They say that “the customer is always right.”

It’s sort-of true…

But not always.

Because sometimes a customer might lie to you (and themselves) about the REAL reason they want to buy something from you.

It’s not a mean-spirited lie that’s designed to deceive anyone.

Rather, it’s a ‘white lie’ that makes them feel more comfortable and emotionally protected.

But as you’re about to see, it’s important to know what the truth of the matter is if you want the best chance of selling lots and lots of courses!

To illustrate, let me give you an example…

Let’s imagine that for Christmas you were given a lovely framed photo of a cherished family member – perhaps a child or grandchild.

You want to get it up on the wall but it’s a heavy frame and you haven’t got a drill.

So next time you’re in town, you duck into a hardware shop to get one.

When the person behind the counter asks what you need the drill for, you tell them it’s to hang a picture.

They ask you what you are looking for in a drill…

So you tell them it needs to be light enough for you to hold comfortably… yet powerful enough to go through brick and not make a mess… and it should be easy to use because you’re absolutely hopeless at DIY.

But that’s just what you TELL the shopkeeper.

And sure, they’re all true and very good reasons for picking one drill over another.

But there’s a deeper, much more emotional reason for needing a drill, which you don’t tell them.

In fact, it might not even be apparent to your conscious mind at all.

You see, what’s driving you to make the purchase is the joy you’ll get from looking at the photo of that cherished person… and the pride you’ll feel when your visitors notice it and you tell them all about that loved one.

Joy… pride… love…

Those are the core emotional drivers behind the purchase – and not just the obvious product benefits like, “good at making a hole,” “easy to use for a beginner”, “bores through hard surfaces without making a big mess”, and so on.

Same goes for your digital course.

Your customer might say they want it for specific practical reasons… but behind those stated intentions, there might be much deeper emotional reasons that clinch the deal.

Let’s take a deeper look…

Why Customers Lie to You (and Themselves)

Harvard Professor Gerald Zaltman is author of a book called How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market.

According to his research, 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious – ie. they happen on a deeper level than that of which the person is aware.

For example, consumers will tell a market researcher that the reason they choose a product is because they’ve compared brands and prices.

But when Zaltman studied the responders’ unconscious physical reactions to marketing questions, he realised that what they really felt often contradicted what they said in their responses.

So why did they lie?

Or perhaps more accurately, why did they not realise the truth?

Well, Zaltman says that it’s because we are driven by unconscious emotional urges.

Sometimes we might be embarrassed to admit these desires, or simply not aware of the powerful feelings that shape our rational decision-making process.

Zaltman concludes that if you only market the attributes of your product or service, you won’t get the best results…

That’s because you are missing the subconscious element that truly motivates the buyer – the big emotional payoff that they are seeking.

I’m going to show you how to do this in a moment, but first, a quick crash course in what Zaltman means by ‘attributes’.

The Importance of Benefits

Every product or service includes a set of distinctive attributes known as features.
For example…

• A pen might be refillable, with a rubbery casing, and retractable nib.
• An eBook might be a set of instructions for growing organic tomatoes in a greenhouse, laid out in steps.
• A digital course about nutritious family cooking might include weekly shopping lists, a calendar for scheduling dinners and a set of recipes.

All these are features – and, yes, they are things that a customer might compare with other products.

But features are like the ingredients on the side of a cereal box. They’re informative, but they’re not the real reason people buy a cereal.

They’ll buy a cereal because it tastes amazing… it cheers them up to eat it… they find that it makes them feel satisfied and full…

Or perhaps they love that the cereal is made from natural ingredients and low in calories, so they can eat it without getting fat or making themselves vulnerable to disease.

These are all benefits.

To market a product (like a course) successfully, you should focus on these rather than the features.

This means thinking about what real-life outcome is delivered by each feature and what specific impact it will have on the customer.

For example…

• The refillable pen never needs to be thrown away, which makes it more sustainable and cost-effective… while the rubbery casing stops annoying slips that ruin your handwriting or cause mistakes, and the retractable nib means you can carry it around in a pocket with no stains on your clothes or painful stabs from the nib.
• The eBook’s step by step instructions means it’s easy to follow an expert without the pitfalls or having to work it out yourself… and get wonderfully tasty home grown tomatoes that avoid pesticides and save you money.
• The cooking course means that even if you are a novice, all your meals will be nutritional… and you’ll save on shopping bills and food wastage. The recipes mean you don’t need skills or knowledge. The lists will save time and you can download them to your phone without wasting paper.

When you emphasise the benefits, your customer will start thinking about how the product will improve their life.

It’s a good start…

But as Zaltman points out, attributes are not enough.

Humans buy on the basis of unconscious emotions that they might not even realise themselves… then they justify their decisions rationally later.

So if you really want to hit the jackpot, you need to tap into those much deeper core emotions, right from the get-go.

How to Find the ULTIMATE Benefit

There are regular benefits as I’ve just shown you…

But then there are ULTIMATE benefits. The big emotional payoffs that someone might enjoy in their life if they use your product.

Here are some common ones:

• Become more attractive
• Have more self-pride
• Be respected
• Be loved
• Be admired
• Be more productive
• Become successful
• Make more money
• Be happy
• Have good health
• Have less stress
• Have more leisure time

When you create and market your digital course, there might be one or two of these that you can zoom in on… or perhaps all of them will align with what your customer truly wants!

But this means that you need to understand precisely who your target customer is and what their life is like – their hopes, desires, fears and struggles.

For instance, let’s imagine that your home cookery course is aimed at stressed, time-poor mums with families to cater for.

Yes, you can say that your course, along with meal planners and recipes will save them money, time and hassle when it comes to shopping for and cooking good food.

But here’s how you might frame the ultimate emotional benefit…

You’ll become a much more productive and successful parent. Your children will enjoy good nutrition that gives them strong immune systems, healthy bones and smart, active brains that absorb and retain more information.

Because the truth is, what most parents want to feel is that they’re doing the best possible job for their children, so that they can go on to find happiness and success in life.

That’s ultimately what your course is selling – more than the convenience, money-saving and tasty recipes.

You’re helping to free them from all that guilt and worry that they might not be giving their kids the best start in life.

That’s a HUGE payoff that will encourage a stressed out parent to fork out their money for what you have to offer.

They won’t necessarily admit that to you or any market researchers – perhaps they won’t openly admit it to themselves – but it’s there, deep down.

If you can connect with this emotion, you are going to massively increase your sales.

As you can see, it all starts with the customer, so you first need to understand what makes them tick.

Ask yourself…

• Who precisely is this aimed at?
• What do they really want from life?
• What are the deeper emotional drivers that motivate them?
• How can my product align with their self-interest?

If you can nail this, you will have a hugely successful course in the making!

Now, of course, because these are deep unconscious desires, your customer might not be aware of them, or admit to them, even when prodded.

So that’s why I recommend creating an ‘avatar’ – a real character who represents your target buyer, so that you can get under their skin and think like they do.

However, that’s a topic that I’ll return to in future emails.

In the meantime, if you have any questions at all about finding those ULTIMATE benefits, let me know!