Ley's Pyramid of Wants

by Graham Denton

If you've ever taken a freshman psychology course, you'll probably remember Abraham Maslow's "hierarchy of needs." According to Maslow, human beings seek to satisfy a spectrum of individual needs ranging from the biological to the spiritual, and they do so by progressing from the simplest to the most sophisticated. We begin, he said, by meeting our most basic need for survival, then move progressively to satisfy our needs for security, social acceptance, ego enhancement, and finally "self-actualization." The "self-actualized" individual is Maslow's fully evolved personality.

D. Forbes Ley, author of The Best Seller, puts a useful sales spin on Maslow's insight by describing what he calls "Ley's Pyramid of Wants." At the bottom of the pyramid, we want to be alive. Then we want to be secure, accepted, important, and finally great. But the steps on this pyramid, he points out, are not mutually exclusive. Just because you are working on "I want to be important" doesn't mean you no longer want to be accepted. The five categories intermingle, in constantly shifting patterns, to arrange and rearrange the "over 100 basic Wants of mankind" that have been "classified." (Who has done this classifying Ley doesn't say.)

As imprecise as the research may be, Ley is precise and helpful about its relationship to sales. Recognizing that selling is a "psychological science," he says it's the salesperson's job two things: (a) recognize what Want may be most profoundly "exciting" a customer or prospect at any given moment, and (b) attempt to fulfill that Want in a corresponding fashion.

As for (a), Ley's advice is disarmingly simple. To determine what Want is on top at a given moment, find out something--anything--that's important to the prospect, and then ask, "Why is that important to you?" If he says something like "It will give me better control over the department," probably security is his currently dominant motivator. If she says something like "It will improve our communication," then acceptance may currently be higher on her motivator scale. There's a certain punch-in-the-numbers quality to Ley's scheme, but the general principle he's getting at is a sound one. Selling is an emotional business. If you want to get a fix on your customer, start with his Wants.

Ley's (b) step is also a bit schematic, but again the basic lesson is useful. Here are his examples of how questioning can "prompt their Want emotions" at each of the five different levels of the Pyramid of Wants:

If the prospect just wants to be alive, you should appeal to his "fear of loss," or more specifically the human being's "natural fear instinct of losing something already possessed." Ask: "You don't want to lose your_____, do you?'

If the prospect is seeking security, appeal to her "desire for easy gain"--the desire that a cynic might call the "getting something for nothing" instinct. Ask: "You want to minimize your_____, don't you?"

If the prospect is seeking acceptance, Ley says you should "stroke with friendship." To excite the sense of need for emotional well-being, ask: "This will make you popular, won't it?"

If the prospect wants to be important, "stroke with sincere compliment." "Anything that strokes their self-image by making people like themselves a little more is a positive motivator." So ask: "This will make you important, won't it?"

Finally, if the prospect has a Want to be great, "stroke with admiration." "The greatest desire is not merely being accepted by other but to be held in awe and respect by them." So imply that the prospect has that respect by asking: "You deserve the very best, don't you?"

Much of this is seat-of-the-pants selling smarts. But if you're going to use Ley's framework, be wary, because even if you can "stroke with sincere compliment" without coming off as a phony, you've got to be extremely careful about the way that you phrase things. Ley knows this, of course, and I don't mean to make him sound more formulaic than he actually is. But there's a whiff of manipulative coyness just beneath the good advice, and I'd be careful, if I was face-to-face with an actual prospect, about using transparent tie-downs like "Won't this make you important?" Do you have any flesh and blood customers who would fall for that line?