Why They Buy--Part 2

In Part 1 I challenged you to think seriously about why your customers buy from you. I hope that I convinced you that understanding the mind and motivation of your customer is far more important than mastering "sales techniques." As we so often tell our consulting clients, "if you want to know why John Smith buys, you have to see the world through John Smith's eyes!"

In this post I want to share some common answers we've gleaned from our clients customers in the past. These responses came from all categories of business: professional service providers, mass retailers, direct sales, specialty retail, wholesale to business, wholesale to consumer. These are not isolated responses from customers that are unlike your customers. What I want you to see is that these are customers exactly like yours. Except for the first one, these responses are in no particular order. I'll elaborate on this first one, because it is so critical to your success.

1. I like my sales rep.

"Liking" is the single most powerful element in a sales relationship. I know that there are sales gurus out there who preach that your customer doesn't have to like you, just respect you. BUNK! People do not want to associate with, let alone have a business relationship with, someone they don't like. So unless you are the only person in your market area, or in the entire universe of the internet, that has your product or service (and we know that is not true!) then establishing a personal connection with your prospect is critically important.

Here's the formula: Like leads to trust. Trust leads to buying. Buying leads to relationship.

Let me share a personal example. I've travelled extensively in Central Asia, China, and Sub-Saharan Africa developing micro enterprise programs at the village level for several NGO's. When you get outside of America there is a dynamic to the sales process that is quite different from what we do here. Our focus is always getting to the bottom line quickly. "you need this widget, I have it, here's what it costs, I can have it here on this day, let's get it done."

Not true in the rest of the world. There is a process to the sales cycle that is consistent regardless of country or culture. First, we are introduced to the village elders. They take time, several hours, to show us around their village. We might stop at someone's home for a cup of tea a biscuit, and more conversation. Eventually we arrive at an elders home for a formal meal attended by all the village leaders, the Imam of the local mosque, and we "visitors from America." During the meal we talk about our homes and families. I always travel with photos of my wife and children and places we have visited. They share about their lives and what is going on in their village and region. This meal can go on for five or six hours. At the end, if things have gone well, we'll be invited to spend the night in the village and get together the next day to talk further.

What is going on here? We are working on "like."

Now your challenge with your customers is certainly more simple. You will not often be communicating through interpreters and crossing several cultural bridges in your selling situations. But the initial challenge is exactly the same: working on "like." No "like," no business.

2. I believe my sales rep.
3. I trust my sales rep.
4. I have confidence in my sales rep.
5. I am comfortable with my sales rep.
6. I understand what I'm buying.
7. I feel that the product/service meets a need I have.
8. The price seems fair, but is not necessarily the lowest.
9. I believe that this product/service will increase my productivity.
10. I believe that this product/servie will increase my profit.
11. I perceive that my salesperson is trying to help me build my business.

Remember, these are the answers most often given to the basic question: why do you do business with the salesperson/company that you buy from? Did you notice something curious? No where in these top answers do you find, "they're the cheapest." Too often we leap to the assumption that price is the only component we can compete on.

Concentrate on building a relationship with your prospects, focus on "like," and sales will follow.

Why They Buy

Most sales people, and all sales managers, spend thousands of hours studying how to sell. We attend seminars, our companies bring in expert consultants, we read marketing strategy books; all focused on how to sell.

This is a colossal waste of time!

Why? Let me briefly answer by suggesting some "selling" situation you are experiencing:

1. you are asked to send a bid or proposal
2. you get price objections
3. your prospect doesn't return calls
4. they claim to be happy with their current supplier
5. the economy is slow and no one is buying

Any of these sound familiar? Of course they do, particularly if you are focused on selling techniques as you go about your business. My personal opinion is that most of the authors of selling strategy books are much better writers than they are sales people.

So what's the alternative?

One of the first questions we ask our consulting clients is, "why do your customers buy from you?" I can tell you that 100% of the answers when we pose this question for the first time to a client are a variety of platitudes that reflect the client's belief about their own business and it's superiority to the competition. Every answer is an "I" or "we" statement; none demonstrate even the most basic understanding of the customer. Why? BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEVER ASKED THE CUSTOMER!

In future posts I'll take you through at least a dozen good, specific, reasons why customers buy from one company over another. For now, I want to suggest that you ask yourself the question. "Why do my customers buy from me?" But I'm not going to let you off the hook by answering with the typical platitudes that I know you'll come up with. Instead, I want to challenge you to do a simple exercise in the next two weeks. If you do this, I guarantee you will be able to answer the question with honest, relevant, data that will help you grow your business. Here's the process:

1. contact six of your best customers
2. invite them to a seminar about how to build THEIR business
3. offer GREAT food
4. let them know that there will be a 15-20 minute question and answer session where you are going to be asking them questions about how to strengthen your relationship.
5. carefully create six questions focused on what they look for in a vendor/partner and how you meet their needs. These are not self serving questions where you look for complements. You want to know what they want/need! If you've done this correctly, some of them will be frank with you about where you come up short. THIS IS GOOD!
6. record the session. Audio is OK, video is better. Then listen/watch the recording at least 50 times!

OK, having trouble getting started? Here's a few generic questions that you can edit for use in your business:

1. what would you like to see in a rep? and why?
2. what leads to trust for you?
3. how important is the responsiveness of the sales rep/company in your decision making?
4. what is the $ impact for you/your business on having a partner vs a vendor relationship?

Get the idea? Good. Now go for it!