A trusted mentor once said to me in the early stages of my career, that if I did not understand and get the message that all buying is psychological/emotional, then I would never be good at selling. It took me a while for the penny to drop and, I can assure you, once I got it, I saw it everywhere. In the last blog, we spoke about how important listening is. We listen actively and incisively to watch what the person is saying because we want to establish if the prospect is feeling any way dissatisfied with their current offering.
So what are these psychological and emotional triggers that will get your prospect to say "yes"? It is said that the reason anybody buys or rents anything, is:
1. desire for gain or benefit...and/or
2. fear of loss/losing out
Think about that for the moment.
In particular, think about some of your recent purchases. Suppose it was some clothing where you wanted to look your best or impress someone or just feel good about yourself. What psychological and emotional thoughts went through your head? I guarantee at some point when you found that beautiful piece of clothing that looked really good on you, you thought that this ticked box number one above, in other words, this satisfies my desire for gain and benefit.
Then a counter argument may have came into the decision-making. Ouch!... perhaps when you saw the price. Then the voice in your head says "if you don't buy this, you are going to lose out". Bingo! Box 2 above, is being ticked. Will I, won't I? You know how it goes. In the end you buy it because the desire for gain and the fear of losing out are overwhelming.
Now put yourself in the shoes of your prospects and the product/service with which you are trying to impress them. Have you painted pictures in their heads with your questions? We all think in pictures, don't we? If so, your job is to paint pictures in your prospects heads by emphasising the improvement that they are going to possess when they take your product/service on board.
Let's face it, everybody is only thinking about themselves. You could say that they are actually preoccupied with their favourite subject...themselves! Once you understand that, everything else falls into place in the sales process. People love talking about themselves; so, if they do, get on board with them.
These are the people that are going to feed you and your family and anybody that does that for me, I'm going to listen, listen and listen more, until such time I know exactly what these prospects want, they need, they can use and afford.
This is actually detective work! I used to love Colombo, remembered him...Peter Falk , the actor, played this detective. Look it up. It's a gas! You know, that moment and part when the murderer eventually reveals him or herself? It's exciting, yes! Selling is really no different.
You may ask a question and it can be the trigger or button, where the prospect truly reveals the desire for gain. In other words, what do they feel and think they are going to benefit by, when they take your product/service on board. Nobody has ever sold anything of worth unless they have been able to reveal this in a consultative selling process.
So how good are you at this aspect of the sales journey? If you can gather the facts about why others may have bought this particular product/service, then you have a far better chance of directing the conversation to those, what we might call, triggers or hot buttons. It is all about the needs of the customer, it is grounded in their desires, in their fears, in their hopes, dreams and aspirations.
Therefore, it is up to you and only you, to be brilliant at this particular aspect of the process. Why would your customers be better off dealing with you? After all, the world of sales is changing so rapidly with competition, technology and information, that nothing is certain, any more. It is up to you, therefore, to know your product cold!
What I mean by cold, is that if somebody woke you up in the middle of the night from a deep sleep, and asked you about the benefits of your product/service, you would be able to rattle them off instantaneously. Could you do that now? Could you actually write down immediately, the top five reasons or ways that your customer would benefit, and therefore be better off by purchasing your product/service?
Here, I'll make it easy for you. Complete this now!
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Once done, get out amongst your prospects and start testing this approach. You won't regret it!
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