The Personal MBA

Master the Art of Business

A world-class business education in a single volume. Learn the universal principles behind every successful business, then use these ideas to make more money, get more done, and have more fun in your life and work.

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What Is 'Desire'? (Marketing)

You need to produce a strong feeling of Desire in your customers for they to want what you have, and to be willing to purchase from you.

Provoking desire usually makes people uncomfortable because they fear that they are "manipulating" people, but in reality no one wants something that they don't already desire.

The key is discovering what people already want, and then presenting an offer that intersects with the preexisting desire.

Your job is not to convince people, but to help them convince themselves that your offering will help them get what they want.

People's wants start at the Core Human Drives. The more drivers you connect with, the more effective your offering will be.

Josh Kaufman Explains 'Desire'

Effective marketing makes your prospect want what you have to offer. In order for a prospect to be willing to pay you perfectly good money for what you're offering, they must want what you have. If your marketing activities don't produce some visceral feeling of Desire in your prospects, you're wasting your time and money.

Provoking desire is the part of marketing that makes most people uncomfortable. It's understandable: pop culture is enamored with the image of the marketer as a shadowy master manipulator, hypnotizing the masses into wanting things they don't really want or need. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here's the reality: it's almost impossible to make someone want something they don't already desire. Yes, it's possible to be scammy and manipulative when you are presenting a marketing message if you misrepresent what you're offering by promising something you can't deliver.

Don't mistake that for brainwashing: the quickest way to waste a multi-million dollar advertising budget is to try to force people to want something they don't already want. The human mind simply doesn't work that way-we only purchase what we already desire on some level.

The essence of effective marketing is discovering what people already want, then presenting your offer in a way that intersects with that pre-existing desire. The best marketing is similar to Education-Based Selling: it shows the prospect how the offer will help them achieve what they desire most. Your job as a marketer isn't to convince people to want what you're offering: it's to help your prospects convince themselves that what you're offering will help them get what they really want.

So what do people want? We've already covered that: the Core Human Drives are a comprehensive starting point for discovering what your market wants at the most basic level.

The more drives you can connect with your offering, the more effective your marketing activities will be.

Questions About 'Desire'


"BUT I REALLY WANT IT!!!"

Two-year-old children everywhere


From Chapter 2:

Marketing


https://personalmba.com/desire/



The Personal MBA

Master the Art of Business

A world-class business education in a single volume. Learn the universal principles behind every successful business, then use these ideas to make more money, get more done, and have more fun in your life and work.

Buy the book:


About Josh Kaufman

Josh Kaufman is an acclaimed business, learning, and skill acquisition expert. He is the author of two international bestsellers: The Personal MBA and The First 20 Hours. Josh's research and writing have helped millions of people worldwide learn the fundamentals of modern business.

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