Ouch! Using Pain To Motivate And Influence Customers
M
any, many moons ago, a high school football coach of mine used to whip the student body into a frenzy before our annual cross-town rivalry. The school was buzzing with excitement and adrenaline when my coach would strut on stage and with a commanding, gravely voice proclaim, “I’ve seen the weather forecast for this Saturday’s football game… and it calls for a 100% chance of PAIN! We’re going to bring the pain!”Just like my coach, physical and mental pain motivates people. It's a key component of consumer buying behavior. And in your business, you can use pain to elicit a desired reaction from your customers to win more new business. Try to step inside the mind of your customers. What’s their pain forecast?
As much as we like to think we're rational and logical, people buy products and services because the marketing appeals to emotions. Like pain. So, what problems are so excruciatingly painful that your customers are forced to take immediate action? What causes their teeth to ache and throb? What wakes them up in the middle of the night?
A pretty clear-cut example would be criminal defense services provided by an attorney. Sure every client wants to be assured that their attorney is capable and competent, but the client is less interested in that his attorney has 30-years of experience instead of 25, or that he can recite legal code backwards and forwards. The client’s pain is jail time, a ruined career, the stigma of conviction, a broken family and possible financial ruin. Those are real, palpable pains.
The same applies to business-to-business firms and even employees. To illustrate further, let’s use an IT company providing data storage and protection services to other businesses. The client’s pains are much deeper than correctly implementing a hardware and software solution. The client’s pain is, will my business survive in the event of hardware failure? Will my business go broke because the new technology requires additional staff? And for a lower level manager, will I be fired because the IT company I hired didn’t perform?
Pain motivates. So think about how it influences your customers. Think about what worries, frustrates and concerns your customers. How can you use pain and other emotions in your small business branding? Use that knowledge to position yourself as the whiskey to soothe their aching gums. It’ll put you on the fast track to "yes."
