When marketing and selling a product or service, it is important to ask two questions to understand your buyers.

1.What motivates people to buy a product or service?

2.How do people find a product or service to buy?

I surveyed my LinkedIn audience for answers.

1. What motivates people to buy a product or service?

People buy a product or service to: solve a problem, meet a need, or fulfill a want or desire. 49% buy products and services to solve a problem, meet a need, or fulfill a desire. 27% wanted to solve a problem, 16 % want to meet a need, and 8% wanted to fulfill a want or desire.

2. How do people find a product or service to buy?

People find and buy products or services through word of mouth, social media, online search, and,/or product reviews. Of those surveyed, none said they found or bought products from seller calls or emails. No one found or bought products attending trade shows or events; this can be because of the pandemic.

63 % found or bought products from social channels or word of mouth, and 37% found or bought products or services from online searches or product reviews.

These findings suggest businesses need to create products and services that are customer-centric. Businesses need a great reputation to survive in a competitive marketplace.

Answering these questions will help businesses develop, create and, position products and services customers want to buy.

Your approach will vary depending on your industry.

What motivates customers to buy your products and services?

How do your customers find products and services?

Join the conversation.

Free or Low-Cost Trials

When creating a new offering, I would offer a free or low-cost trial of your product to the end-users and industry experts. Consumers look for social proof before they buy a product. Now if the product is new, none exists. To lower buyer resistance, you need to make it low risk and feel safe.

In addition to market research and product testing; the free or low-cost trial is a great way to build trust and get feedback. Surveys can be created to ask potential customers about their experience.

If your product helps to solve a customer’s problem they will be more than happy to share it with others; converting to paying users! The product will earn testimonials and endorsements. Testimonials and endorsements will address product reliability creating: loyalty, brand recognition, and Sales for your product.

Loss Leaders

In place of a free or low-cost trial, a loss leader can be an option. A loss leader is when you offer a product at a loss or break-even point to gain business in the future. Supermarkets do this all of the time when a new product is rolled out.

Another place I saw loss leaders was when I was in Field Sales. I was selling Dental equipment at the time. Certain customers were loyal to certain types of equipment. When I ask why they stated that these were the tools that they had used in school. When I called on Dental schools and Hospitals, I found they were locked up with large contacts. My larger competitors sold the equipment at cost practically giving it away. Why would they do this? My competitors were creating life-long customers who were trained on certain tools and refused to switch.

Connection, trust, and advocacy are essential for customer acquisition. It is your job as a brand to turn your customer base into evangelists.

The decision on developing and implementing offering free, low-cost trials and/or loss leaders will be different for each product.

Free, low-cost trials and loss leaders help to Increase Sales and Customer Loyalty.

How have you used free, low-cost trials and loss leaders to create Sales and Customer Loyalty?

Comment and share.

Press & Industry Highlights of the 2025 New York International Auto Show

The 2025 New York International Auto Show is at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The New York International Auto Show is celebrating its 125th anniversary!

I covered the New York International Auto Show on press and industry days. The show opened with the World Car Awards Breakfast.

Congratulations to the other finalists and winners as well!

You can see what it is like to be at the Auto Show on Press Days in this show floor preview. 

I rode along in the Hyundai Ioniq 9 EV on one of the multiple test tracks at the show. It was a great experience!

The show consists mainly of EVs and hybrid vehicles. There are two levels of EV test tracks where you can do a ride-along. You can also ride along on the Jeep and Ford off-road mountain track. I rode along on all of the EV Tracks.

The 2025 Chevy Police Blazer EV also made an appearance.

There were also some new vehicle roll-outs and major press announcements from Kia, Hyundai, Subaru, VW, and many others.

You can see some of them below.

Additional Press Conferences can be found here.

You can find additional pictures posted on Instagram.

The show is open to the public at the Jacob Javits Center located at 429 11th Avenue New York, New York 10001. How to get to the Auto Show. The Auto Show runs from Friday, April 18th, through Sunday, April 27th, 2025. The hours are Monday—Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm, and Sundays from 10 am to 7 pm. General admission tickets are $22 for adults and $8 for children. Tickets can be purchased here.

What are you hoping to see at the auto show?

If you have attended the auto show, what was the most exciting thing you experienced?

Share your thoughts.

Thank you to the New York International Auto Show for having me!