Steve Jobs said "People don’t buy products – they buy a different version of themselves".
Understanding what shift in self-view occurs when people buy gives you an enormous advantage, and positions you as the perfect steward over their outcome.
It is the cherry on top of the entire sales process, and it gets a buyer to realise:
"My god, they really get me!"
Chris Voss calls this ’empathy & epiphany’, and it’s very very powerful.
These are your identity questions:
- Is there a change in their decision-making authority?
- What upgrade in their business acumen is required, in order to make the right decision?
- What does the purchase change in their social status?
- How does buying cause them to upgrade their ownership over problems?
Now that you’ve asked these questions and written them down, look at your sheet:
This is your buyer, these are the empathy-based insights – this is the kind of buyer-intel that very few of your competitors codify this way.
And if your sales conversations include the previous topics, your buyer will be hanging on your every word, and actively participate in driving the sale forward.
Next up, let’s go and have a look at the hard, technical side of things: their problem-stack.
Further reading: 📄 Purchase Motivators, Pt.1 Identity