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Practical Help to Grow Your Business
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Whenever I Feel Afraid
Do People Enjoy Buying?
People, we are told, don't enjoy being sold to. But do they enjoy buying either?
Before you make a purchase there is some amount of 'research' to be done, even if it's just to check there is still stock and the price is still the same. In more complex scenarios this research might well be an enjoyable part of the buying process. And after you've taken delivery of the item, there's value and enjoyment to be had - presuming you are pleased with your purchase. But neither of these is 'buying'.
Signing a hire-purchase agreement is an example of buying, but is committing to pay several hundred pounds a month for several years actually enjoyable? Or is it just a necessary and slightly scary part of the process? And for 'scary' read 'fearsome'.
“Is what's enjoyable, buying?
Is what's buying, enjoyable?”
Buyers' Fears
Buyers of all sorts have fears about the purchases they make.
Misunderstanding or even missing these fears can be a huge barrier to making a sale, but the solution is not to find ways round these fears. It is to confront them in ways that prevent them from occurring.
The experts claim there are four types of purchasing fear.
“There are four types of fear”
Paying too much
None of us want to get taken for a ride, but we are all probably happy to make an investment in order to realise a much larger return. Helping the customer to identify for themselves the huge return on investment that they will make by buying your offering will severely reduce this fear.
Buying a 'pup'
Neither do any of us want to buy something only to discover later that it doesn't deliver what we'd hoped. Helping the customer to rapidly build trust in you and your product or service via your knowledge of the components of trust, will go a long way to reducing this fear.
What will others think?
Every time we purchase anything we put our reputation on the line. Helping the customer (rightly) to be aware that they are paying a reasonable price for a product or service that will deliver the expected value, minimises the risk to their reputation.
Fear of change
As an intelligent species we have had to evolve the ability to do some things without thinking too hard about them. To achieve this we have to practise, and in doing so we expect the world to behave in the same way every time. The result of this is that we are more comfortable with consistency than change. But many purchasing decisions precipitate change, so our inbuilt conservatism can also be a barrier to buying.
This means you will need to build reassurance into your sales process, but what good ways are there of doing this? Just saying, "Don't worry. I'm sure everything will be fine," might not be enough.
“You will need to build
reassurance into your sales
process”
Help Them Reassure Themselves
If this fear is coming from the trust and credibility direction, you may feel that testimonials, case studies and guarantees would be useful, and they can be, but they all have you trying to broadcast reassurance to the customer.
If you can help the customer reassure themselves, it is likely to be far more effective, so you need to get the customer thinking about the issues for themselves. As I said earlier, rather than sweep them under the carpet, sidestep them or just pray that they won't come up, be the first to acknowledge them!
By 'naming the elephants in the room' you not only get the customers to address the issues for themselves, but also by being prepared to jeopardise your own sale, you add to the perceived confidence you have in your own product or service. Add to this your immense knowledge of the 'right questions' which enable the customer to help themselves and you will go a long way towards removing these barriers to a sale.
“By ‘naming the elephants in the
room’ you not only get the
customers to address the
issues for themselves”
 
Copyright ©2011 David Winch
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