Buyers have Fears
I think that the biggest part of sales is building trust and alleviating your prospects fears. Once you take away all of your potential customers objections which are usually a result of a fear, you can then start the closing process. If you do not address these fears you always hit a roadblock and you will never win the business. The first step is to realize what fears your customers may have. In Tom Hopkins audio book called Mastering the Art of Selling, Tom describes eight fears that customers have that you must overcome or address in your presentation or in your discussions with a potential customer. These fears are as follows:
1. Customers fear you because they are afraid of being sold. To overcome this you must position yourself as an advisor or a consultant instead of a salesman. You need to make them like you. Once they like you they will trust you and then most importantly they will listen to you.
2. Customers fear making a mistake. This must be addressed in your presentation and show them that they are making the best decision for themselves and their business by purchasing your product or service
3. The fear of being lied to. Almost every customer you encounter has been lied to by a sales rep in the past. It is important that you be honest and truthful in every aspect of your relationship with the customer.
4. The Fear of losing face in front of their peers. It is important that you make everyone at the meeting feel important. Be empathetic to everyone at the meeting. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes
5. Fear of the unknown. You must educate the customer on the benefits of your product or service in your presentation.
6. Fear of taking a risk. This is especially true if you are an unknown or a working for a relatively new company or have a new product.
7. Fear of prejudice from a past experience or a third party. This one is hard to explain and overcome. Your customer might have a parent or friend that has been telling them since they were born not to do something. This will affect their buying decision.
8. Fear of the words you say. The words that you choose to use can have a positive or a negative affect on a customer. I have listed some of these words in my previous blog titled ‘8 Words that Should Never Be Used When Talking to a Prospect’.
March 16, 2007 at 9:09 am
INteresting ideas. Typically, sales is approached from the point of view of the fear of the salesperson, not the buyer. It is extremely relevant though, and I have watched people talk themselves out of sales in the past just by waffling on and introducing new ideas to the client that had not been considered and increased nervousness enough for them to back out of the purchase.
One way to avoid this is to get under the skin of the client really early on and find out what their real drivers are. Often the real drivers are very different from the reasons they tell you. If you can find out what they are, show that your solution will solve an issue or create more opportunity for them and has a solid return on the investment, a client will have no reason to say no.
It also means that you will have no qualms about pushing them for a ‘yes’, as you already know that the benefits for them will outweigh their cost.
March 16, 2007 at 1:39 pm
mbsprogress,
Thanks for commenting on my blog article. I call the style you are refering to as solution base selling and I completely agree with what you are saying. You need to ‘get under your customer’s skin’. Asking the right probing questions will not only help you find out what the real drivers are but will foster trust and show your empathy towards their situation. When this occurs there is a natural flow in the sales process which once you have uncovered the real objections will naturally flow to the customer asking the right ‘buy’ questions and for you to close the deal.
Regards,
Joe