Why Aren't People Buying Your Products or Services? Part 1

Why Aren't People Buying
Your Products or Services?
Part 1
by Joe Gracia

  Dear Joe,

Though I find your newsletters quite interesting, I have to strongly disagree with one point made in one of your previous issues.

There you mentioned that customers are willing to buy anything and also would be willing to pay whatever for those products and services.

We find that more and more of our customers are not willing to pay the prices we ask and we don't feel that we are expensive. Any ideas about that?

Jennie, UK
----------------------------------------------------

Dear Jennie,

Thank you for your question.

We're happy to have the opportunity to clear up a misunderstanding about what we wrote.

You wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
There you mentioned that customers are willing to buy anything and also would be willing to pay whatever for those products and services.
----------------------------------------------------

Jennie, if I had written that, then I would have to strongly disagree too. But, that's not what I wrote.

Here's what I wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
Look around you and you'll see people buying, buying, buying. They love to buy. They buy every kind of product or service imaginable. There's no stopping them.

And they are willing to pay incredible prices FOR THINGS THEY WANT.
----------------------------------------------------

We never said people would buy ANYTHING, and that they would pay ANY PRICE.

People only buy things they WANT. And they often pay incredible prices for those things that they WANT.

The key phrase is THINGS THEY WANT. And this is at the heart of your current sales problem.

People buy and pay for expensive diamonds and jewels, expensive cars, homes, stereo systems, clothes, expensive meals in fancy restaurants, vacations, video games, music CDs and a million other products and services.

People love to buy things they want

We're not saying that every single person buys all of these things, but collectively people are buying and will continue to buy things they want even in an economic downturn. They may be a bit more cautious with their money, and they may look for better deals during down times, but they will still buy.

Our point was that the desire to buy things that they want, is a powerful human force -- a force that you can benefit from as a marketer.

People don't usually buy things they DON'T WANT -- at any price.

You also wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
We find that more and more of our customers are not willing to pay the prices we ask and we don't feel that we are expensive. Any ideas about that?
----------------------------------------------------

We're not sure by your note if you really meant your;

'Customers' were not willing to pay your fees -- meaning people who have already purchased your services in the past --

or your

'Prospects' were not willing to pay your fees -- meaning people who have expressed an interest in what you offer but have never purchased from you before --

or your

'Strangers' were not willing to pay your fees -- meaning people who have 'never' expressed an interest in what you have to offer. For instance, readers of the publications you may be advertising in.

The difference between these three is enormous.

Strangers, Prospects and Customers are three completely different marketing targets, and you market to each of them for different reasons and with very different systems and offers.

Problem with Customers

If you did mean your past customers were no longer willing to pay your fees, it could be for any number of reasons;

1) perhaps they were only interested in the one product or service that they purchased

2) perhaps it is too soon after their last purchase for them to purchase again

3) perhaps they were dissatisfied with some aspect of your service

4) perhaps they were dissatisfied with the price they paid for the service -- their perceived value of what you provided may have been less than what they paid

5) perhaps a competitor is offering the same quality at a better price

6) perhaps your follow-up marketing system and offers to your past customers were weak

7) perhaps you didn't follow up with your customers at all and just assumed that they would come back to buy more from you on their own

8) perhaps you need to entice your past customers with a preferred customer offer

9) perhaps with the current economic downturn they feel they can't afford your standard prices at this time -- if that's the case, then you may need to repackage your products or services to offer them options that would be within their current budgets, or you may have to target higher income prospects who aren't affected as much by these current economic conditions