Why do people buy our products and services?
C.J. Hayden, a contributing editor to Rain Today and the author of Get Clients Now! offers four reasons in a recent article. (By the way, her contributions are great, and Rain Today in general has excellent content about sales and marketing.) Even if you’re not sure you’re in sales—and ultimately, we all are—I think you may find her thoughts helpful:
1. They like you – Trust is a big factor, too. And it helps if potential customers know you or know of you. So network a lot and ask for referrals from satisfied customers. Hayden also mentions public speaking, but many of us are not quite there yet. In building my copywriting business, I’ve found networking invaluable and referrals to be like platinum.
2. You have what they need – Do they understand what you’re offering? “Do they grasp the benefits of working with you?” Hayden suggests that you ask prospects a lot of questions. The rationale being that the more you know about them, the more easily you can explain how you can help.
3. You help them justify purchasing your products or services – Everyone must justify a potential purchase to someone, whether husband, wife, or manager. Give prospects the information and language they need to persuade others.
4. Your price is right – If you’ve done steps 1 through 3 well, then, according to Hayden, “the only significant issues about the price is whether they can find the money.” You can suggest that prospects compare the cost of hiring you to the cost of doing nothing, or you might mention how using your services might reduce other expenses. You might offer a payment plan or suggest that your prospect identify a budget category with unused funds.
I like the idea of viewing sales as a series of orderly steps. Demystifying the process can make it a lot less scary and may even have the potential to add enjoyment we hadn’t expected to our business-building interactions.
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