Shopping is painful.

I’m not talking about those horrible websites with horrible and unusual interfaces. I’m looking at you, websites that have no cars in 2020.

(If they exist).

Those only make shopping more painful.

But it is never a painless process. The strange and intriguing field of neuroeconomics shows that it is literally painful to part with money. You could buy a gold-plated mansion for $700 and still feel a pang.

And a twinge is all it is. I’m not saying your head falls apart when you part with a dollar. But that pang is enough to stop people. That’s why e-commerce aims to be as seamless as possible: they want the customer to complete the purchase before the pang worsens.

But how could this be? People like to buy things, right? Retail therapy doesn’t have the same vibe as shock therapy…

Money is not money. It is power and opportunity. And sure, you can always earn more, but you can’t get it back once you get rid of it, aside from refunds.

What does this mean for your marketing?

A few things.

Known entities are more familiar and less painful. The first time you buy a certain brand of chips is the worst. After that, it gets easier because there is less uncertainty (which is a form of pain in itself).

What if you sell unique items, like smartphones? You can still be a known or unknown entity. How small a pang do Apple fans feel before buying an iPhone? The phone may be new, but the brand is not.

Subscriptions work the same. It’s much, much easier to keep an existing subscriber than it is to attract a new one.

But what if none of that applies?

What if you are relatively unknown and sell unique things?

That’s when you use this classic marketing technique:

You make the pain of not buying greater than the pain of buying.

Consider my usual examples of coaching and hypnotherapy:

Let’s say someone is having a hard time at work. They are talented enough to win a promotion; in fact, based on who gets elected instead of them, they are overqualified, but something is holding them back.

Perhaps they are too shy to do so.

Or they perform very well in all settings except the interview.

Or maybe they’re a superstar with an unfortunate quirk, like angry outbursts or overloading their people.

So here is the truth:

Signing up for a session with you would cost money, which would be painful.

But remaining as they are would be much worse.

It is up to your marketing to make this clear.

Now the sleazy sellers will invent new pains for their market. They will cause false fear or misery and then sell the solution. I won’t pretend that doesn’t make money, because it does. In the long term, though? It leads to refunds, bad reputations, and many missed opportunities.

Your market already has many real breads. There is no need to cook anymore.

And when you take that hassle away from them, they will love you for it.