---
name: reasons-people-buy
description: Ground persuasive writing in a real reason people buy. Use when writing or editing copy meant to make someone buy, subscribe, or act (landing pages, ads, offers, positioning), or when auditing a draft that reads as feature-speak — "why would anyone buy this?", "make this benefit-led", "what's the hook?".
---

# Reasons people buy

People buy to move toward a feeling or an outcome, never to own a feature. Copy that names what a product *is* or *does* leaves the reader to supply the reason themselves, and most won't. Name the reason first; let the feature prove it.

## The move

For every line meant to persuade:

1. **Name the reason.** Match the line to a reason on the list below. A line that maps to none is feature-speak — cut it or rewrite it. *Done when every retained line traces to one named reason.*
2. **Say the outcome, not the mechanism.** What the buyer gets ("stop losing an hour a day to this"), not how it works ("automated workflow engine").
3. **Lead with the reason, prove with the feature.** Reason in the headline or first line; the feature sits underneath as evidence.

## The list

The working spine — 15 reasons people buy stuff:

1. To avoid effort
2. To feel happier
3. To save time
4. To be comfortable
5. To escape pain or guilt
6. To make money
7. To save money
8. To get recognition
9. To be healthier
10. To feel secure
11. To alleviate fear
12. To feel special
13. To increase status
14. To feel loved
15. To get knowledge

Beneath every reason sits one of eight deeper drives (Josh Kaufman, *The Personal MBA*) — the reason wearing work clothes:

**money · status · power · love · knowledge · protection · pleasure · excitement**

Write from the 15; check against the 8 that you've found the real driver rather than a surface benefit.

## Checks

- **One primary reason per asset.** A page that argues five reasons equally makes the reader feel none. Pick the primary; demote the rest to support.
- **Match the reason to the journey stage.** Effort, time, pain, guilt, and fear pull people who don't yet know they have a problem; recognition, status, love, and feeling special close people already deciding.
- **Test the phrasing against how a real buyer talks** — their vocabulary, not yours. Language accuracy is what makes a line land; guessed language reads as an ad and gets skipped.

## References

Read `references/sources.md` when the top-level guidance isn't enough — it encodes the full source material:

1. The 15 reasons people buy stuff (the original list)
2. The core human drives — Josh Kaufman, *The Personal MBA*
3. Buyer psychology cheatsheet — 19 biases mapped to buyer-journey stages, each with an action (Customer Camp)