Many people go through life being a consumer. They were never taught that they could have an amazing life. They weren’t ever told, “You can be great” or, “You can go after your dream.” Most of the things people buy are based on a psychological, unconscious idea of “need.”

Over 100 years ago, companies discovered that if they can associate their product or service with something that fits the average consumer’s value system, that consumer would convince themselves to buy things they don’t truly need. Today as we go through life, we’re constantly exposed to marketing and advertising, where companies try to convince us of all the different things we need and want to buy.

When something is consistently projected into your awareness over and over again—and you see other people around you buying and using the same products and services—you’ll convince yourself that you need those things too.

If you’re in business, or if you’re in sales, it’s important for you to understand how people make buying decisions. Your mindset around “buying things” needs to shift—because you have to influence other individuals to buy your own products or services.

In this episode I discuss:

• How your success in sales conversations is affected by whether or not YOU buy things based on needs, or wants

• How to change your own buying behavior, so that you’re not a walking contradiction during sales calls (or in your marketing)

• How the average person was trained to go to work for someone else

• How growing up with a family with a fixed income creates a certain language, belief system, and value system that leads to people being “responsible adults”

• How the word “responsible” means different things to different people

• How most conversations are reactive in nature—and a sales conversation is very different than any other conversation you have in your life

To get better at sales, ask yourself, what do you really want? Are you allowing yourself to go after what YOU want? Do you go after the resources you need to have what you want?… or do you just settle for what you need? If you settle for what you need, you’ll have a hard time influencing other people to buy your product or service.