How to Get Customers to Buy From You (This is the Secret to Building Products People Love)

You already know the easiest way to get faster MARKET traction is to put triggers in the path of motivated people…

…and keeping things simple to do because people are stressed for time and money.

You kept things simple in your product design, but how can you motivate people?

All this to change consumer behaviour.

How can you get someone moving towards that buy-me button when you feel like you have done all that you can?

Or even better, how can you get someone to buy something when they are first time visitors to your site?

That’s what I’m going to show you how to do in today’s blog post PLUS a little extra at the end.

Let’s get to the third part of this series!

startup postmortem

Why do Startups (and the products they create) Fail?

And even way more important, how do “some” startups get millions of users…

…and build companies that are worth millions?

The answer lies in:

Solving an Actual Problem (and Change Consumer Behaviour)

I’ll keep it real with you because I know you expect nothing less than brutal honesty.

Most people who do a startup dream about being the next Facebook and soaring towards millions of users. I mean: who doesn’t?

And they’re willing to bust their asses too (there goes the parental advisory!). They’re not looking for handouts, they want to EARN their success just like you.

So, what happens…

They start their startup based on the assumption that the world is waiting for their cool product or service. No wonder that some startups just fade away, after big money is spent or the founders run out of cash.

Why?

It’s simple. When startups design their products, they do the wrong things.

And the problem is, when they spend all their time on all of those things they run into this:

They’ll waste their first 4 months, and they’ll have a crappy product while they still don’t know if they are actually solving a problem that is worth solving in the eyes of a customer.

And eventually they will have no money anymore.

And that lack of results (and focus) will demotivate the MOST AMBITIOUS individual.

 

(I’ve been there…)

It’s human nature: the more time you spend working on something without a reward, the harder it is to continue doing it.

And that’s why, I believe most startups fail.

So here is my question for you:

Are you currently investing time and money in a project?

Are you scared that you’ll waste your time on building something you don’t know if people will use it?

Or worse, maybe you also have been in this situation…and you’re done with that!

If you said “Heck YEAH!” then you are in luck my friend.

Throughout the rest of this article I’m going to reveal the “motivators” that causes people to buy your stuff and use your product.

The “motivators” that cause you to design a product that is just right and eventually will be loved by your customers.

Ready?

Let’s do this.

Motivator #1 (Sensation): Seeking Pleasure or Avoiding Pain

When I asked startups, “How much time do you spend outside the building talking with customers?”, they said “I spend about 10% of my time on talking with potential customers.”

This makes ZERO sense.

Of course talking with customers can be rather painful, they can either be brutally honest or just nod. And you don’t want the latter.

How does this apply to product design?

…And more important: the impact of design on behavior!

If a person’s motivation is too low, behavior is not likely to occur when triggered. Therefore, in some behavior change situations, you need to design for an increase in the subject’s motivation.

Ideally the user is already motivated to do the behavior (which is why he is on your site).

Your role now is about helping them do what they already want to do, by keeping your design simple to navigate.

After all: the more motivated people are to do a behavior, the more likely they will do it.

Each motivator has 2 sides, so let’s look at the first one.

Seeking pleasure or avoiding pain are both motivators where the result is immediate. There’s almost no thinking or anticipating.

These two are very powerful motivators. It’s the first thing you should consider when trying to motivate people into action. This motivator type may not be the most ideal approach, especially, pain.

I had to pay back my student public transportation card when I didn’t perform well enough in college. They threatened with possible financial pain, so I worked my butt off.

Now, that leads me to the next motivator.

Motivator #2 (Anticipation): Hope or Fear

These two are the ones I mostly see on television. One in the Obama campaigns and the other always being applied in commercials of insurance companies.

Whereas, hope is the anticipation of something good happening and fear the anticipation of something bad, often losing something.

For example, people will accept financial pain (home insurance) in order to overcome the fear of being robbed one day. It depends on the context and the person, which one is the most appropriate to use in terms of motivators.

Hope and fear have long been powerful motivators in persuasive technology. For example, people are motivated by hope when joining a dating website. Or by fear when they purchase the newest edition of Norton Antivirus.

People look for cues on what other people are doing. And that leads me to the NEXT 2 big motivators.

Motivator #3 (Social cohesion): Being Accepted or Rejected

These 2 motivators impact everything from the clothes we wear, the things we listen to the language or slang we use. Yessir!

As you are probably aware of, we are motivated to do things that win us social acceptance and social status. For instance: buying that car where the brand name sounds like wauwie.

We are genius at motivating ourselves to avoid any negative consequences like being socially rejected.

This is part of our psychology. We depended on living in groups to survive and everybody had their part to play. Just ask yourself: why do you post those pictures on Facebook?

To be liked, right?

Right!

The Bottom Line

In order to increase behavior, you need to:

  1. Ensure a clear trigger is present
  2. Increase ability by making it easier
  3. Align with the right motivator

Here’s What You Need To Do Next… 

Now that I walked you through the psychology behind why startups fail, and the big 3 motivators that causes people to buy you stuff, you’ve got ONE goal:

You need to get some results…FAST.

So, what can you do to get some results fast?

Well, remember when I said:

Put triggers in the path of motivated people.

Do that.

Here is how you can INCREASE your customer newsletter signups!

Just do the work.

In all 3 steps, explain WHY you think this step will help you. This is important, and if you skip this step, the exercise is pointless.  🙂

If you do this, and hold yourself accountable, leave a comment and share your experiences.

I am pretty sure there are more people out there who would benefit from your experiences. 🙂

Aly Chiman

Aly Chiman is a Blogger & Reporter at AlyChiTech.com which covers a wide variety of topics from local news from digital world fashion and beauty . AlyChiTech covers the top notch content from the around the world covering a wide variety of topics. Aly is currently studying BS Mass Communication at University.