People are not one dimensional in their thinking about who they are and what matters most. People will determine their priorities by how they perceive “what matters most” at the particular moment in time when they are asked to examine priorities or offered opportunities. When we commit to serving people, we have to commit to understanding “what matters most” to the audience we are attempting to embrace and grow. This is a challenging task because people are remarkably diverse in how they think about what matters most. 

We can easily fall into the trap of perceiving that “what matters most” is actually the organization, product, or service that we represent. However, this cannot be true other than for the moment(s) immediately following the introduction of the product or service simply because there are too many components of living and working which impact the lives of people every day. In order to elevate any “one thing” to lasting priority status requires that we understand the people. When we do not understand people, we can easily fall into the trap of being solely focused on “selling” something vs solving a problem or fulfilling ongoing priorities and needs.

When we solve a problem or fulfill a need for someone else, through a personal effort, organizational effort, product, or service that we offer, we hope to gain an informed member, customer/client who will automatically perceive us as being relevant.  

The provider of a product or service knows their product or service very well. However, the question that we present to providers is: How well do you understand the people in your audience who you target as potential members, buyers, and affiliates of your brand? The audience is diverse. Data analysis will reveal how many of the new buyers actually change their minds within the first 24 hours or the first 5 days. Further analysis will reveal how many new buyers received communication from the company within the first hours of engagement, first days, first week(s). Analysis will also reveal what new buyers think about the products/services they purchased. Analysis can also reveal how many new buyers place another order within their first 30 to 90 days of involvement, the nature of the communications, and quite possibly….if the analysis is rigorous enough… the reasons why (real or hypothetical) the buyer is no longer engaged. What percentage do we actually retain? What was the cost of acquisition? Are we investing in retention, growing the customer base through satisfaction and referrals or are we assuming that we have a customer when we only acquired a transactional buyer?

1. People Have Mental Needs; however, many are actually consumed by negativity.
2. People Have Physical Needs and some of the people are simply tired and physically drained. Health and Wellness is a hot topic. It is impossible to maintain a positive mental attitude about anything when the body is simply tired.
3. People Have Spiritual Needs. People simply want to have faith in themselves and the possibilities they encounter that support their desire to make life and work a bit better.
4. People Have Social Needs. People desire a connection with a community that they perceive cares about them.
5. People Have Financial Needs. The facts are: Many people are spending more than they earn.

The 5 elements of life that we identified as being important may not be a complete list. However, it is a good starting list when seeking to better understand how to motivate and inspire people to engage and stay with your brand. The 5 elements may have nothing to do with the product or service that you may offer but your understanding of what matters most to a vast majority of the typical audience has everything to do with whether or not you attract and retain people to become a part of your audience. Initial attraction can be the result of a transaction but ongoing growth in affiliation with your brand and lifetime value will me more related to how you serve the people involved.

Key Thought: You must first understand the people in order to grow the people. In order to understand people, it behooves us to understand what impacts people beyond a buying decision.