Nowadays, you can read all existing material about marketing, retailing and sales; you can even collect and store those books and videos until they can sink a cruise ship with their weight; but it would be worth nothing if you just leave the most important factor out of the equation.
People are the bases of all interaction. Whether you call it sales, marketing, business, politics, or whatever, all that is, is human interaction. If you miss out on the bases here, you will miss out there for sure.
So, what are the bases then?
If you want to have a deeper and lasting influence on your customers, you’ll have to figure out what is already influencing them.
Then again, you can read and collect tons of books on this subject either (basically, human Psychology), and maybe in ten or twenty years you can catch a glimpse of all that you need to know. You better go to the basis.
If you want to know what will move them and why they –most definitively will– do what they do, you have to understand the Human Needs Psychology. Human Needs Psychology was developed by Anthony Robbins in the early 90’s, and it states that all human beings have the same six needs, and that everything they do is because they –consciously or not, believe they will satisfy some or all of those needs in some way by doing so. And they are NOT desires, not something they’d prefer, they absolutely must have them fulfilled in some way.
So, what are these needs and how can you use them to attract loyal customers?
Certainty Basically it’s the basic need to avoid pain and have pleasure. People need to feel secure, safe and comfortable, and be sure that they will in the future. So, you can meet your customer’s need for certainty by constantly providing them with a sense of safety, assurance and predictability.
Uncertainty The need for the unknown, change and variety. People believe that happiness comes from having many different experiences and a variety of things to choose from; so keep surprising your customers with new things, dynamic entertainment and a variety of choices available for them.
Significance The need for feeling respected and important, to be considered unique and special; and here’s an important tip: those who put significance above all other needs will definitively attend places where they can feel respected; they love high standards, acceptance and compliments.
Connection The need for a strong feeling of meaningful closeness or union with people and places. If you can make this connection between the customer and your people or your shop, if you can make them feel at home, they will always return.
Growth This one must be directly reflected on you. You –and your staff, need to constantly develop new skills, learn new things and improve what you already know to be constantly growing. There is always a new challenge in being a model of self-improvement to others.
Contribution Life is not complete until you get a sense of contributing to others. You need to go beyond your business and give to others; Give back and leave a mark on the world. See if you can find that special spot in the heart of your community, maybe a blood drive, a charity event … or maybe just finding your unique way to serve customers.
Understanding these 6 human needs, and which ones are your customers trying to meet in any given moment, can help you create new patterns that will lead to everlasting loyalty.
Written By Bob Proctor,
President
The Linkage Group Inc.
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