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What Do You Know About the Consumer Decision Making Process?

By Robert Morris

There is no such thing as “a naive client.” There is only “a good seller” and “an opportune situation.”  You are here because you want to be the best supplier on the market. I do not know what you sell and I do not want to know. The only thing I need to know is that you desire to succeed. And that I am aware of as long as you are reading this. But remember: great things require hard work and a lot of commitment.

You want to be the best? Start right now. Find out what your customers want. Bring them to you. Make them dependent on you. Stay loyal to them and make them stay with you. Your brand name will be widely known and your financial growth will unlock many doors for you. Take a look at the next essential tools every great seller has to know.

The most important 6 stages your customers will go through while making your sells skyrocket.

Problem Identification

What is the first step when solving any Math exercise? You read the problem and identify it. You think about the best solving approach. Then you imagine the projected outcome and start solving the problem with all the information you have. In the end, you finish the exercise and get your desired result.

This is the way customers think when it comes to shopping. They have a problem and a desire. It is that simple. For sellers, this creates the perfect market opportunity to sell their best items. So what does your client want? Find out his demand and supply the right product.

You can find out the market demand by accessing Google Trends. This site analyses what people are discussing online at one specified time. See how discussed your product is and if it is worth producing it. After that, search for key words. This other Google program will help you discover how often your product’s name appears online per month. See what type of wording fits best and try to use as many of those words as you can when you advertise.

Take a look at the geographical area that is most interested in your product. That group of people is your main target. Keep yourself posted. Now go to the next step and find out how your clients will search for information.

Information Search

The most essential information customers are looking for is risk probability. They try to minimise their risks by analysing all the production factors. Starting with the item’s year of manufacturing to its price and date of shipping, your customers will purchase your products if there is at least a 97% chance they will not have any problems with the transaction process.

Now what you have to do is identify what their final desires are. Be as accurate as possible when promoting. Keep things simple and organised and convince your clients that you are the best. For example, Facebook, the biggest social media platform existent today, has achieved its productivity very fast and simple. It launched in 2004, the year that people were familiarizing with technology. Society demanded ways to communicate faster. Zuckerberg identified the market demand and got rich in just a few hours after launching Facebook.

Decisions

The “Alternatives process” is the hardest for both the consumer and the producer. They have to make a risky decision and choose between the competitors. We have to advertise at our full potential. “Just Do It”: I bet you automatically know which company I am referring to.

Yes, Nike “Just Did It” by advertising big after the company opened up. This is how they managed to remain on top and keep their clients loyal and confident.  Make your customers know they made the best decision even before they bought your product. Start advertising now and get your customers at the right time. Here are the main tools you need:

Social Media Access

Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your product or brand. Post ideas and offers daily. Make it easy for customer to private message you. Be responsive and communicative. Give them advice and make their purchase easier.

Twitter: Twit your brand! Nothing brings you clients easier than giving them funny advertising. It is one of the main keys to success. By twitting funny quotes and saying related to your product, you make them remember it for the rest of their days.

Instagram: You can also post pictures on Instagram. The target here is the young public in general. You can keep it funny here too!

YouTube: Post commercials and video appealing benefits of buying your product. Share the videos, get subscribers, et Voila: you have a great advertising campaign going on!

Customer Relationship Marketing

Salesforce: This is the strongest force on the market for sharing marketing ideas and publicize significant content. You will need it to evaluate your work in this field.

Microsoft Dynamics: Here you can analyse your future business and predict the financial outcome. Future expectations matter a lot when it comes to your investment plans.

Efficiency Apps

Dropbox: Stock your work into Dropbox and make it easy to access from anywhere!

Evernote: Keep your thoughts organized! Write them down on this effective platform and never lose track of them again!

Box: Similar to Dropbox, keep your storage full and you mind free.

Google Apps: These are the most beneficial apps that Google has. It includes Google Calendar and Gmail. Take a look and choose the ones that fit your need!

Email Tracking: Some of the useful tools include Outreach, ToutApp and Hubspot.

Buying the Product

The customer has decided: he wants THAT product. By now you should have made sure that he is pointing at yours. His conclusion is based on all he has been exposed to. That takes in consideration all the advertising he has consciously or unconsciously seen. Your marketing expertise should have paid off by now. If your customer had a great journey through the market, you are doing the right job.

Think about Apple. It is the largest company that sells electronic products throughout the whole world. It has very fast services and it has been expanding exponentially. Its secret is massive market sales. But how does Apple do that? By keeping it simple! It has been proved that there is an 87% chance that customers will buy a product if they clearly understand how. Apple makes it easy for them to go through the purchasing process. It shows customers exactly what they need to know, and it eliminates the excess information. The result? Giant business, great money, awesome reputation, outstanding reviews.

Post-Purchase Interpretation

After the purchase, customers evaluate their decision. They start using the product and think about whether or not they made the right call. Let’s say Larry bought a new pair of jeans. He starts using them the next day at work and everybody admires him. His self-esteem increases and therefore his satisfaction is rising towards the maximum level.

Let’s say that the jeans are very qualitative and not that expensive. He thinks about the outcomes: not that much money, great fit, admiration from colleagues. He has evaluated and interpreted his purchase. What happens next? The client usually starts to recommend the supplier to friends and family. As his satisfaction level goes up, company’s reputation goes up, and earnings eventually go up. Everybody is happy and wealthy now.

You can see that in order to succeed, you have to take some essential steps. It is of great importance to identify what your customers’ preferences are. Without being aware of their real needs, you are not able to satisfy their necessities and sell them anything. Being a good seller is all about knowing what to do and when to do it. Keep your customers by your side by offering them what they need, at the time when they need it.

After you identified the problems, it is really, really important to think of ways to advertise your product. Make use of all the information I have provided you regarding different websites: they will make your job easier. After you have done everything that you could in order to gain your customers’ trust, make them stick to you. This is the second most important thing after advertising. If you respect all these steps, it is impossible not to succeed. Start now and make the best out of it!

Robert Morris is a marketing guru and a freelance writer. He lives  in New York and works for an educational blog askpetersen.com.