THE EDUCATIONAL BUYING SPECTRUM
Your prospects will always find themselves on the “buying or educational spectrum” whenever they first start to consider a need or desire for a product or service especially if they feel the purchase is significant or personal.
A
“A” represents the point in time when prospects first start to consider a need for a product or service.
L M N
“LMN” represents the period of intense research, when the consumer is seeking information from friends, family, neighbors, co-workers; they’re on the internet, they’re buying books, magazines, reading white-papers and articles and conducting research. They look at ad’s, but typically there is no decision-making information in the ads. So, they ignore them, and continue trying to educate themselves to make an informed decision.
R S T
At “RST” they have decided to purchase the product or service, but they have not yet decided from whom they will buy from.
Z
“Z” is when they write you a check or hand you their credit card.
HELP YOUR PROSPECTS BUY WHAT YOU SELL
Advertising that fails to contain an educational component, does nothing to help prospects move down the educational spectrum. If your advertising is not getting the response you want, it is most likely do to the fact that your ads are not helping your prospects buy what you sell.
These ads are generally ignored by prospects and advertising that is ignored cannot, by definition, generate a response. These kinds of ads are effective only when market momentum is high. If, (and this is a big if) your ads happen to run when there are more buyers in the market than usual, you will likely get some kind of response, but only because market momentum is high, even a dead fish floats downstream!
We are looking for clients who do not wish to rely on market momentum who say, “swim like crazy!” To these types of clients, it is utterly unacceptable for their prospects to buy from a competitor.
RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM (RAS)
1. Familiar
2. Unusual
3. Problematic or Threatening
DO YOUR ADS HELP PROSPECTS BUY?
If your ads are filled with platitudes, clichés and hyperbole then they do nothing to help prospects feel in control of the decision-making process. Prospects who do not feel in control of the decision-making process or lack the necessary information to make an informed decision, do not buy- “A Confused Mind Always Says No”.
It is important to know that only 1% to 5% of all prospects are at “Z” on the educational spectrum. Up to 99% of prospects can be found all along the spectrum trying to gather enough information to feel comfortable and in control about their purchase. If there are thousand prospects on the buying spectrum only 10-50 are ready to buy. 950-990 of these prospects are still trying to figure it out. They don’t know what they don’t know; how could they possibly respond to an ad that doesn’t help them move down the buying spectrum?
