---
title: "People Buy for Their Reasons, Not Yours!"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/1f46a51b-f822-4b0f-ab24-baf935381608
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/people-buy-for-their-reasons-not-yours-4826
category: "General"
published: 1969-12-31T23:18:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:16:32.518Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/00d0f7acc5d021ee5fb5b003eb8320af2393160602165959.jpeg
---

# People Buy for Their Reasons, Not Yours!

**TL;DR:** Salespeople should focus on understanding customers' wants, needs, and desires rather than pushing their own reasons for a sale. A salesperson's failure to do so can result in a lost sale, as seen in the example of a doctor who was turned off by a competitor's salesperson.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 1969-12-31. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/people-buy-for-their-reasons-not-yours-4826).*

## Story

For those salespeople out there, if you don’t remember anything else, remember this: “*People buy for their reasons, not yours*!” I can’t tell you how much it bothers me when I go shopping for a new car and the first thing the salesperson does is open up the hood. I know virtually nothing about car engines and quite frankly I don’t care. That’s not the reason why I’m interested in buying a new car! If a salesperson would simply take some time to find out my wants, needs and desires, they would be much better off and have a far greater chance of making a sale.

Years ago, I had a doctor that came into one of my stores to buy a piano. After a friendly greeting, he said, “I’m looking for a $10,000 shiny black grand piano, but before you open your mouth, please know that I was just at your competitor’s and the salesperson there said, ‘*Any fool can spend $10,000 on a piano*.’ This fool isn’t going to spend $10,000 with them. Do you have a $10,000 shiny black grand piano?” I simply responded, “Sir, I’ve got the best $10,000 shiny black grand piano money can buy right here.” He immediately pulled out his checkbook and wrote me a check.

Now I understand what the other salesperson wanted to do…he was going to educate that customer. Heaven knows if I were going to spend that type of money on a piano, I would probably be more interested in the touch, tone and durability of the instrument. However, those would be my reasons, not his. What was important to him was, he wanted a shiny black grand piano and he wanted to spend $10,000. This may seem foolish to you, but it doesn’t matter. People buy for their reasons, NOT YOURS!

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- IFA (company)
- sales strategy (topic)
- customer needs (topic)
- piano sales (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/people-buy-for-their-reasons-not-yours-4826). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/1f46a51b-f822-4b0f-ab24-baf935381608).