Why Customers Don't Buy (And How to Fix It)

Marketing Equals Perception, Not Reality

The problem is not the product. The problem is not the service. People don't buy because of the processes in place. Let me say that again, because most business owners get this backwards. They think if the product is good enough, people will buy. They won't.

Marketing equals perception, not reality. Now, it has to be real. If I'm saying this product is going to help you sleep better, then the product better help you sleep better, because otherwise your business will not survive. But the way you get somebody to buy something from you is through their perception of what they're going to get. Communication is the key to that entire process.

You have to work on getting that person to trust you enough to open up their wallet and give you their most valuable information so they can buy something from you. That's the game. And I want to tell you a quick story about something I just went through myself.

The Postcard That Didn't Feel Right

Recently I was putting together a postcard campaign for our family business, NaturalSlim. A real, physical postcard, and I wanted to send it to a lot of people. Hundreds of thousands of people. The postcard was promoting a product we call Magic Mag, a magnesium supplement my father formulated many years ago. We sell thousands of those little bottles every single day, and I'm trying to get more people to use it because people love this product.

So I got the postcard back, and something didn't feel right about it. 'Are you tired of not sleeping well?' 'Magnesium citrate, highly absorbable.' 'Your ally for...' It just didn't feel right. And here's the lesson from the marketing game that I'm going to pass on to you right now.

When you're building any marketing asset, a postcard, an email campaign, a social media campaign, an advertising creative, whatever it is, you sometimes have to forget everything you know about your brand. You have to become the audience. You have to become the user. You have to become the other side of the coin and think about it from their side. That is an ability you possess. Use it.

Brainstorm With AI, Don't Let It Decide

In this case, I went to ChatGPT and I had it become that other side for me. I said: you're a professional marketer who does postcards. What do you think this is missing? Do I have all the elements? And I gave it my postcards, front and back. The QR code, the bullet points, the product pictures, the phone numbers, the website address, everything.

It gave me some really good points. It told me, 'You're close, but not a high conversion asset just yet.' And then we went back and forth with a whole lot of brainstorming. I was like, this is brilliant. Did I let it decide for me? No. I was brainstorming with it, because my job is to get that marketing element to be well perceived by people so they actually buy and become my customer.

You can do this with ChatGPT, Gemini, Llama, Grok, whatever you want to use. Have a conversation with AI about how to make your marketing elements better. What are they missing? How can you fix what's going on? But you drive. The AI is the other side of the coin, not the decision maker.

Speak to the Problem, Not the Ingredient

Here's one major example of what changed. The updated postcard now leads, in Spanish, with 'Not sleeping well is not normal.' Before, I didn't have that in there at all. You know what I had instead? A line that said 'absorbable magnesium citrate.'

What does that mean to you? If you're an audience member trying to handle your problem of not sleeping well, of not feeling rested in the morning, does 'magnesium citrate' really mean something to you? It doesn't. It really doesn't. I care that it's magnesium that's absorbable. You don't. You care that you're going to use it to help handle your sleeping problem. That concern that you have. That's what you care about.

We also made the QR code bigger across the board. When I actually looked at it as the customer, that QR code was too small. If I'm trying to get people to opt in, why am I making it hard to scan? And I realized people are going to want education with the product. I'm already doing a lot of education, a lot of content, so why am I not putting together an exclusive training for these people to handle their problem? Now that became the offer.

The Four Problems That Kill Your Sales

When you look at your entire journey as your prospect, you're going to find the same problems over and over. Problem number one: customers cannot find the price. They're trying to buy, but they don't see how. One of the things I hate the most when I'm searching for a service is 'contact me for a quote.' I hate that. I don't have time for that. Tell me how much it costs right then and there, or I'm moving on to the next one.

Problem number two: they don't know what the next step is. On that postcard, I say scan this QR code so I can give you access to the product, free shipping, and an exclusive training on how to sleep better. I'm telling them exactly what the next step is. Whatever campaign you're running, the next step has to be crystal clear.

Problem number three: slow responses. When people ask you questions, how fast do you get to them? If you don't respond really fast, you're going to lose people along the way. And problem number four: complicated scheduling. Customers must call during business hours, back and forth emails to find a time, no online booking option. People prefer quick and easy scheduling. Every point of friction is a leak.

It's a Journey, Like Dating

In the marketing game, you have to guide people from one step to the next step. If you don't, you're going to lose a lot of them along the way, because it's a very crowded market and there are many other companies just like yours trying to do exactly the same thing.

Think about dating. When a relationship is forming, you always know what's next, right? You have a date night. You're seeing them tomorrow for coffee. Now you're having dinner with the parents. There's always a step that keeps that journey moving as you build the relationship. It is no different when it comes to building a prospect into a client.

So when you're doing marketing, put yourself in the viewpoint of your customer, your prospect. Forget your brand knowledge temporarily. Feel what they feel. Make the next step clear at every step of the way. Do that, and you'll find yourself generating customers like crazy.