What is it that will make your prospect buy today? Why didn’t he buy yesterday? Why won’t he wait until tomorrow?
To answer that, you must first define what exactly a prospect is. There are four common characteristics that all companies share in order to be described as a prospect:
1. They must have an identified need or problem.
2. They must have the desire to satisfy that need or solve that problem
3. They must have the ability to pay for the solution
4. They must have a sense of urgency to act upon the solution immediately.
Every prospect must have these four characteristics. If one or more of the four is missing, it must either be created by the sales process, or the prospect will not buy today. They may still buy from you, eventually, but they will not buy from you today!
So what turns yesterday’s “tire kicker” into today’s buyer? Assuming the first three characteristics are in place, the key is to engage the prospect’s sense of urgency to act. Sometimes, what makes the prospect buy today happens all on its own. A lease could expire or the existing product may be broken beyond repair. However sometimes you have to create the buying trigger to entice the customer to buy today.
For example, I own a laptop and I depend on it every day to make a living. The computer is several years old, so I am now starting to think that maybe I should upgrade. Since my laptop is still working, I am not going to rush out and buy a new one. I may start price shopping online, and I may even talk to a few sales people, however chances are I am not going to buy today, as I perceive any immediate need.
Tomorrow may be different. If my laptop crashes, that would be an urgent buying trigger which would make me buy before the end of the day. Failing a crash, I might speak with the right sales rep tomorrow. He would be the one to take the time to ask the right questions. He would make me realize that my old laptop didn’t have a certain feature that for me, would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. He would explain to me how much I was losing by waiting for my current laptop to crash. He may even give me some sort of financial incentive to act today, as opposed to waiting. He would be the one to make the sale!
Before making your next product presentation, ask yourself, “If I was this prospect, why would I buy today?” If there is no external buying trigger that gives the prospect a sense of urgency, then take the time to create one because without it, the prospect will not buy. Not today anyway.
Aim Higher!
For a free copy of our white paper How To Create Your Unique Value Proposition, visit our Download Centre at www.b2bsalesconnections.com/download_centre.php.
Susan A. Enns is managing partner of B2B Sales Connections, the online sales training website with free sales resources, a specialized sales job board and free resume listing services dedicated only to business to business sales professionals. She has a proven track record of success, with over 22 years of direct sales, management and executive level business to business experience. Her accomplishments include being the top sales rep in Canada, managing the top sales branch, and achieving outstanding sales growth in a national channel sales organization. She has written the downloadable e-courses “Action Plan For Sales Success” and “Action Plan For Sales Management Success”, as well as many automated sales tools, and as the B2B Sales Coach, she writes and edits the company’s newsletter, AIM HIGHER. Currently Susan serves on the Leadership Executive of the Sales Professionals of Ottawa as Vice President. For more information, visit www.b2bsalesconnections.com or contact Susan directly at senns@b2bsalesconnections.com, www.twitter.com/SusanEnns, or www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns.