Ask any business owner, director or manager what they need in business and the answer is SALES.

After all, if you have sales, you can solve all other business problems.

With the UK manufacturing, construction and services slowing and the economic uncertainty over the 23rd of June vote, sales are now more vital than ever.

But the real question is how do you increase sales online?

Sales like everything else in life are based on psychology. The gains and losses of doing or not doing something.

In this instance the decision of purchasing something or not.

This is sad but is true, although people fail to admit it, human beings are moved by emotions and not logic.

We make decisions based on feeling a need and emotional connections. Hence why intangible benefits are keys to persuasion.

From a logical stand point this makes no sense but this has been proved many times over. All decisions are made emotionally.

This is why I can say that people would rather not lose £1 over making £1 . This is known as loss aversion.

So going back to the title, should you sell pain or pleasure?

For us the answer was simple.

We became the UK leading turnover experts because of people’s aversion to losing money to Google.

We achieved this by knowing that people will always prefer to keep £1 that is theirs vs making £1 that’s someone else’s.

So we chose pain.

Now you’re probably asking yourself what does this have to do with you selling your products online?

I’ll tell you why.

Human beings respond better to being told what they’re missing out on over telling them what benefits they can gain because loss looms larger than gains.

Now I have said in previous articles that you need to sell people solutions instead of products so I’m not going against that.

I am saying that you should combine both techniques for MAXIMUM effect! Psychology of sales.

Again going back to a previous article, I mentioned that one of the girl’s here in the office had been looking at this particular dress for a while that she wanted to get it but was waiting in case something better came along.

As soon as she saw that there was only 3 dresses left in her size she rushed to buy it, exactly, because she could not stand not having the dress.

Loss loomed over the gain.

She already knew the dress was beautiful. She knew it was well priced. She just couldn’t deal with losing it.

Think about Ebay, you keep buying items from them because you do not want to miss out, after all there is only 5 items left!

Call it eternal teenager principle if you will – if someone tells you that you can’t have it, boy oh boy do you want it!

As sellers and marketers we have to play on the triggers that are likely to make people do what we want them to do.

And the most effective marketing technique is by telling someone that products/prices might soon be gone.

This is why inventory transparency can work against you, if it’s in stock then there is no rush in buying it. Make it only a few left and then you have a real gold rush.

Other things worth considering with the Psychology of Sales is that people tend to justify decisions with facts, as an example, I’ve wanted to get a Lamborghini for years, yet I’ve not yet found a good justification to get one.

Yes I want one, and it would look awesome! But realistically there is no reason to get one at the moment.

Value.

This is another thing people will consider when buying something.

Value is not a fixed number, instead it’s relative to what is being sold.

It’s a mathematical equation by all accounts. It’s the price that it’s being sold for + what someone is used to pay + how badly they want it + how someone sees the difference between you selling vs others selling it = value.

Lastly remember that people are always looking for something.

Love. Wealth. Glory. Comfort. Stability. Family.

Whatever it is, we are constantly searching for something, constantly unsatisfied therefore we spend our lives searching for intangibles that will give us the feeling of achievement or fulfillment.

Albeit temporarily.

So use what I have shared with you here to your gain.

Tell people what they gain from buying the product from you, tell them what they will be missing out on from not buying it.

Tell them that you will give them that sense of achievement or fulfillment with your products and the customers that you want will certainly flock over to you.

Because despite what we believe, that we are individuals with our own minds and we’re all different and unique we all want the same things. Otherwise how would brands become what they are nowadays?

Think about it.