In his book The Forces of Progress, author Kobus van der Zel explains the emotional forces that generate and shape customers’ demand and resistance for a product.
Push and Pull
The first group contains Push (e.g., circumstances surrounding the current situation such as an old lawnmower that is difficult to push around the lawn) and Pull (e.g., seeing your neighbor with a new lawnmower that pulls the operator forward automatically), or the forces that work together to generate demand.
Habit and Anxiety
The other group is Habit (e.g., “My existing lawnmower is fine; I can go another year with it”) and Anxiety (e.g., “What if I can’t figure out how to control it? I might look silly as my neighbor looks on”), or the forces that work together to reduce demand.
Customers experience some combination of these forces—often all at once—as they search for, choose, purchase, and use a product to make their lives better.
It is important for leaders to understand what is driving their customers to move toward a decision to purchase and what forces may be stopping them. There may be market demand that is yet unaccounted for or hidden objections your salespeople don’t even know to address.
These hidden objections are often masked by the ever-popular, “The price is too high” or “We are just not ready to move ahead yet.”
Example
For instance, Bob was in the business of selling condos. His Core Customers were empty nesters. Before building the condo complex, he asked some folks who wanted to move to a smaller footprint home (Push) what was important to them in a condo so he could design something that they would be happy with (Pull). He was told that one-floor living, a second bedroom for guests and grandchildren, and a few other items were important. Bob built the units to these specifications and early on, many sold. However, soon his sales stalled. There were many interested parties but they were not moving forward.
After many discovery interviews, he kept hearing something about the dining room table. He found that many people and couples were ready to move but would not do so until they figured out what to do with the dining room table—and these newly designed units didn’t have room for the table. For these people, the table held a certain reverence since there were so many memories associated with it. They could not just throw it out. With this information, Bob redesigned future units by shrinking the second bedroom to create more space for the dining room table. Sales shot up and stayed there.
Bob was unaware of the unspoken anxiety a large number of potential buyers had before they would move ahead. He had done a great job of the push and pull pieces but had not looked for reasons some folks had for not moving such as the dining room table or, as he also discovered, what they would do with all of the stuff they had in the attic and basement. When he solved for the latter by adding a “sorting room,” he got another permanent jump in sales. This is what I mean when I say Know Your Customers.
Since we are primarily emotional creatures, we have to apply logical and emotional constructs to the marketing process.
Excerpt from Further, Faster: The Vital Few Steps That Take the Guesswork out of Growth