Happy New Life! Be Careful What You Wish For

People wish without considering consequences of fulfilled desires.

Is it success delusion or partial success when people get ‘THERE’ (where they want), yet settle for less than full effectiveness & efficiency? They’re disappointed with results but glad they saved money.

They can’t get ‘THERE’ from ‘HERE’. Did they choose the wrong ‘THERE’, methods, equipment &/or journey? Every input affects outputs.

People want treasured experiences, even if they never experience financial treasures. Life enhancements are built with experiences but can be ruined by low-quality.

Analogy: Can sweet orange juice be squeezed from sour lemons? If people can’t afford oranges, what’s available for desirable lemonade? Assessment: Perceived citrus differences are __ & adjustable with (current plus available resources). Uncorrectable differences are __ & can be offset with __.

Urge people to consider which benefits are important enough for optimization efforts.

Create & sustain happiness by connecting comfortable familiarity with adventures.

When people are bored with ‘HERE’, they create an adventure ‘THERE’. If it's more intense than expected, they return to ‘HERE’. Without recognizing current & necessary factors, people’s methods won’t work for full comfort or adventure.

Before planning comfort & adventure upgrades, help customers identify & rate desirability plus necessity of current comfort & adventure factors.

Find ways to prevent stale familiarity & excessive adventure riskiness. Create different familiarity versions by replacing dull comfort factors with adventure. How much can customers reduce familiarity without creating uncomfortably strange experiences? Like strapping in for rollercoaster rides, perceived risk can augment controlled adventures. People don’t always perceive seriousness of risks.

Analogy: Toddlers like edging away from parents, but running-away might be too risky. Children want freedom, but misperceive their readiness to achieve it. They learn by exploring boundaries of independence & ability to take control.

Accurate knowledge & product quality can be the difference between achieving or merely perceiving control. People might be at-risk because they assume products are dependable. Cheap product purchases can leave money for more activities but people are disappointed or injured by pushing beyond personal & product limits.

To create & benefit from treasured experiences of possessions & activities, clarify goals & compare with probable results. Offer optimized value & risk reduction by matching customers’ aspirations with product specifications to successfully implement plans.

Offer guidance to ensure people recognize practical treasures. That might seem like minimal cognitive labor, but it’s unfamiliar to overwhelmed customers. Differentiate your store as a treasure resource by covering step-by-step requirements, so people don’t dig for treasure & get stuck with junk.

Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer by Michael Silverstein & John Butman

Consumers might trade down without perceiving differences between cheap & high-priced products.

Smart people don’t pay more than necessary. They imitate smart examples, want to be perceived as smart & want money for security &/or investing in high-quality.

People’s Value Calculus involves financial, practical & emotional factors of paying the lowest prices for adequate quality to fulfill purposes. Cars, jewelry & shoes can contribute to fulfilling fashion purposes though two of those have practical purposes.

If people don’t socialize at-home, cheap furniture might seem good-enough unless retailers emphasize comfort as a health issue. Ask chiropractors how using cheap furniture causes enough cramps & sleep troubles to interfere with people’s experiences.

If at-home socializing is treasured, people will trade up for comfortable, attractive furniture. Help people adjust value perceptions so they don’t undermine goals. If people serve food & beverages, messes can reduce furniture value. If appearance is a high priority, which furniture will look good before & after visits?

Successfully Arrived, Failed to Thrive

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter analogized Success Delusion with this: "The bear was about to clamp onto an unsuspecting airborne salmon jumping upstream. [An UNUM] headline read: YOU PROBABLY FEEL LIKE THE BEAR. WE’D LIKE TO SUGGEST YOU’RE THE SALMON."

By returning to natal rivers, anthropomorphized salmon might satisfy biological urges, but not nostalgic treasure when conditions change. Starvation, swimming upstream & bear attacks subtract more value.

Why do fish endanger themselves to spawn? Salmon struggle to bypass logjams to reach specific treasured spawning areas.

If people successfully clear obstacles to make another river suitable, fish might not recognize that value & struggle to return to their natal rivers. Should people state 'Fish hatching in this river also return to spawn here'? Or should people prioritize certain fish-stocking techniques & optimize maintainable spawning areas?

In effect, it’s like developing market niches by understanding them & helping them understand your advantage offers.

