You can’t move your prospects and clients to action unless you
first figure out what drives and motivates them.

That can be a teeny intimidating unless you chunk things down…

As you know, we each have a number of different roles in our lives – different areas in which we have responsibility. Your customers are not any different. They may, for example… have a role of a father, husband, businessman, teacher and professional golfer.

Each of these roles is important to them.

People want to be successful at what they do (you know, their roles…). They want to
be recognised or acknowledged as a good father, successful businessman and
an exceptional sportsman (of course, both genders want to be successful;
I use the masculine gender as an example only).

But, listen to this…

At any given time, your customers/prospects have 3-5 key issues
that are MOST important to them. Those roles change over time, but
to motivate someone effectively, you must understand what their
most important issues are when you try to engage them in a conversation,
using: email, letters, website or face to face contact.

To sort out those key issues, and improve some area of their lives, people
consciously or subconsciously, set goals for themselves.

Your customers/prospects are trying to do something like make more money.
That’s their GOAL or result they want to achieve.

If you want to motivate your customers and prospects to action, you must
understand what their goals are – what do they want MORE of and
what do they want LESS of in life? You need to figure out what it is EXACTLY that
your prospects or clients want to achieve.

How can your product or service help them achieve their goals?

Step 2, is for you to understand their MOTIVATION/s for wanting to achieve a particular goal.
WHY do they want to make more money? What’s their motivation?

For example, a person wants to make money, because he wants to
pay off his car loan and make the rent every month. The middle manager works
65-hour weeks to earn that next promotion. A bubbly secretary
works overtime because she enjoys the company of her colleagues.

Keep in mind that everyone’s “needs” are different.

A 60-year-old secret to help you motivate your customers without wasting a single breath…

Elmer Wheeler, also known as the “sell the sizzle, not the steak” salesman described
five effective psychological motivators in his book Tested Salesmanship, they are:

1)    Importance. Wheeler argued that the #1 motivator
for people is the search to feel superior or better than others.

2)    Appreciation. People lave their jobs and their partners to find this need elsewhere.

3)    Approval. Wheeler explained that we all go to great lengths to
liked and approved by other people. If your prospects and customers are part of
a civic group, organisation, or an association, they’re likely to accept, propagate and
live by the values of that group.

4)   Ease. People are lazy. As a result they look for quick, easy and instant gratification.
How can you provide a faster, better, easier solution to your prospect’s problems?

5)    Success. People want to be successful. But, remember, it’s their definition of success, not yours. Their definition of success could be having: money, health, relationships, a bigger house, a newer car, the latest designer handbags, or many other things.

Once you find the one motivator that works with your prospects, the tendency is to use the same motivator over and over again. But if you do, it will loose its power. So you need to keep looking for a new twist.

Step 3, you need to recognize and understand their fears.

Fear motivates and moves us away from unpleasant circumstances or potential destruction.
Fear persuades us to do many things we might not otherwise do.
Out of fear we buy life insurance, air bags, medicines and home alarms.

How can you use fear to your advantage?

Your customer’s fear could be that his property will be seized by creditors as he’s unable to meet his repayments… or the hysterical laugh of his relatives as they find out what happened… or perhaps that there won’t be enough funds for him to enjoy a comfortable retirement, free of financial worries.

The more you know about your customers, the more effective
your sales and marketing efforts will be. It’s well worth making the effort to find out their real:

A)    GOALS
B)    MOTIVATIONS
C)    FEARS

Keep in mind that their goals, motivations and fears are constantly changing.

Isn’t this fun?

P.S. – To sell someone effectively, you need to create rapport first, so you need to meet people where they already are. You need to understand their current mindset on the topic you want to ‘discuss’ with them.

When your prospect is worried or preoccupied with something occurring now or that is about to happen in the future, like many people do these days about the economy, your ability to persuade declines. So, make sure you address that worry first before you start your sales spiel.