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It doesn’t matter whether you’re in B2C or B2B. When you’re in marketing, you’re in the business of getting people‘s attention.

It doesn’t matter whether you call them customers or decision makers. You want people to be interested in the things you’re trying to sell. And eventually buy them.

Now, as you know, we humans aren’t as rational as we think we are. We are largely driven by desires. Harvard Business School professors Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria discovered 4 Core Human Drives*.

The drive to…

  1. Acquire – We want to obtain or collect things. Physical objects, like a new watch or a designer hand bag. But also immaterial qualities, like status, power and influence.
  2. Bond – We want to build relationships with others. We want to feel valued and loved. Whether the relationship is romantic, friendly, or professional.
  3. Learn – We want to satisfy our curiosity and learn new things. In order to become more knowledgeable and competent.
  4. Defend – We want to protect ourselves and the people and things we love.

Knowing which desires your products and services fulfill, allows you to link them to these Core Human Drives.

Two additional thoughts:

Pay extra attention to the drive to defend

Doing business always carries the risk of making the wrong choices. Keep in mind that potential clients will always try to minimize these risks.

When marketing your solutions, your potential clients will try and defend things like their reputation, the trust they’ve built with their colleagues or simply their budget.

Think about these risks. Address and counter them.

Core drives aren’t affected by hypes or trends

Sometimes it seems marketing is all about the latest hypes and buzz words. It is not.

Sure, it’s important to look at the things that shape the environment you’re operating in. However, it’s also a good idea to think about all the things that stay the same. The things that don’t change.

AI may be all the buzz at the moment. It doesn’t change our core drives.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for reading MBD Boost #003, sent to marketers and business developers on February 13, 2024.

Also sign up for MBD Boost if you’d like to to keep going and do the right things.