How to Convince People to Buy Without Being Pushy

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You see it online all the time.

If you work in marketing, your inbox is probably flooded with emails from coaches promoting their latest course launch, ebook, or affiliate program. And their marketing doesn’t shy away from making big claims about the products.

“Become an Expert at Facebook Ads in 30 Days or Less.”

“Double Your Income and Become a Six-Figure Consultant in 6 Weeks.”

But this strategy can backfire.

Using scarcity marketing in a sleazy way or making huge promises is a poor strategy overall. Overpromising only hurts your brand in the long run, because branding is all about trust, and under-delivering on your claim kills your credibility.

And honestly?

The marketers that sell these courses didn't build their business in a month.

It took years of hard work for them to find success. And if you're a frequent listener of the Everyone Hates Marketers podcast, you already know that I don't believe in shortcuts, best practices, or fucking growth hacks.

Because the truth is, everything you achieve is based on the work you put into it.

So why do so many coaches and marketers make claims that their offers produce life-changing results?

According to marketing strategist Sean D’Souza, it’s because people will buy it. Our human brains are literally wired this way. We instinctively want to achieve our goals with the least amount of output possible.

Basically, we’re hard-wired to be lazy.

But there’s a better way to market your products — it’s called The Brain Audit. Sean D’Souza developed the analogy to explain what’s going on in your customer’s head during the buying process.

I interviewed Sean on the podcast, and he explained his methodology for convincing people to buy your product without the pushy, hard sell.

Source

In this blog post, we’re going to dig into The Brain Audit step-by-step.

But first, let’s talk about a very common mistake that marketers often think will be effective, but it actually repels customers.

A Huge Marketing Mistake That Never Convinces Customers

Have you ever been under pressure to sell something, but you’re met with a wall of objections from customers?

Maybe you KNOW that what you’re selling is good for the customer, but they just don’t believe it.

What do you do?

It’s tempting to try to change their mind with facts and figures.

But in that case, there’s an invisible force working against you, a powerful psychological concoction of confirmation bias and reactance.

Basically, the more you try to convince someone they’re wrong and you’re right, the more they will defend their position, and you’ll actually repel them from buying.

So… what to do?

The Only Way to Convince Someone to Buy

You can’t.

You can’t convince someone to buy.

But you CAN help them convince themselves to buy.

There are three types of people:

• Those who already believe what you believe
• Those who don’t believe what you believe, but they don’t disagree either
• Those who disagree

If they already believe what you believe, then getting them to buy won’t require much convincing. It’s a slam dunk.

If they straight-up disagree, it’s possible to get them to buy, but it’s a bit harder.

(Read more on how to convince each of these types of people to buy).

If they’re right in the middle — they don’t disagree with you, but they’re not ready to pull out their wallet either — then you can take steps to help them convince themselves.

Here are the 5 steps from Sean D’Souza.

5 Steps To Help Customers Convince Themselves to Buy

1. Find Your Perfect Target Profile

If you've been working in the marketing field for any amount of time, you already understand target markets and why you must find your ideal audience before you try to sell to them.

For example, consider a company like Shopify. They’re one of the biggest web hosting platforms for ecommerce businesses… but they have two target markets. Shopify targets small businesses, with millions of new ecommerce brands hosting their stores on Shopify.

However, the platform also owns Shopify Plus, which targets ecommerce companies earning $1M-500M in revenue. Therefore, the marketing for each audience looks very different because they are two totally different markets.

A well-defined target market is the first step in any strategy.

But in order to convince your potential customer to buy, you must take things a step further and narrow your target market down to one person. Sean D’Souza calls this the target profile, and it is also known as a buyer persona.

Target profiles are not imaginary avatars, and they have very little to do with demographics.

After all, Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne have strikingly similar demographics, but you wouldn’t target them the same way, would you?