Understanding Why Prospects Buy (Part II)

By Kent Howell
 

In Part one we looked at "why" portion of the equation of why prospects buy, and why do they choose to buy from whom they buy. Now we're going to focus on the "who" part of equation.

Remember that we said that people buy for their reasons, not yours; and the best way for you to understand what their reasons are is to ask pertinent, effective, questions in a skillful way. You also need to be able to articulate the real, bottom-line benefits of your product or service so that they can see how it addresses their particular concerns.

Not surprisingly, the reasons that people buy from the salespeople that they do buy from is closely related to their reasons for buying. As much as many salespeople try to convince themselves of it, price is NOT usually the deciding factor. I'm not saying that price isn't an important element of the buying decision but in many, many cases the product or service a prospect purchased was not the one with the lowest price.

There's an old adage that most everyone has heard - " people buy from people". In the February newsletter I talked about building rapport with your prospects. If you remember, the essence of building rapport was based on talking with the prospect about himself, not about you.

To get people to open up to you, you have to express a genuine interest in them and their situation. This not only builds rapport but trust as well.

Here's the key takeaway: PEOPLE ONLY BUY FROM SOMEONE THEY TRUST.

So how do you build trust? By talking with the prospect about himself and his situation. And what's the best way to do that - pay attention now - to ask questions that specifically addresses the prospect's situation, business, or industry.

When youre meeting with a prospect, especially for the first time, very little of that time should be spent talking about you, your company, or your product or service. The overwhelming amount of time should be spent talking about the prospect, his company, their and the issues he's facing. This is done almost exclusively through good questions. This is also how, you find out what you might be able to do to help him solve any problems he may have.

This is not the time to be talking about everything to offer and how and why they should buy from you. If you haven't asked questions to understand what their issues are how you possibly know possible fit for your products or services with his needs?

Now let me be very clear about something. The type of questioning I'm talking about is very conversational, just like it would be with anyone you were meeting for the first time. I'm also NOT talking about manipulative questions or questions designed to elicit a desired answer. The flow of the questions follows from the answers, so do not try to work your way down a set list, just let the conversation go where it does, you can always come back to other questions you need to ask. Lastly, please make sure that you ask the questions is a way that doesn't have you come off soundling like a prosecuting attorney interrogating a witness.

The people that most of us consider to be the best conversationalists are not the ones with the best sense of humor or the ones who talk the most, but the ones who take a sincere interest in us and ask us about ourselves. Think about that and I'm sure you'll find that to be true in your own life as well.

So let's tie this all together.

People buy from people (not companies) - people that they like and trust. That trust is built by your genuine interest in them and helping them with their needs. And that like and trust comes from knowing and understanding them: and that knowledge comes from good questions.

The bottom line from this two-part series is that questions are the most important skill to both understanding your why your prospects buy and for building the trust that makes them want to buy specifically from you.

If you put your focus on the customer's needs and completely forget about your quota, your commission, and everything else that's centered on you and turn your energy back to your customer you'll be more successful.

There's an old adage that says if you help more people get what they want out of life you'll get more of what you want. I think that holds especially true when youre in professional sales.

A colleague of mine recommended an outstanding book about questions. It's titled "The Seven Powers of Questions" by Dorothy Leeds. I would suggest that your read it if you want to understand more about the area of questions and questioning skills

NOTE: A condensed version of both Part I and Part II of this article appeared in the May 04, 2007 Edition of Business Lexington.  Understanding why prospects buy