors are charging.
Brand and/or Reputation
Brands are powerful motivators for customers and enhance familiarity and comfort levels with your products or services, but for smaller companies it may lean more on reputation.
Convenience
Save your customer time and money by offering with a good location and integrating more than one product or service.
Word of Mouth
Personal referrals are one of the strongest influences on a customer. This is especially true when competitors offer similar products amongst competitors and the prospective customer cannot easily discern the difference between offerings.
