What Truly Motivates Your Customers?
We all understand that business is based on a need-solution relationship. And the experience of value is created in the intersection between need and solution. We all naturally want to focus on why our solution is so great. But to succeed, we have to start with the question: what are the needs of my customer that are actually compelling action and determining value?
Said another way, what is truly motivating my customer?
To answer this question, let's use the analogy of an iceberg. The portion of the iceberg that sits above the water is what you can see. Below the water line, the foundation of the iceberg sits unexposed. Unless you are aware of it, you believe the iceberg is simply the small portion you can see.
It’s the same with customer needs. Customers tell you and show you what they want you to hear and see. They generally expose more rational or left-brain needs that are focused on the “what” and the “how” of the solution they are seeking and rarely expose any visibility to the “why” or the real motivators. What sits below the water line (what they don’t tell you or show you) are the real motivators of choice and value. These are the emotional motivators rooted in their beliefs, values, fears, and aspirations. Simply put, companies that understand the motivators that live below the water line can create and capture the value that sets them apart from other alternatives.
To understand these motivators that live below the water line, we need a framework that makes it simple. Through my work and research over the past 20 years, I have concluded that eight foundational life motivators sit below the water line and motivate all human behavior, including purchases and the attribution of value.
The key is understanding what motivators drive your customers’ decisions and what creates value in their heads and hearts. Here’s an example: a common theme when I get pulled into a company to do strategic planning is that the market environment has changed, and the “things that got them here will no longer get them there.” In this situation, the rational need is that the leaders need a new strategy to guide the company. The unexpressed need is most often that the leaders have moved from “certainty” to “uncertainty,” which has triggered doubt, insecurity, or even fear that the company could lose its current position and the leaders could lose their jobs in the process.
The leading brands in the world have figured this out. Research shows that brands that trigger at least three of the core life motivators simultaneously develop the deepest and stickiest resonance with their customers. Here are a few examples:
Facebook, the world’s largest online community, provides a great example. Not only does Facebook trigger the life motivator of Connection, but it also triggers Relevance (the need to be seen, to feel important, and to compare myself with others around me). It also triggers Acceptance/Belonging or the need to fit in. I believe that the real drivers of Facebook’s popularity come more from the “negative” edge of these motivators, meaning the fear of being left out or not belonging, the insecurity of whether “I matter,” and the need to compare oneself with others, rather than the true desire for connection and community.
If you can understand your customer’s true motivators, you have a higher likelihood of not only developing a solution that meets their needs but also delivering an experience that resonates at an emotional level. This is what differentiates leaders in markets from all the other alternatives.
This understanding starts with the simple question: What are the real needs motivating my customer, both above the water line and below the water line?
To accelerate this clarity for your business, here is a simple template (that you can download) to help you articulate what is motivating your customers.
