People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it !
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when I was watching TV while scrolling through my Instagram feed and I stumbled upon something.
A short IGTV video showing a small scene from ‘Young Sheldon’ series, and was enough for me to turn my attention towards itself completely. It was the episode where Sheldon’s big brother Georgie, wanted to get rich real quick, and seemed heavily inspired to do so.
Interestingly, he goes to a store which is running out of business , and bargains with the lady behind the counter to sell him 52 Texas Snow Globes for 35$.
Now, a snow globe looks like this :
It has a sentimental value, as it reminds people of their childhood, innocence and “happy days”.
Georgie, having bought these snow globes for almost 1.5$ each, decides to sell them for 5$, which is a pretty good profit for such a young lad.
He goes on with the typical salesman techniques,
“Buy Texas Snow Globes for as low as 5$ ! “
“Hurry limited time offer for a low price of 5$” , trying to create urgency proclaiming they’ll get a good discount only if they buy it now.
He also tried selling them with a sense of usefulness, “with Christmas coming up, these will make excellent stocking stuffers.”
Result — Got door slammed on his face each and every time.
Then, MAGIC happened!
Instead of pitching them WHAT he’s selling , or WHAT they can do with it, he starts selling them a story.
He tried telling, the “do you remember the last time it snowed in Mumford?” story.
The Globes started selling themselves at a fast pace. Each door he knocked, he would create a story for them, and it was striking the emotional chord. He made them realise, how that loved memory of theirs , was “ just one shake away”.
And it worked like a charm !
He sold 2 globes to a man reminding of how he spent his childhood with his brother, and that he should gift him one too.
A pregnant lady was excited with an Idea of snowman for her first child.
With a woman above 60, he talked about her grandchildren.
All customers, happy with their stories and with the new stuck nostalgia, bought those globes for 5$ each.
The scene ends with Georgie going upto his Dad, and telling him how “it’s snowing money !”
What do we learn from this ?
Instead of telling customers what is it in your product, tell them why they should buy the product. Give them a story, strike an emotion.
Because Simon Sinek said,
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it !
It’s also important to know that this is a strategy that Apple Inc. has been following for years.
Apple being a computer company which launched iPod back in 2001, changed the course of Music Industry altogether. How did they sell it ?
It wasn’t a music company, rather it was a computer company. There were other big players in market, including Sony, Yamaha, Shure, Phillips, who were manufacturing Music products, and doing an amazing business. People trusted them with their music needs, and their music requirements were met properly by these companies. There was no NEED for a Computer company to barge into the market and even TRY for a product like this.
Then why did iPod sell better ? or How did iPod sell better ?
They told the users why they should buy their new iPod.
They created an HDD based music player, with a Big memory (comparatively). But that’s not what they told their customers.
This was their poster for iPod sales.
They sold the experience of carrying 1000 songs in your pocket which was almost unimaginable back in 2001.
People don’t buy your product, they buy the experience.
There are many amazing products in the market, that could never take off or took years to reach upto normal people. It was because all these companies sold WHAT they made instead of WHY they made it.
Only you know how beautiful your product is. Your customers need to feel good about buying that, and investing into it.
The decision should feel right to the gut.
That’s why you need to sell them the story.
