The seminar I’ve been giving most often this year has talked about how our brains make buying decisions. One of the most important things we’ve learned is that our brains are lazy. They don’t want to deal with any more than they have to. It’s called avoiding the pain.
Today almost every industry in the business world is being challenged in its relevancy like never before. The game is changing at a very rapid rate and it’s not going to slow down. The industries that survive will be those who adopt by recognizing the pain experienced by their customers and find ways to ease it.
This is the third in our series of four discussions about the pain which exists in the picture framing industry. Market studies have shown that framing is considered to be:
- Too much of a time-consuming of a process
- Prices are perceived to be unknown and elusive
Number three is: Choices can be overwhelming
Our brains feel pain when they have to make choices. The study shows that when people think of custom framing their brains hurt because there are too many choices. Knowing that, we now must find ways to simplify the process of making a decision.
One of the first things I notice when I watch framers design, is that those who seem to make the process enjoyable are also the same ones who ask questions and then talk customers through the process of making a choice. We all design that way- no framer just starts grabbing mats and frames hoping to find the “lucky” combination. No, we all have a plan in mind that simplifies the choices. The problem is that many of us don’t share the process out with the customer. In my framing company we emphasize the need to “talk the customer through” the design process.
This is one way of simplifying the decision-making and removing the pain of too many choices. I’m sure there are many more. If you have worked on easing the pain of overwhelming choices, tell us how you do it. The future of our industry depends on overcoming the pain associated with using our services.
