Do you think about how your customers buy when you sell? Your selling will improve when you consider their buying process.
Learn what your prospect doesn’t know.
There’s often a learning process involved when you buy something new. Think of a television today. There are all kinds of variables to consider when you buy a TV.
Your might consider the size of the viewing room. Perhaps the number of peripherals you have is important because you have to have the right ports and the numbers to meet your needs. You want to learn about the sound system of the television or a sound bar if sound is important to you.
You may not even know about 3G versus 4G and if you should even care. What you don’t know as a buyer is what should be top of mind for a seller. Do you know what your prospects know about your products and services so they can make an excellent buying decision and select you over your competitors?
Your questioning strategy should include uncovering your prospect’s knowledge level. Your prospect will be unable to select you unless your prospect has a basic understanding of what you offer.
Find out what’s important.
Some features and benefits are more important to you than others when you make a buying decision. Your television clarity might not be as important to you if the television is going into a small room. Whether you have great clarity at 8 feet from the television won’t really matter if the viewers can only be 4 feet from the television.
Ask your prospects about how they are going to make their buying decision. That will tell you what is important to them. You can ask about their process for deciding once you introduce the different variables they might consider as they buy.
Just be sure you don’t assume you understand what’s important to them. You must ask them specifically so they confirm to you what is important. You might say, “I hear you telling me that the room for this television is small so you really don’t need to pay more for greater clarity in a more expensive television. Is that right?”
Help them make a great buying decision.
Buyers remorse is a very real issue. It happens when the seller doesn’t fully explain what is going to happen after the buyer buys and experiences the product or service for himself. What happens if the buyer decides to move the television to a different location in the room? Now the viewing angle changes and it’s a different viewing experience that’s more unsatisfactory.
Your job as a seller includes anticipating how your customer’s needs could change over time if you want to create a long-term customer relationship. Not only do you avoid creating buyer’s remorse when you anticipate how your customer’s needs could change, you become the top of mind seller when his needs actually do change. You make another sale.
You’ve probably heard the expression “Great minds think alike.” They do when sellers think like buyers. Sellers sell more, too.