I hate to break the news to you, but your customers really don’t want to buy from you.
Just so you don’t get too upset, keep in mind that they don’t want to buy from your competitors either.
What is really disturbing is they haven’t wanted to buy from you for a long time. Problem is you and most other salespeople simply haven’t noticed.
The truth is that customers don’t want to buy anything. What they want to do, however, is invest.
Think about this: Why would anyone want to simply give money away? They wouldn’t, and yet that’s what “buying” is — it’s simply giving money away.
Customers are willing and want to invest. Customers will use their money to invest in anything, as long as they feel the benefit they’re going to receive is going to be greater than the amount of money.
Our goal as salespeople is to show our customers how the money we want them to give to us is a smart investment. To do this, we have to show them a value proposition they feel is sufficient enough.
This applies whether you’re in a B2B or B2C environment. Regardless, the philosophy is the same.
The key part is shaping the value proposition in a manner the customer will be able to see how their investment with you is going to return a satisfactory return on that investment.
To do this we must be engaging the customer, because it’s the customer’s definition of ROI that matters, not ours. When a sale is lost, it’s because of this one issue.
Shifting our focus as a salesperson from a selling approach to an investing approach is as much a mindset as it is specific steps. When we are racing to “sell” a customer, our mindset is on one thing — closing the sale. Conversely, when we are in the mode of getting the customer to invest with us, we become much more in tune to listening to what the customer is saying.
Your goal this week is to approach every sales call not as a sales call, but rather as a “customer investment call.” To achieve this means your focus must be on helping the customer understand the outcome they will gain.
It’s not your product features that are important. It’s the outcome the customer will receive that will determine the probability of them making an investment with you.
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.
One Response
Changing the word from ‘buy’ to ‘invest’ is a master stroke, Mark. If sales (i mean investment) teams, had that approach, I’m sure that their whole demeanour and attitude would change. They would be so much better on the phones and in meetings. Amazing how just the change of one word can have such an impact.
James