You might not know it, but you have a process you go through when you make a purchase.
For example, you might need to see the product, talk to someone (a salesperson, your partner, yourself) about it, then feel it with your hands.
In that order.
People have different processes, but they’re often something similar to that.
“Not me!” you might say. “Why would I need to touch it? I make all my buying decisions based on logic!”
Yeah and so does everyone.
But there have been times when you didn’t make a purchase, even when it made sense for you to buy it. Something just felt off about it.
Or that time you looked at dozen interchangeable options for something unimportant, then picked whatever. How did you choose that particular whatever? At random? Unlikely. Based on a gut feeling or the design of the box? Yeah, exactly.
Logic is a key factor in a purchase. No vegan is going to buy a steak, no matter what else is going on.
But logic alone isn’t enough. You also have to get a feel for it, sound it out and see how it looks.
It’s worth learning your purchasing strategy.
Especially if you’re in sales – because then you won’t mistake your strategy for everyone else’s.
You might have a process like I described above. The potential customer in front of you might need to talk it through in their mind, touch the product and then visualise it fitting in with their stuff at home.
Those are different strategies. If you try to sell to them the way you like to be sold to, you’ll fumble.
Even if it “makes sense” for them to buy.
It pays to be able to see the salient issue in sales (the sale-ient issue?). What drives your customer? How do they see the world?
You won’t see those answers through the fog of your own delusions.
How you think isn’t how everyone else thinks. You know that to be true, intellectually, but it’s easy to forget that in the moment. It’s easy to fall into bad habits of thought and project like crazy.
Until, that is, you read, reread and apply Your Story Isn’t About You.
That doesn’t solve the problem, but it makes it a lot harder to delude yourself. You’ll recognise quite a few ways you fail to see people as they are, instead of as you are.
This lack of self-awareness is rampant in society and especially on social media.
That’s why I give Your Story Isn’t About You at no charge.
Here’s more info about it: