If you’re selling anything other than the solution to a painful and immediate problem it’s going to be tough.
A classic example of this type of service is insurance. It’s a reluctant purchase because we have to believe in future pain to want to buy it.
In fact a famous life insurance salesman once said:
“You have to make them see the hearse pulled up to the curb side…”
That’s quite a challenge. There are two core motivations moving away for pain or towards pleasure.
You have to dig deep into understanding your client. You have to find the pain they want to avoid link your appeal to that. You don’t have to go overboard on the pain but it must be present to get someone to take action.
Don’t get tricked by thinking your buyers are solely motivated by moving towards pleasure. It’s very rare.
Even if you take a product like getting six pack abs. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s a vanity type purchase. To some extent it is. But what lies behind the vanity? It’s likely to be something like low self-esteem and the many problems that creates.
With marketing, the deeper you dig the closer you get to the gold.