One of my greatest mentors in my life was the late Linda Martin, founder of Resource Associates Corporation. Linda said that "people don't like to be sold....but they love to buy." Truer words have never been spoken.
Today's buyers are more educated, informed and have more options than ever before. While no two prospects are alike, there are similarities in the buying process that most people go through when buying anything. It is imperative that you understand the psychology of the buying process in order to position yourself for the best possible outcome with your clients and prospects.
A successful sales process can enhance your ability to gain favorable attention, discover needs, get a positive decision, and develop long term relationships with your customers.
THE BUYING PROCESS
More and more the determining factor in why a prospect buys is not the product or even service superiority (although we should not discount these things!), but the salesperson's ability to satisfy those needs better than anyone else. Today's seller's are not selling...they are helping their prospects and clients to buy. Moreover, people are buying because of very specific reasons including YOU, your company, your product/service, price and time.
WHY DO PEOPLE BUY?
People buy either to gain a benefit, avoid a loss, or to solve a problem. They buy to gain money, save money, or avoid the loss of money. Needs and wants fall into all kinds of categories with varying degrees of desire.
Your ability to ask questions and listen to the answers for both verbal and nonverbal messages will pay rich dividends in this critical buying factor. What your prospects tell you they want is very important. Why they want and what they want is even more important. The more a want becomes recognized as a need, and the more a need becomes wanted, the higher the level of desire.
DECISION MAKING
The next step in the process is deciding whether your product or service is the best choice to satisfy their needs. Some of the questions you are likely to hear are:
- What will your product or service do for me?
- What has it done for others?
- Why should I buy it from you versus your competitor?
- How does it help me satisfy my needs and wants, and why is that important?
The next question is what is the right time to take action?
- Is this the right time of the year?
- How does it fall against the budget year?
- Does this mesh well with our other initiatives right now?
- These questions must be answered before the client will be ready to buy.
Next week, we'll continue on with a discussion about the selling process. You will learn that the "art of sales" is really a process and must be followed if you expect a predictable result.
Have a Great Week!
Jerry
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