I love it when potential customers visit our store and then walk back in some time later with a catalogue from another store. They walk up to a salesperson and tell them how much better/cheaper/faster the product from the other store is. Once that happens, we know we have the sale.

If they really thought it was so much better, then they would have already bought it. They are walking back into our store because they felt an emotional connection with our staff/brand/message and want to deal with us. By coming back in, they are screaming out to us, “Please give me any illogical, irrational, specious reason I should buy from you so I can make the purchase and assure myself that it wasn’t just an emotional decision.”

Once people have made their emotional decision to purchase, they become completely irrational in their justification to purchase. It is as if they are denying the right for a human to be emotional, and they try to put logic and reason into the decision-making process. Blokes especially are guilty of this. A man’s man, a true blokey bloke, does not dare admit to having any capacity for emotion, so he has to try to explain a purchase with some logic. Imagine what his mates would think of him if he told the truth and said that he bought an item because he “connected” with the salesperson or felt “comfortable” with the assistant and therefore trusted his or her advice.

Price—within reason—rarely comes into the purchasing decision.

I still remember many years ago when I first went for a test drive in a Lexus. I took it home to show my wife. I wanted it but could not possibly justify the expense, and as my wife reminds me often, it only takes me three minutes to drive to work, so why would I need a luxury car?

I came up with the most irrational and absurd reasons to justify the purchase of that car and fiddled with numbers until it was actually cheaper to own than a bicycle, but that was all I needed.

I bought my first Lexus two days later.

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