We’ve all had customers who are on the verge of buying, and then suddenly for one reason or another, they decide to wait.
The excuse they use might be real or it might be bogus, but the effect is the same — no sale now!
Being able to overcome this buying situation is important. Knowing how can make a huge impact not only on what you make today, but also on what you make long-term.
When a sale slows, the risk of it never happening becomes more and more real. First issue is in knowing if the reason is real or nothing but smoke.
Many times the reason is merely smoke, because you haven’t given the customer enough of a reason to buy now. Put another way — the customer doesn’t see the value they need to offset the price you’re asking.
Your response needs to be geared toward helping the customer see the value, and you do this best by linking together the solution they’re looking for with the element of time.
Beauty of this is time has a cost associated with it, and what you’re showing the customer is how the benefit they want (or the pain they want to eliminate) is not going to occur. In fact, the delay is going to make it worse!
Example I like to use when working with clients is the example of the salesperson selling new software to the IT department that would rather delay the decision.
The key for the salesperson is to not be distracted by the price, which is the tendency, but rather to focus on the outcome the IT department wants. Key is to tie the investment to the outcome they need long-term and the cost they will incur by not making the investment now.
Notice how I’m saying “investment” and not “purchase”? This is intentional, because when we get the customer looking at what we’re asking them to do as an investment, it becomes easier for them to see the outcome / benefit they are expecting to achieve.
Your solution lies in making the customer realize a delay will actually cost them more due to the outcome / benefit they will not be able to achieve.
A key reason I advocate this approach is because it doesn’t play games with the customer about how they need to order now to get the best price or buy now due to limited quantities. This approach is so overworked and unless it is 100% real, the customer will see through it and all of your integrity will be lost.
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
