Diving Into the Mind of Your Buyer Could Bring More Sales

Michele Warg
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Exploring your buyer's mind serves one very important function as you try to improve your sales. You see precisely how your product or service solves your prospect's problem. Without this insight, all you do is deliver a sales pitch. According to Forrester, as many as 73 percent of all salespeople come across as simply selling a product rather than solving a problem. Follow these three steps to land more sales by delivering unique solutions.

1. Learn the Buyer's Perspective

Spend enough quality time with a prospect to get inside your buyer's mind. It takes more than just knowing the person's family life, hobbies or college education. Instead, focus on how his everyday operations work. Are there any repeated points that keep coming up as a possible solution that the prospect needs?

For example, your prospect states he's having trouble automating certain aspects of his customer service as he's trying to save money on staffing due to enormous amounts of time tracking down customer issues. Take notes on that problem and come up with a solution, especially if you sell automation software. Further down the sales funnel, use the major pain point to create a solid sales proposal for a potential buyer. The proposal should include strong data points, technology and interaction to win over the customer.

Getting inside the buyer's mind may not happen in one phone conversation or an email. That's why you need regular contact with a prospect. Plus, weekly emails give you insight into a buyer's routine at the company.

2. Serve, Don't Sell

A buyer's mind doesn't want to think you're selling something. Rather, you're serving a customer to solve a problem. Take the financial considerations out of the sale for the moment. Add value to your products and services. Make the buyer think he can't live without your product or service, which makes what you have invaluable and priceless.

Your solution must help the buyer do his job better, make his life easier and make his company earn more profits. His customers benefit, and he looks like a genius for making his company better at what it does.

3. Develop a Continuing Relationship

The phrase "service after the sale" isn't just a cliché, it's good business sense. Ask about your customer's bottom line after he utilizes your product or service for weeks and months after the sale. This keeps your company fresh in the buyer's mind, and it could lead to more sales later. Does the customer need more of your product or service? Did you and the customer reach your goals with the product or service you sold?

Getting feedback from the client gives you a chance to improve your product or service over time. It can also lead to a loyal customer base that returns to company again and again for additional products or services.

Getting and staying inside your buyer's mind is a continual process that you must refine every time you go through a sales funnel. Mastering this process helps you understand current buyers and future buyers down the road.


Photo courtesy of techalliance at Flickr.com

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