Brian Tracy breaks down why people buy: 85% of behavior is driven by anticipated consequences, not past events. Effective selling identifies the gap between a prospect's current dissatisfaction and their desired future state, then positions your product as the bridge. Top sellers focus on emotional outcomes and value, not price.
There is what is called an ABC theory of human motivation. It's very simple, but it's also quite powerful. And it's the basis of all motivational psychology. It's essential that you understand this motivational theory and all your interactions with others, especially in sales, where you want people to buy your product now rather than later. The A in ABC stands for antecedent. These are the things that come before an event, activity, or decision. A B stands for the behavior that an individual engages in as the result of a stimulation of some kind. And C stands for the consequences of that particular behavior based on the antecedent that motivated the behavior. Now, here's what I have found in my research into human motivation. I've discovered that 15% of the reasons that a person engages in a particular behavior are determined by what has happened in the past. The antecedents, the previous experiences of the individual. But fully 85% of a person's behavior is motivated by what they anticipate happening as a result of engaging in that behavior. People always do what they do because they think of what's going to happen. Now, economists call this rational expectations theory. It's at the heart of modern economic analysis. It simply says that people behave on the basis of their rational expectations of what they think is going to happen if they buy or sell a particular product or service or engage in any particular action. In fact, since everyone is emotional, people tend to buy based on how they anticipate feeling and as a result of owning and enjoying a particular product or service, including yours. Actually, what you are selling is a feeling because that is what people think about when they buy. How will I feel after I make this decision? They look forward to the feeling they expect to enjoy. And they make their decision based on whether or not that feeling is more valuable to them than the money that they will have to part with or than something else that they could buy with the same amount of money. Remember, customers always have three choices. They can buy from you, they can buy from someone else, or they can buy nothing at all. And you have to show them that buying from you is the best choice at this moment, all things considered. Let me give you a simple example of the ABC theory. You sit down to have lunch or dinner and you look at the menu. As your eyes go over the menu, you settle on the item that you think will give you the greatest feeling of pleasure in eating out of all the other items on the menu. This doesn't mean that the other items are not as good tasting as the one you choose. It Simply means that at that moment you feel, rightly or wrongly, that the items you choose will give you the greatest satisfaction and pleasure. Pleasure of all the items that are available to you. This is exactly the way you fill your plate when you go to a buffet. This is the way you shop when you go to the grocery store. This is the way you buy clothes. Anticipating how you will feel wearing a particular item of clothing. As compared to the other items that are available at the same time and at the same price. The great economic law is that resources are scarce. You cannot buy everything you want to buy. So you have to choose, and you choose on the basis of how you feel you will be afterwards. Everything you do is done in anticipation of the emotion or feeling that you will experience if your purchase decision is successful in selling or persuading anyone to do anything. There's another theory of motivation that is equally as important and as powerful as the first one we just discussed. In this second theory, A represents a state of felt dissatisfaction. This means that the individual is not happy or satisfied in their current situation or condition. The C represents a state of greater satisfaction. It's almost like from here to here. If the individual moves to this greater state of satisfaction, Then he or she will relieve the felt dissatisfaction or unhappiness that he or she has in their current situation. So the B of this ABC theory is the product or service or idea or action or activity that you are trying to persuade the person to acquire or to engage in. So to repeat, the A is the existing state of dissatisfaction, the antecedent. The C is the future anticipated state of greater satisfaction or relieved dissatisfaction. And the B is what you are offering in one way or another. We call the B part of this formula. The gap between where the person is today and where the person would ideally like to be sometime in the future. A sale or any effective act of influence. Is getting the person to do something that they would not have done in the absence of your influence. And it's only possible when a gap exists between the real, the current situation of the individual and the ideal situation that they would like to enjoy. You can only get a person to act when there's a gap between their current life and work and their desired life and work. So your job is to identify the benefit, the result, the outcome, the advantage, how people will feel and be better off when they buy your product or service and how much better off they will be in comparison with their current situation. In psychology, the difference between the two, the current situation and the future situation is the value of your product or service and determines how much people will pay for it. If there's a big difference, people will pay a lot to get from here to here. If there's a little difference, people will ask if they can. Think about it. Your job is not to focus on low price. Your job is to focus on the value that the customer will enjoy when they buy and use your product or service. And the third quality of top salespeople is that they make a total commitment to success. The 8020 rule applies is the top 20% of people make 80% of the money, but these are the people who dedicated themselves totally.
