Educating the Buyer

Educating the Buyer
Tags: Consumer Behavior, Customer Experience, Marketing, Psychology
January 10, 2011

If you want leverage in a sales call...

...quit selling and start assessing.

Salespeople often relinquish the decision making process to the buyer in a sales situation. How? By allowing buyers to operate under the perception that they are making the final decision. That shouldn’t be the case.

Instead we, as sellers, ought to be telling prospects what we’re looking for in our customers so that the decision to move forward is a joint decision of the buyer and seller. Here’s how it works in my business.

I’ve discovered that my clients and I enjoy our greatest success when my customers are:

Honest - in particular, honest with themselves about what they’re good at and where they need help
Confident - people who are confident in their own abilities are more open to new ideas and they make decisions more quickly
Results oriented - I care less about the magnitude of the results they’ve gotten than the fact that they have gotten them. My job is to help them get better results.
Action oriented - If they hear or see something that makes sense to them they’re off and running with the idea

At some point in the sales call I’ll say “My experience has been that my clients and I enjoy our greatest success when...(I list the four criteria above).” I can’t tell you how often I’ve had prospects ask “Do I qualify?” Talk about changing the dynamics of the sales call!

The prospect learns that they aren’t the only ones who are involved in the decision. That I am evaluating them as a prospective client as much as they are evaluating me. That’s as it should be; it should be a joint decision.

It’s counter-intuitive, but the key to closing more sales quickly is letting buyers know that they aren’t in control of the decision-making process.