As a Junior at the University of Texas at Austin I was invited to a Halloween party at the house of some friends of my friends. I got all dressed up (as a Pirate...argh!) and found my way to the private home.
None of my friends had arrived yet and I didn't know anybody there and didn't know where anything was in this house, so I decided to take refuge by the beer keg until somebody I recognized showed up. After getting a bit lost in the complicated layout of the house, I finally spied a living room that opened up to the backyard--where, presumably, the Holy Grail of the beer keg would be located.
I walked through the living room, where a dozen or so students lounged on couches and chairs. I was quite shy in my younger years and so I studiously avoided even looking at any of these strangers as I stepped outside to the--
BAM!
I walked right into the sliding glass door that led outside!
The door was so transparent that I thought it was wide open...but, alas, no! I bounced half a step back as the students in the living room started chuckling and laughing. At me. They were laughing at me.
There are few greater pains in life than being humiliated in public!
Still without looking at any of the laughing students, I opened the sliding glass door, went outside and closed the door behind me. Without a moment's hesitation or doubt as to the course of my action, I hurried across the yard, climbed over the wooden privacy fence, got in my car and drove home for the night. True story.
A turning point in Sigmund Freud's work came when he discovered that human beings have a strong DESIRE for Variety in their lives--to meet new people and go to new places and feel new feelings. But often overpowering this desire for newness was our innate NEED for Familiarity--to see people and places we've already seen before and therefore feel comfortable around.
This is one reason why more people claim to WANT to travel than actually DO travel.
Even before beginning my studies into the Psychology of Buying, I was already well familiar with the concept of Social Anxiety--the life-long battle we all face of Desiring to connect with new people but Needing to stay close to our comfort zone so we don't end up doing things like, say, walking into a sliding glass door in front of strangers!
But one of the more unexpected discoveries I made during my journey was that humans also experience Location Anxiety.
You see, it's not just meeting new people that can make us anxious, but it's ALSO our nervousness about going into new and different locations where we've never been before.
Most of us are not conscious of this deeply buried anxiety. Yet we are biologically hard-wired to be wary of any new environment. Because you never know what's out there! There could be a sabre-tooth tiger or hostile band of Cr0-Magnons or even a smiling car salesman lurking just behind the next boulder!
Location Anxiety is one reason why so many of us have regular "haunts"...familiar restaurants or shops or night spots where we go regularly because, well, we've already been there before and we know what to expect.
While most people will certainly venture out to new places now and again, it is fairly uncommon for them to do this all the time.
Generally we'll visit a new place of business...and then return to same places we're already familiar with for a while before venturing out again. Even if the food/service/products aren't the best in the world at the locations we visit frequently, at least we already know what to expect.
So, again, we DESIRE Variety...but we NEED Familiarity.
What does any of this have to do with buying a new car?! Quite a lot, actually!
Some years back I ventured into a Ford dealership here in Austin, TX and bought a station wagon for my then-wife. A year or so later, I returned and leased an Explorer for myself. When my wife and I eventually split up, I returned again and bought her a mini-van. The lease on my Explorer expired...and I made the bold move of returning yet again and leasing another Explorer.
For those keeping score at home, that's 4 Fords in a row!
Now, Ford makes a fine product and we got great use out of all these vehicles. However there ARE many other excellent car manufacturers out there. Yet I continued to buy Ford after Ford...without ever asking myself why?
It was only when I combined Freud's theory of Variety vs. Familiarity with the concept of Location Anxiety did I realize that it was NOT a particular make of car I was buying, rather it was my increasing Familiarity with that particular car dealership that drew me back year after year.
That dealership--conveniently located less than a mile from my home--just happened to sell Fords. If it had been another brand of car, then once I started buying there I might well have stayed with that other brand for 4 cars in a row...or more!
I finally broke the cycle and haven't returned to that dealership in years. But even now, in my mind, I can still picture the entire layout of the place with crystal clarity. I remember exactly the location of the receptionist's area...where to find the bathrooms...the finance manager's office...the sales manager's desk...right down to a choice spot to people-watch (on a bench just outside the service bays) while waiting for my new car to be prepped.
For a couple of years before I finally "broke up" with my dealership, I craved a new driving experience...but the familiarity of the place kept drawing me back again and again.
It's well-known that the vast majority of people rate buying a new car to be a seriously stressful experience. The goal of the "How To Buy A New Car at Used Car Prices" and the forthcoming ebook of the same name is to reduce my readers stress when purchasing a new vehicle to less than zero.
And one step in that process of reducing your stress is to at least consider the idea that one of the initial causes of anxiety when you decide to go in and pull the trigger on a big purchase is the physical business location itself.
Chances are when you go in to buy a new car you're entering an environment you never been in before in your entire life.
Car dealerships can be vast places with complicated layouts and dozens of sales offices. Or they can be a one-room converted mobile home on the back of a used car lot. Either way, it's foreign terrain to you.
So what can you do about that in advance? Well, there are a couple of simple ways to become familiar with a dealership beforehand and reduce your potential Location Anxiety.
- Check out the dealership's website. Many of them proudly post photographs of their showroom and lot. Take a moment to really study these pictures and develop a mental map of the layout.
- Visit the dealership itself, outside of normal business hours...in the evenings or on weekends. Stroll around the lot and take long, hard looks at the make and model of vehicle you're most interested in. Walk up to the showroom itself--customarily a building with two or more walls made of glass--and look inside. Just absorb the environment a bit into your mind.
The crazy thing about either of these strategies is that they actually WORK!
Deep inside your unconscious mind are complex filters that examine every new person--and new physical environment!--you may encounter. These filters decide whether what you're seeing is a Match (in which case you can relax) or a Mis-Match (in which case your defenses, and attendant stress level, go up somewhat until your mind can be convinced that there are no dangers present.)
Just the fact of looking at photographs of a dealership--or walking the lot and peeking into the showroom--provides enough visual references for your brain that when you do go in for your new car purchase it will be labeled as a "Match" and your mind can focus on other, more important topics.
Such as...getting the very best deal for yourself!
Can you think of any times in your life when you might've had Location Anxiety about visiting a new place of business or even a someone's house?
