The Art of The Sale | What Customers Want Versus What They Need

So, there’s this couple having dinner at a fancy restaurant in New York. The maître d’ comes up and asks them if it’s a special occasion. They tell him it’s their wedding anniversary, that they’ve waited a long time to dine there, and that after dinner, they’re going ice skating in Central Park.

The maître d’ goes away, and as they’re finishing their meal, he comes back and tells them he’s organised a luxury car to take them from the restaurant to Central Park. The couple are surprised and delighted; it’s a cold night, and now they won’t have to wait around for an Uber.

This is a lovely example from Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality. Read it; it’s next level. The premise is that good service is about giving people what they want, but exceptional service is about knowing what people need and anticipating it before they do, like our maître d’.

And that’s what we’re talking about in today’s episode; the difference between people’s wants and needs, and how to get the balance right when you’re selling to them.

“Is your toothpaste dentist-approved?”

Let’s dive straight in. How do you know what your customers want versus what they need? Take toothpaste ads. You know those ads where they say it’s ‘dentist-approved’? What does that even mean, anyway? It means nothing; there’s no certification, people don’t really care.

But it’s a good illustration of selling people what they want and giving them what they need. What people want from their toothpaste is hygienically clean teeth, a nice taste and a bright smile. And that ‘want’ overpowers the logical thought of: “Oh, actually I’m going to have these teeth for a long time, so I probably need to protect the enamel.”

People don’t know they need that, but they do need that. So, what you give them is a product that won’t damage their tooth enamel, and what you sell them is a product that will give them a cleaner, whiter smile.

Codebreak have got better at this, too. People often approach us because they’ve decided they want to run Facebook ads. But when you sit down with them, you start to realise that what they actually want is just to know more about Facebook ads. And what they actually need is better lead generation; whether it’s from Facebook ads, Google ads, landing pages or word-of-mouth referrals.

“Forget it, I’m a farmer”

So, how do you create that compelling offer? How do you stack what someone wants with what they need? The temptation is to offer the solution you know they need, not the solution they want. But here’s the thing. If you sell them what they need, they’ll probably lose interest.

Now, if you’re a Star Wars fan like me, this’ll make total sense; in sales, you’re Obi-Wan Kenobi, not Luke Skywalker. You’re guiding people to what they need, by initially giving them what they want.

What Luke wanted was an off-planet adventure because he worked on his family’s farm and was bored out of his mind. And Obi-Wan Kenobi offered him that chance. But what Luke needed was to realise that he was the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. And Obi-Wan couldn’t sell him that; Luke would’ve been like: “Forget it, I’m a farmer.”

If you fail to give people what they want, it doesn’t matter if you give them what they need; they’ll still leave. You can get amazing results for your customers, but if they didn’t get what they wanted – like feeling warm and welcome or understanding Facebook ads better – they won’t come back.

We had one big client who sold millions in property because of our campaign. But because we didn’t pop in to see them as a local-to-local business, they eventually left. And the lesson there was that we should’ve realised their ‘want’. They wanted to be visited, to be invited to events, to feel special. We’ve dramatically altered our business because of that.

“What the f**k is cyclone power five technology?”

Something else businesses get wrong is talking about features too much. People can’t relate to features if they don’t understand them. It’s like saying you’re releasing a new washing machine with cyclone power five technology, and no one knows what the f**k that means.

What that person wants is clean clothes, efficiently. So, your technology might enable that, but the approach would be: “Your clothes will come out twice as clean, twice as fast.”

Another mistake is overwhelming them. If you’re a personal trainer, you don’t start by telling people what they need to do in Week 20. You don’t say: “By Week 20, you’ll be deadlifting 150 kilos and doing 37 pullups.” Someone who’s never been in a gym would be intimidated by that.

They might need to deadlift to achieve their goal, but what they want is to know that by Week 20, they’ll feel super fit, drop a clothes size, and be able to chase after the kids without breaking a sweat.

“You’ll be as good as Ronaldo”

Now, how do you get that hook right? Let’s take kids’ football boots as an example. You’re selling to the kid to relay it to the adult to buy. So first you need to understand what’s important to a kid. What they need is a pair of football boots that last a season without breaking. But what they want is to replicate their favourite football player.

So in your ad campaign, you obviously can’t say: “Wear these boots and you’ll be as good as Ronaldo,” but that’s the implication, right? It’s clever. Because when they see Ronaldo wearing the same boots on TV, they connect it to what they see walking past the shoe shop on the way to school. It’s influencer marketing, basically. It’s always been around; now there are just more influencers.

What if your customers need change? Then you need to teach them how to adapt. Obviously, you’re still selling them what they want, but you’ve got to be adaptable to their needs, too. For example, when COVID happened, if you were driving leads to face-to-face meetings because people wanted that personal connection to close deals, suddenly you couldn’t do that.

So you adapt by helping them shift to Zoom calls and selling the benefits of remote meetings – saving time, saving fuel. You could even spin it by saying: “Get more time with me on Zoom since I’m not traveling.” As people’s needs change, make sure that feedback reaches your team so you can adapt.

“That’s got me on the line”

Bonuses are great for selling. If you’ve got something hard to convince people on, like a marketing campaign, stack the offer with bonuses they want. Access to you, a free guide, maybe a retreat -something that checks off their wants so you can sell them what they need.

Knowing what they want versus what they need isn’t easy, but you have to figure it out if you want to deliver an exceptional service. And if you don’t know what they want, ask them: “When you approached us, what were the three things you wanted?” That’ll tell you what you’re really selling.

Sometimes I’ll ask clients: “What needs to happen for this to be the best decision you’ve ever made?” And I mean it, because what’s important on the delivery side is not only using our expertise to give them what they need, but making them feel they’re getting what they want.”

This is important when you’re advertising, too. If it’s a paid ad, make sure that initial messaging hits their ‘want’. After that, you can provide the information they need as you nurture them on their journey. But the first hook should be the spark that makes people think: “That’s what I want, that’s got me on the line.”

So, let’s sum this up. Knowing what your customer wants is huge, and if you’ve been selling to their needs, maybe it’s time to refocus. And be confident about what you’re delivering. Because if you’re not, it shows. No one wants to hear: “We aim to do this”. It should be: “We’ll do it.”

Don’t miss the next episode of Stay Hungry – we’ll dive into straight-talking insights on business marketing, growth mindset, and the realities of running a business. And if you want to take the hassle out of your marketing, we’ve got you covered with our done-for-you service.

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