Seventeen reasons people buy - Part Two

May 15, 2008 by admin

By Ben Hart

The #1 reason people buy

In the previous section (Part One) I list 17 motives fueling the desire of people to buy something. But almost all of these can be recast and placed under one motive.

The most powerful motive of all is fear.

People are very insecure about their place in life. Are people searching for love, or are they more afraid of ending up alone? Stopping something bad from happening is always a more powerful motivator than causing something good to happen. I exercise not so I can look like Mr. Universe, but because I fear looking like Jabba the Hut. I want to make more money not so I can buy more things, but mostly to guard against going broke.

I use Rogaine because I fear losing all my hair. I’ve lost most of my hair anyway, and I don’t think the stuff works. But I fear what might happen if I stop using it, so I keep buying the junk. I think I’ll just shave my head and rid myself of that concern once and for all.

Desire for power is a subset of fear. So is anger. People are angry because they are not in control. Short people (i.e. Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot) seem more interested in power than tall people (Thomas Jefferson, George Washington). People want power and get angry mostly because they are insecure—which is a variation of the fear motive.

Your sales letters will perform far better if you talk about, or imply, all the bad things that will happen to your reader if he fails to answer your letter. If you receive a letter from the IRS or an attorney, you are very likely to open it—far more likely than a letter from Bloomingdales.

People fear the IRS, fear lawsuits, fear getting older, fear dying, fear failing, fear loneliness, fear nature, fear getting sick, fear God, fear going to Hell, fear being left behind or left out, and fear being fired. They fear not keeping up with the Joneses, fear not amounting to anything in life, fear for their kids, fear not being understood, fear other people, fear walking down the street, and just generally fear life. Woody Allen built a career on making movies about people’s fears, insecurities, and neuroses.

The news media sells almost nothing but fear, because news organizations know that fear sells.

Rarely do we hear a positive news story. Mostly we hear stories about disasters, crimes, wars, typhoons, disease. People contribute to causes mostly because they want to stop something bad from happening.

How does the car salesman stop you from walking out of the showroom?

“Another guy also loved this car and says he’ll be back later today with his down payment. If you don’t buy it now, this car will be gone this evening.”

Or . . .

“This deal I’m offering you expires at the end of the month, which is today. We’re actually losing money on this price. We’re only offering this price today so we can meet our sales quota for the month because if we meet our quota, we get a bonus from GM.”

I’m sure you’ve heard these or similar pitches before.

The salesman is using fear (your fear of losing out) as a way to persuade you to make an immediate decision.

People buy not so much to gain something, but because they fear losing something important if they don’t buy.

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INSTRUCTIONS: Just pattern your headlines after these greatest-ever headlines and watch your sales zoom skyward.

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