The world lost one of the greatest innovators of all time this past week, Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs. Aside of Walt Disney, I know of no other business mogul that impacted as many people as Steve Jobs did.

Very sad news to me...

I love Apple products and I loved Steve Jobs. He'll be greatly missed. I wanted to take a second and acknowledge him here today for all he did to make technology more efficient and FUN.

I especially loved how he always seemed to  miraculously see the future before the future even arrived. Think iTunes. He somehow revolutionized the way we now ALL get and listen to music. Unbelievable to me. Thank you Steve Jobs...

On to this week's blog post, a topic Steve Jobs knew better than anyone - what drives human behavior. Everything he built centered around this "one topic."

"The Deepest Driver Of Human Behavior"

Many people don't know this, but the deepest drivers of human behavior are a sense of "inadequacy" and "inferiority" and the desire to overcome it...

Everybody... even the most accomplished and wealthiest people, feel inferior in some way, to someone. And nowadays, everyone is always trying to impress someone or "one up" someone else. Think about it. It's a BIG reason behind the mortgage meltdown in the US. Many people over leveraged themselves to buy houses they really couldn't afford.

For what? Because they needed more space? Or because they needed to feel adequate? Or, perhaps, because they needed to feel like they "one upped" their friends or co-workers?

Here's a better example of this human behavior in action: let's say Johnny buys DVD's, gadgets, and lessons to fix his swing so he can hit the golf ball harder and straighter. Is he working this hard to hit the ball harder and straighter? Doubt it. He desperately wants to stop being embarrassed. He is sick of his buddy Bob hitting the ball perfectly when he can't. He's even sicker of Bob's arrogant superiority about it...

Johnny at least wants to hit the ball harder and straighter than someone else in his foursome. But of course, harder and straighter than Bob. Therefore, his purchases are all about Bob, not about himself. If Johnny played golf all alone on an isolated golf course in the middle of no where, for his own pleasure, why would he care how hard he could hit the ball, right?

You may be tempted to think this kind of psychology doesn't apply to your product or service. You'd be dead wrong. Resist the temptation. Not catering to the deepest drivers of human behavior leaves you vulnerable to commoditization, price-based competition, and average positioning...

People don't pay for average. Steve Jobs knew this every day he woke up and went to work...

Now, how can YOU weave this into your marketing and/or your sales presentation?

This applies to every business you know... Resist the temptation to think it doesn't.

For those of you who got your hands on Dan Kennedy's Game Changer DNA system last month, you're about to discover exactly how this is done. Congrats to you!


Best,

Andrew J. Cass