Psychology - the Magic Selling Ingredient

Basic psychology is about people's needs and their need to fulfil
them. Most of us have a distinct priority at any given time, one
problem that must be solved before all others, a "one thing at a
time" mentality.

You will be unlikely to interest a homeless man in a new car,
until he's fulfilled his basic need for shelter first - unless he
plans to live in the vehicle, I suppose.

Understanding this principle and seeing how it applies to
selling, will enhance your sales performance zillion-fold. Sell
one thing at a time and concentrate on that. Sell other things as
"back-end" once the immediate need is fulfilled. Don't confuse,
don't stray from the point, do stick on the blinkers and keep to
the target and the matter in hand.

Don't overlook the obvious.

Make sure you put the words "Click Here" on a banner. People
respond to simple commands. Serve up testimonials next to your
products or your newsletter sign-up form. People want to belong
to groups: they'll want to belong to your "club" if it is seen
to be a good one and endorsed by others.

Use colours that convey the right image and incite the right
actions. Want to be seen as an authority? Use black and yellow.
Conservative and business-like? Dark blue, maybe a bit of grey.
Business-like and money-orientated? Blue and green - which so
many large corporate sites have adopted.

Positioning of elements on a web page also makes a big
difference. Apparently, whatever is at the top-right of the
screen is what's most likely to get clicked. The average eye is
drawn to that position - nothing to do with Windows' exit button
being up there, I'm sure! This and 90% of the population being
right-handed, to me, makes a strong case for right-hand
navigation, with your best offer in pole position.

Words: I could write tomes on what you can do with them! But I
won't make an idiot of myself, instead read what great
copywriters like David Garfinkel, who is the author of Killer
Copy Tactics and widely acclaimed as "The World's Greatest
Copywriting Coach" says. He uses psychology to great effect:
http://www.roibot.com/kc.cgi

The main point with words is to get to the emotions of your
visitors. It has been said time and time again, but all anyone is
interested in, is what your product or service will do for them.
They do not care who you are or how many bells your widget has:
they want to know if it will save them time or money, make them
more desirable to the opposite sex or solve some problem they
have. You need to show them the problem and how your offer solves
it for them.

Some of these things are seemingly very small, simple and
insignificant, which is the beauty of them and, at the same time,
the very reason why most people will overlook them. Using the
right format in terms of colour, design and wording will have
psychological influence on your visitors, which turns them into
subscribers, buyers or whatever it is you desire.

Great to have power, isn't it?

I know, I know, it all sounds awfully manipulative and in the
wrong hands, I'd tend to agree with you. But I am not talking
about making people do something against their will. I am saying
that this is nature and harnessing it: guiding people in the
direction that they would naturally go, is a far more logical way
of obtaining the result you require.

Think about the rules of Judo or Karate, where you utilise your
opponent's own strength to gain advantage. Pushing them further
in the direction that they were already going will have them over
a lot easier than it would have if you'd struggled to use your
strength against them in the opposite direction.

The same goes for mental engagements. People - that includes you
and me, whether we wish to admit it or not - do react in almost
predictable ways to these stimuli. It is our nature: instinct and
it surely makes sense to work with that, rather than against it.

Otherwise, you are fighting against people and nature: giving
yourself an uphill struggle, creating an unnecessary battle and a
hurdle to be overcome. Don't make it hard for yourself or your
prospective clients. Know who they are and what they need, fulfil
that and you are well on your way to success.

About the Author

Pamela Heywood is webmistress of http://www.tucats-design.com
- Building Your Online Business Instinctively. Subscribe to the
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