The Buy Motives Sales Personnel Need To Understand To Increase Sale Volumes

By Leslie Ball


The decision to purchase or not to purchase is preceded by a complex decision-making process normally influenced by several factors. These factors are a combination of emotional considerations and facts are can be isolated and discussed by the marketing team to enhance their sales. They are the buy motives and are responsible for a customer's decision to buy a particular product as opposed to the other and to buy from one shop and not the other.

As a marketer, it is important to understand that the consumer is not going to buy the product as a result of your persuasion but due to your ability to arouse their motives. In order to succeed in this, you need a deep understanding of the instincts, the feelings, thoughts, and the emotions that determines the decision to purchase.

The consumer purchase motives can be categorized into product buying decisions and the patronage buying decisions. Under product category, there are emotional decisions and the rational decisions. The patronage decisions are also further subdivided into emotional and rational.

The product buying motives are the factors that induce or prompt the customer to choose a particular product as oppose to the other. This may include the physical considerations such as shape, design, color, size, price, performance, package, and, dimension among others. It can also involve the physiological attraction traits of the products such as its contribution to enhance the social prestige of the user.

The emotional product buy motivations include pride and prestige, imitation and emulation, affection, desire for comfort, sexual attraction (desire to be attractive to members of opposite sex), ambition, distinctiveness, pleasure, thirst, hunger, and habit among others.

The rational product buying motivations on the other hands refers to decisions to purchase a product affect careful consideration. It involves logic and conscious consideration in purchasing decisions. The examples include the security or safety considerations, economic and financial decisions, low prices, suitability, versatility and utility, product durability, and product convenience among others.

The other classification is the patronage motives that mainly focus on the shop or the seller from where the customer chooses to purchase. It seeks to explain why the buyer patronizes one seller and not the other seller. This is also further subdivided into emotional patronage and the rational patronage.

Under the emotional motivations, the particular reasons that make a buyer patronize a seller without relying on reasons or rational consideration. The factors such as the arrangement of products in the shop, the service given, habit, imitation, prestige, and shop appearance are some factors under this category.

The rational patronage motivations are those motivations that arise when the buyer patronizes one shop as opposed to others after a careful consideration. It involves careful thinking and proper reasoning before opting for one seller against the other. Some of the factors in this category include convenience, lower price by the shop, the credit facilities offered, efficiency, service offered, treatment, a wide range of products and reputation among others.

Ideally, the sales person has to understand the consumer motives and strategically design their marketing plan in order to win most of the purchases. It is a wide area and requires careful planning and consideration in order to gain from this field of marketing.




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