Had a great conversation with a sales consultant colleague of mine today. He has discovered that lots of professionals hurt how they SELL their services because of the way they BUY goods and services. Check it out….
Suppose you are extremely skeptical and suspicious when you buy. Further suppose you take a long time to make up your mind, and shop around for the best price. You might assume others buy like you do, even though plenty of people buy quickly and don’t shop around for the bottom dollar price. Therefore, you might give more information than people need to make a decision, and even hurt yourself by giving too much information or by not appearing enthusiastic enough to those ready to buy.
On the other hand, suppose you buy on impulse, going on first impressions and not spending time searching for the best bargain. Well, you might get impatient with people who need to be reassured and like lots of facts and figures.
The best way around this potential problem? Get good at assessing your prospects. Don’t read their minds or make assumptions about what they are thinking or how they will buy. Instead, ask open ended questions and find out! Get good at reading different types of buyers.
So, what type of buyer are you? Take a look as the holiday shopping season approaches for many of you. Think about how you buy, and how that might hurt how you sell.
Interesting stuff, no?
Related posts:
- Introducing Flippa: The New Place to Buy and Sell Web Sites The developers here have been quietly working on a brand...
- How to Sell Statistics to Clients Craig explains how your company could gain a competitive advantage...
- You Want To Pay Me What? How Lowering Your Rates Can Hurt Your Business Do you change your rates based on what a new...
- 6 Reasons to Buy a Netbook If you consider netbooks to be under-powered devices only suitable...
- Microsoft Should Buy Palm, Not Yahoo! Microsoft is a software company, so why are they trying...
I’m extremely skeptical when I buy anything and look into it and want a lot of information on it, especially with anything online.
I see how this could effect me, good entry. I’ll have to look into improving how I sell things.
November 23rd, 2004 at 8:30 pm
Good observation! I am both a frugal shopper and an impulsive shopaholic. Strange combo. I save my money and shop around for the most part, but on ocassion blow my dough on something based purely upon emotion! :)
November 23rd, 2004 at 8:51 pm
Interesting angle. I too save my money and do a lot of reseaching on the web before I buy (depends on item of course), but ocassionally I just getthis crazy “love at first sight feeling” and buy off the shelf without even reasoning :)
November 24th, 2004 at 12:13 am
Quite true, and really no different from the way everybody imagines themselves as ‘the user’ when working on websites. Everybody thinks that how they act is how everybody acts online, and therefore what they don’t like is wrong for everyone.
The answer is the same too – know your customer.
November 24th, 2004 at 4:59 am
me too!
depending on what i’m buying i can spend days/weeks doing research online
but other times i can go crazy.
this is a great post – will put into action today!
November 24th, 2004 at 5:59 am
Not me. I buy everything on impulse. If it catches my eye, it’s mine. Occassionally I go crazy though and do some research and find the best product for what I need.
November 24th, 2004 at 9:01 am
I think there are too many factors to the problem.
A. Trust:
1) There’s visual trust – how professional and appealing the selling site is. How many times have you found the low price but the site is poorly designed and you move on?
2) There’s reported trust – the seller has many testimonies and comments from buyer that builds your trust – like eBay.
3) There’s a ring of trust – I trust you so I buy from what you recommend.
C. Content:
1) How much information is posted about the products?
2) Can the site tell you more that another site?
D. Security:
1) How safe do you feel buying from that site?
B. Price:
1) Does low price always win? Why do you buy from comeone like Amazon at a higher price rather than a small company?
November 24th, 2004 at 10:28 am
If its cheap, I’m impulsive. Anything (almost) over $100 and I do tons of research before buying. By the time I go shopping I know exactly what brand, model, and even year I want. On the other hand, other things only take me a couple of positive comments by different people to make me buy the item.
You should definately be asking questions about your customer’s needs. But knowing exactly what to say is just going to take experience.
November 24th, 2004 at 1:43 pm
Very interesting! I always assume I was the buyer to evaluate the products and price.
November 24th, 2004 at 11:19 pm
I always do research and ask around, but when it comes to the actual buying, all that research goes down the drain.
November 25th, 2004 at 3:22 am
Sounds pretty close to something Zig Ziglar said. Basically, become an expert at reading your prospects personallity type…and then talk to them like they want to be talked to! Sounds simple, but it’s amazing how easy it is for us to talk to others the way WE want to be talked to. Every once and a while we’ll get lucky that way and come across someone who likes to be talked to the same way we like to talk. Am I talking in circles right now?
November 26th, 2004 at 9:59 am
great insight
November 28th, 2004 at 5:24 am