In The Brain Audit, Sean D'Souza uses an analogy of 7 bags, or pieces of luggage, to explain the sequence the brain goes through during the buying process. Open the bags one at a time, in the right order, and the customer will buy. Skip a bag or alter the sequence, and the customer cannot finish the steps to make a purchase.
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Start with the Profile, Problem, and Solution
- What is the most important thing you can share about pricing?
- You are charging less than you should be.
- The real estate agent, buyer, seller, and counsel all have different prices for the same house on the same street in the same market.
- You can get a lot more based on your uniqueness.
- You can get a lot less if you don't put that uniqueness forward.
- Uniqueness is the 7th bag in The Brain Audit.
- What is The Brain Audit?
- It is a system that shows what happens in your brain during the buying process.
- The analogy is that you put 7 red bags on a flight and after the flight lands you wait for your bags, but the 7th never comes out.
- When do you leave the airport?
- Most people don't because something is missing.
- Customers haven't bought or have hesitated because you haven't removed the 7 red bags from in their brain.
- Buyers go through the same steps regardless of the price of the item.
- Customers don't buy because you haven't provided information in the correct sequence.
- If you make the best offer in the world, but if it is in a different language, you still won't get the buyer to purchase.
- What is the first step in the sequence of the brain?
- The first step is identifying the target profile.
- Traditionally people identify a large target audience or a persona they create of someone who doesn't exist.
- A target profile interview beings with, “What frustrates you the most?”
- You get the real terminology, frustration, and emotion from your target.
- You first have to find a real person and discover what his biggest problem is.
- Drive home the problem to understand how it makes the real person feel and determine the consequences of how he feels.
- The first 3 bags unpacked are:
- Target profile
- The problem
- The solution
- Find someone who is very frustrated with a product or service if you don't have a large customer base from which to choose.
- You can build your product on that one person.
- The “good customer” doesn't exist; the person with a big frustration does.
- Why is the problem before the solution in the brain sequence?
- People tend to bring up the solution because you are taught to preach the benefits in sales.
- Your brain looks at the obstacles the whole time, to keep you alive.
- In doing so, it looks for problems, not solutions.
- Solutions don't register spikes in your brain, but problems do.
- Talk about the problem the target is having to get their attention.
- You don't have to make it a negative approach.
- Talk to the person like you would in reality.
- The first 3 bags are used to gain the customer's attention.
- What is a trigger?
- It is a subcomponent, like something you would use for a tagline.
- The trigger for The Brain Audit is Why Customers Buy (and Why They Don't).
- What you need to include for a great trigger is the profile, problem, and solution.
- The trigger instigates the conversation, with the logical response being, “How do you do that?”
Handle Objections With Testimonials
- How do you turn objections into a marketing ally?
- The next 4 bags eliminate the risks, starting with objections.
- A series of objections occurs even with free products.
- List the 6 biggest objections that are usually brought up and then destroy the objections.
- The customer will realize that you have thought through it and become more comfortable.
- Removing the objections so customers do not need to think about them.
- Perception is an objection that may not exist.
- Past experience is another potential objection, which you can deal with through testimonials.
- You won't eliminate the objections, but you can reduce them.
- The “unknown” is the last objection, but it could be anything, usually something you wouldn't expect.
- The way you deal with an unknown objection is to explain better what the service covers to avoid disappointment.
- What is the best way to create testimonials?
- A testimonial is a full customer experience, not just a sugar-coating.
- A reverse testimonial starts with something skeptical because you are tackling objections through it.
- You start by asking what was stopping them from buying the product or service.
- The second part of the testimonial is to remove the objection.
- Get your customer to answer the problem, which provides proof to destroy the objection.
- The testimonial is the flip side of the objection.
- You want to correlate the objections with the testimonials.
- What is your favorite question to ask for a testimonial?
- “What would have stopped you from getting on the journey?” gives you great insight as to why a customer buys.
- It provides you with an understanding of how to tighten up those areas.
- Sometimes you might be able to eliminate the objection because of a testimonial.
Create Uniqueness to Complete the Journey
- What is a risk reversal policy?
- Risk reversal (bag 6) reduces risk.
- There is always one risk bigger than all the other objections.
- A risk for Zappos is that you have to try shoes on to see if you like them, and they fit.
- “You like it or your money back” was not enough to tackle the objection because the real objection was the effort to exchange.
- Zappos offered free shipping both ways to eliminate the risk of the effort and cost to exchange it.
- Psychotactics created The Lawn Mower Guarantee: Run it over with the lawn mower and send it back.
- The biggest risk was not that you couldn't get your money back, but that your request might be refused.
- You have to find the hidden risk to address.
- You can create uniqueness by branding the risk reversal.
- Customers realize that you are cognizant of their fears through the policy you create.
- What is the most common mistake when creating our uniqueness?
- Trying to find your uniqueness is a common mistake.
- You can list all you can do and then narrow it down to one thing, and that might work.
- The best way is to invent your uniqueness.
- He suggested a writer set her uniqueness as delivering the article 3 hours before deadline every single time.
- The ioSafe‘s uniqueness is that is indestructible.
- Structure your product and service around that uniqueness.
- Psychotactics' uniqueness is that it doesn't give you information, it gives you a skill.
- What is one of your best stories about creating value for a customer?
- You have to be more than a business.
- To create value, you have to be a GPS.
- When you plug in an address, a GPS takes you from A-B in the shortest amount of time.
- Customers want you to get them to the end point the fastest, easiest way.
- Be their GPS.
About Sean D'Souza
Sean D'Souza is the founder of Pscyhotactics, a marketing company in New Zealand. He is the author of The Brain Audit, which has over 800 testimonials. He also is the host of The Three Month Vacation, a podcast that teaches why Sean takes a 90-day vacation each year.
- Sean's Website: psychotactics.com
- Sean on Twitter: @seandsouza
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