When it comes to selling, the confusion about consumer needs is very evident. Just take a look at some of the hottest selling digital cameras at Amazon.com and you will be bombarded with too many technical details about its superior product features. That, my friends, is the disease called hard selling.

Though the geeks would surely love to get all the info, many potential consumers do not really understand the benefits of having a “9-point AiAF, single point AF, and Face-priority AF” or “7.1-million-pixel CCD sensor”. Can you?

Blame it on sales and marketing guys for some are constantly looking inward, filling their marketing materials like case studies, white papers and other literatures with technical jargons and R&D superiority. Alas, they forgot that their target consumers are ignorant and worse, do not give a damn about these things. In short, CONSUMERS DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU; THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES.

The concept of hard selling is long dead yet its applications continue to flourish. Why not? It’s very easy to do, just list all the technical specs and pray that consumers will understand its significance.

Change Perspective
Leave the technical details to “Technical Specifications” section of your communications materials. Instead, concentrate on understanding the emotional and psychological reasons why people buy your products and mold your message according to those cues.

Why do you think the old and grouchy business executives buy cutting edge mobile phones like BlackBerry or Nokia N95? Most of them do not even know how to use push technology or Wi-Fi connection. Still, they bought that item just to showoff social status.

These are some of the insights that you should focus on if you want to sell. If you unlock that mystery, don’t be surprised if consumers will pay you even if they could get for free.