When to TELL Customers to Buy

I'm a big believer in discovering needs and desires that lie within the hearts and minds of our prospects. This is a underdeveloped skill in many sales practitioners in the B2C arena. Virtually anybody can improve their sales by doing a better job of truly understanding prospects needs.

The information we learn during a needs and desires investigation becomes the basis for our product recommendations and our sales presentation. The best people in our profession don't merely give generic presentations to their prospects, they tailor their presentations to the specific needs and situations of their prospects.

And I'm a big believer in closing skills. There are many who could improve their sales performance in the business-to-consumer area simply by understanding how to move a conversation from the theoretical to the actual, i.e. how to get the product or service we sell into the lives of our prospects.

But sometimes the best approach to improving sales with a certain group of prospects is to tell them to buy.

This group of prospects tend to be followers, not leaders. They are pleasers. They are easily confused. They often tend towards being introverted, but not always. They look to others for information. They are highly trusting and often very intuitive.

They are prone to wanting (or actually needing) to "think about" a purchase. They may not feel like they deserve a new kitchen, a new purse, or a new car, even though they may realize that they may need one. Sometimes this group of prospects have lives that are in a bit of disarray, and stress is sometimes a factor.

For these prospects, sometimes the best approach can be to tell them what to do. Here are some examples (but please keep in mind that the following statements or questions occur well after rapport has been developed, and after lots of conversation):

"Linda, you need this widget. You know it and I know it. Let's go ahead and get one for you."

or

"Travis, I want you to own this widget and have the benefits of it, so I want you to buy it. Agree?"

or

"Yikes! If anybody I've ever worked with needs a widget, you certainly do. From what you've shared with me, you are exactly the type of individual this widget was made for. You understand that, right?"

or

"Dude, you have got to buy this right now! Here, I'm going to enter the order for you."

I realize that these can sound somewhat harsh without the context of the surrounding conversation. And you certainly don't want to be throwing around these tactics with just any prospect. But when you find a prospect that needs (or wants) to be told what to do, TELL THEM!

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Comments

[Patrick Ahern]

"Help me, help you."

"Show me the money."

"What's it going to take to get you into (insert product) today?"

...

I appreciate the context for the post, but be careful how it might be interpreted by myopic sales folk. Telling someone to buy could be the kiss of death to the sale. As Stephen Covey points out in the Speed of Trust, if you don't have character and competence, you have no trust, and ultimately no sale. If "telling the customer to buy" is not delivered properly and at the right time, all trust will be gone.

[Skip Anderson]

You're absolutely correct, Patrick, telling someone to buy COULD be the kiss of death to a sale. And not doing it could be the kiss of death, too. And I agree that "telling the customer to buy" must be delivered properly and only at the right time (and, as I point out in the post, with the right prospects) in order not damage trust.

Telling [the right prospect] to buy isn't necessarily antithetical to the concept of trust or having character or competence. In fact, using this tactic could be indicative of a salesperson who is excellent at building trust, has character of the highest quality, and is enveloped in competence.

Hopefully, sales rep readers of the 400+ posts of this blog are those who are anything but myopic...

Thank you for your comments Patrick.

[r4 dsi]

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