Appealing to Buyers

What do they demand from salespeople? The answers come down to three discernible behaviors:

Countless studies have addressed the central question of sales -- why do buyer buy? How do customers make decisions? What do they demand from salespeople? The answers come down to three discernible behaviors:

• Believing in your position
• Empathy
• Trust

People buy from people who know their stuff. If the salesperson can’t consistently demonstrate that he or she knows what they are talking about, it becomes almost impossible to buy from them.

Put yourself in the buying role. You want to buy a new refrigerator, but the salesperson just can’t explain why model A is better for you than model B. Chances are that you’ll be shut down as a customer; in fact, you’ll probably want to leave and go to a different store.

Knowing what you sell inside-out is a given, but your credibility extends far beyond product knowledge. You must become familiar with your customer’s business, competitors, industry, and marketplace. You need to be well prepared. It’s not hard -- almost everything you need to know about your customers and markets is readily available online.

ACTION POINT: Evaluate how much you really know about your product, customer, competitor, industry and marketplace.