Article #1: Increase Sales with Less Effort
Increase Sales with Less Effort
A simple way to boost your sales is to understand what motivates your customer or client to buy. Understanding what triggers a person's unconscious desire to buy can increase your sales conversion by up to 80 percent, turning many "on the fence" prospects into satisfied, paying clients or customers.
The Focus on Buyers
Buyers have specific personal needs when they are making a purchasing decision. The "needs" to which I am referring are unrelated to the product or service they are buying. The "need" is related to the person's character and if you can match the content of your presentation to their specific need, you will greatly increase the possibility of them buying from you.
Psychographics is the science that refers to personality and emotionally based behavior linked to purchase choices; for example, whether customers are risk-takers or risk-avoiders; whether they are impulsive buyers or buyers who need to do lengthy research before making a decision.
If you can determine or even guess their dominate personality type, you'll have a better chance of knowing what you can best say to "trigger" their subconscious gratification need and move them closer to making a purchase decision from you.
- Risk Taking men and women are very social and outgoing. They like to engage with sales people and are also looking for the "latest and greatest" in products, often willing to pay more to get it. Although they may not want to admit it, they are often driven to make an impression on others and like the status or reputation they gain from purchasing a certain type of product or service.
- Risk Avoiding people would rather visit your website than engage with a sales person. They really mean it when they say; "Send me some information", because they will take the time to read and analyze the materials. They are interested in value and need to feel gratification from researching and being sure they've made the right decision.
- The Researchers usually need to speak with a sales person and to receive and review information. They'll want to make sure that both the product they're buying and the experience of buying it feels good to them. They are rarely spontaneous in their decision making process. In addition, they'll need clear assurance that all of their needs will be met, now and in the future, and they'll want time to consider their decision.
- The Impulsive person will ask few questions and they want to get right to the point. They want straight answers. If you attempt to dance around their question or fail to answer it, you'll lose their trust which is often all they need to base a buying decision.
Your Turn to Try It Out
Let's see if you can identify where a sales person recently missed an opportunity to sell me a television.
Several weeks ago, I went to an electronics store to purchase a new TV. I visited a higher-end franchise where I'd always been impressed by the number of sales people available and the quality of their products.
Knowing just this about me, would you say I was:
a) Risk Taker
b) Risk Avoider
c) Researcher
d) Impulsive
I spoke to two sales people at two stores before purchasing a TV. One filled me with information on refresh rates and the store's payment plan. The other - the one who sold me the TV - wowed me with his excitement about the TV's cutting-edge features.
Take a look at your own customers. Do they predominantly fit one of these personality types? If so, make sure you appeal to their Psychographic Trigger. If they don't fit one personality category, be prepared with one or two opening questions that can help you determine their "type" on the spot. Then, have three or four different presentations (according to type) ready to deliver and watch your sales soar!
At BDC, one of our services is to work with business owners, managers and sales teams to examine their target buyers and establish practices and presentations that turn prospects into customers, consistently increasing sales conversion and revenue predictability. If you'd like customized advice on applying the three keys to your sales process, you can find us on-line at http://www.businessdesigncorp.com// or you can call us directly at (888) 522-2325 or click here for our mailing address.