When your store is integrated in customers’ lives, you’ll learn about motivations & results. Learn about customers’ conditions to scout ahead for obstacles & recommend effective, efficient purchases & plans base on case studies.

Example: ‘(Customer) wanted (result) to create (benefit) & used (products) with (learned skills) to do (methods) & implemented (plans).’

People figure purchases are logical without admitting subtle, embarrassing or hard-to-express criteria. Advantage offers with in-store guidance can connect with customers’ subconscious/nonverbal emotions & prevent embarrassing mistakes.

Example: People might pay so much for luxury boats, there’s barely enough money to buy cheap tarps. Would it be wiser to buy mid-priced boats & rent winter storage units?

Comfortable offers are like keys opening mental locks, so people consider your options to fulfill opportunities.

People limit their opportunities though they can afford better options. Limited spending might prevent money shortages but could limit ability to prevent/solve problems. Explain unfamiliar causes & urge people to consider short- & long-term effects.

If low-quality is disregarded, low-prices seem logical but people also have emotional reasons. You might not identify all reasons but you can test offers to unlock people’s stresses & reveal freedom access. Explain alternatives to trading down.

Explain how offers improve conditions, so trading down doesn't feel reasonable.

Offer Example: ‘(Problem) solution requires __because __. Cheap commodities aren’t strong enough to withstand __. (Store) consultations focus on problem-causing vulnerabilities, so you’ll know what to fix & prevent.’

Trading down can be a short-cut eventually adding stresses instead of being a convenient detour.

Cheaper options can be cheap-shots that insult the intelligence of “smart shoppers” who set expectations plus compare conditions & products.

“No material difference” perceptions, expectations & experiential lessons might include outdated opinions. Explain essentialness of specific options. Gain insights into customers' obstacles by learning about local people’s goals & conditions. People want advisers to understand their current levels & find means to higher levels.

People personally & socially balance “I can go without (result-A) but can’t go without (result-B)”. Those beliefs are affected by potential criticism: ‘Why did you buy that instead of this?’ Those thoughts can be conflicting expectations, needs &/or desires.

Help define plus defend needs & desires. If you don’t explain offer advantages, people might get-by with coping mechanisms instead of optimizing conditions.

Explain why there’s more functional hope in trading up.

Help People Feel Extraordinary

Eventually, people might be intolerant of ordinariness especially when they see treasures displayed via social media. Trading down for commodities maintains ordinariness but hopefully reserves finances for trading up in treasures.

If people tolerate ordinariness to save money, use advantage offers to add logic to emotion.

Example: Some manufacturers make basic cars look like luxury models which possibly reduces luxury model attractiveness. Luxury models can seem logical with added-value of fuel-economy & safety. Frequent &/or long-distance drivers should offset their added risks with updated safety technology. With logic, luxury vehicles seem like investments, not splurges.

Help adjust customers' reasons for trading up & down with guidance about prioritization & fulfillments.

Consultation Example: ‘Why is weight-loss preferred to cardiovascular fitness? Weight management will be easier as you increase stamina. Your ‘Why’ for weight-loss is great. Let’s make your ‘Way’ great also. Benefits are limited from diets or exercise but the combination is powerful. Diets frustrate people. Some give up exercise because benefits aren’t instant, but discomfort is. If people exert too much too soon, their ‘Way’ probably won’t support their ‘Why’. If people try slimming down for social perceptions instead of personal reasons, their ‘Why’ might not support their ‘Way’. Feel better by improving your lifestyle with optimal nutrition & activities to increase stamina. You’ll gain energy from your effort & time investments in your health. Your increased energy will help you maximize your time for other activities.’

People might figure there’s treasure in goals/destinations until journeys become overwhelming. Some figure journeys are/should be treasured. When journeys are treasured, long-term destinations can seem worthwhile. Discomfort discourages people & brings failure delusion. Discomfort doesn’t always indicate failure.

What can you add to plans to reduce discomfort & add enjoyment to journeys?

Success delusion can start anytime in planning, journeys &/or arrival at expected or unexpected destinations. Journeys & destinations can be adjusted. Schedule advantage offers for typical times of customers’ planning, journeys & arrivals before or while circumstantial disadvantages start. When you know what disrupts success, offer to disrupt disruptions.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

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