I am delighted to include a guest blog, by Janice B Gordon: The Problem Solver Business Growth Consultant, Mentor, Speaker and Author of Business Evolution – She has been a guest on the Rocking Your Role radio show.
What are your Customers Pleasure and Pain points?
I meet businesses that do not market research their customers wants and needs, they assume to know their customer, they create products and services that they think are great and then hope to find customers that will think what they do is also great.
The pleasure-pain principle was originated by Sigmund Freud in modern psychoanalysis, the pleasure principle states whilst seeking pleasure people will also seek to avoid pain.
Pain is the feeling of lack, it is the emotion of fear, the thoughts of ‘I should’ and ‘I have to’ and this is not a desirable state to be in. Marketers have traditional believed that expressing pain points motivates customers into taking immediate action and so pain has been used as a persuasion tool to trigger action, however, over time the pain dispels and the pain point is less effective. You see people become desensitised to the pain or problem over time. A consequence of persuasion is that the customer is not motivated to continue they may even feel that they have been tricked; this reduces trust and future engagement. It is not that the pain is not real but using the pain point as a motivational trigger although immediate is not lasting. Customers are not likely to sustain the motivation for the action, they may even question ‘why am I doing this?’
Customers do not care about how great your business or your product is but they do care how you, your business or your product will solve their pain or problem. The mistake businesses make is using the pain point to motivate the customer. A focus on the pain point is a focus on the problem and not on the solution. It is the solution you are selling not the problem, your customer really only cares about the solution.
Pleasure is the feeling of joy, the emotion of happiness and the thought of ‘I must’; this is a desirable state that you would willingly remain in. Pleasure is self-motivating, I know when I have had a pleasurable experience I want to experience it again, when I have shared joy I want to share more joy. I never think ‘I have to’, I think ‘I want to’, ‘I will’. I am energised by my desire. I am creatively picturing what pleasure is and thinking of ways to share my pleasure I am motivated to continue the desirable action. If I want my customers to take action without persuasion, first I must understand my customer’s pleasure.
It is not that you do not define your customer’s pain point to create great products or services that will solve your customer’s needs. I am proposing that you communicate the wants served by the pain points, the desire met and the pleasure given. To communicate your customer’s pleasure you must understand their desires and wants and not only their needs.
There’s a lot to be said for identifying your customer pain points, using them effectively can drive your sales, however, using the pleasure principle goes further in enabling a deeper understanding of your customers wants and needs and building your customer relationships to bring tremendous lasting growth.
In Business Evolution I talk about how you can get closer to your customer, to understand their wants and needs and how to communicate their pleasure in their language.
Jenny Garrett is the Award Winning Coach and founder of Reflexion Associates, a leadership and coaching consultancy. She’s also the author of Rocking Your Role, a how-to guide to success for female breadwinners.