Have
you ever noticed that some buyers ( IT Managers, Procurement Managers or
end-users) always put price at the top
of their list when making buying decisions and others don't. They are more
interested in how you can help them.
Keith
Dugdale and David Lambert are co-authors of a book called "Smarter Selling" and
they have identified three types of buying behaviour. These are:
Price-busters: who care first, last and foremost about price.
Deal-hunters: who care about quality and choice but price is
still a deal maker or breaker.
Value-buyers: who
trust their supplier, assume that quality will be appropriate and care less
about what they have to pay.
I
think the authors make an excellent point. The more you talk about pricing, the
more you drive people to make decisions based on pricing and encourage
Price-busters or Deal-hunters type behaviour.
There
are three common ways in which organizations drive their customers to focus on
price:
1. They promote price as their number one differentiator or promote
the "latest offer".
2. Their marketing focuses on product offering and features, rather
than how it can help their customers. The longer the list of features, the more
likely a customer will think that the offering may be over-priced, or that it
suffers from being a "jack of all trades" but "master of none".
3. The sales people are trained in product features and therefore
more comfortable talking about products rather than asking questions about what
would help their customers.
The
aim however, is to attract Value-buyers by building personal trust. As trust
builds, buyers will start to focus less on price and start to see value for the
price they pay.
Building
a high level of trust can happen quickly and effectively. If the salesperson
has the intent to help, as opposed to sell, and from the first word
demonstrates that they are there to help, then a level of trust can be built in
minutes.
Value-buyers
seek help, and look for opportunities to refer their trusted partner to colleagues
and broader business contacts.
So
how do organizations and salespeople move their customers from Price-busters
and Deal-hunters to Value-buyers?
1. Explain to the customers that your intention is to ensure they
get value of out the sales discussion itself (as well as from the actual
offering). Tell true stories to demonstrate how your offering benefits buyers.
2. Offer the customer an opportunity to change the conversation's
direction even when the salesperson sees an opportunity to close. Develop an
engaging process that genuinely helps the customer identify, understand and
prioritize the desired outcomes.
3. Listen carefully to the words and structure of what the customer
says and then adapt your language patterns accordingly. Read behaviour and
adapt your own in order to make the customer feel comfortable when talking to
the sales person.
Of course, there is an element of personal risk involved in
doing any of the above. Here's why. If you rely on product or price to sell and
the customer decides they don't want to buy, then the salesperson can attribute
the decision to product or price. If however the salesperson is selling
themselves and their ability to build trust then, if the customer decides not
to buy, the salesperson may feel that they failed personally.
The good news is that where these skills are developed and
aligned to the customer, their loyalty increases, spend rises and they
recommend you to friends and colleagues. Now surely that is worth the risk !!
Return to Archive
INFLUENCE
Note from Wanda
