Buyers become your customers when they gain confidence in you as a "doctor" who can ease, if not altogether eliminate, their pain - that is, the roadblocks to their success. In order to demonstrate how your product or service removes a roadblock, you need to learn what a particular buyer's roadblocks are. You require an inner ear. As you hear the buyer's words you need to listen for the buyers pain. Once you and the buyer understand the nature and scope of that pain, the two of you can work together to find a solution - your product or service - that will relieve it. You must develop the inner ear that listens for pain and responds to it with the right medicine.

The traditional selling system focuses on the notion of selling benefits to the buyer. (Even those that sell solutions often approach the buyer-seller process in this manner, providing the buyer with testimony, details, and benefits of their potential solutions early in the process.) This approach glosses over the reality that people make decisions for two reasons: one is to move toward pleasure, the other is to move away from pain. People buy emotionally, and the strongest emotion buyers experience is pain. The best formula for selling is to find someone who believes he or she is well. Next, get the buyer to feel his or her "hurt" by using your most powerful sales / diagnostic tools - questions. If you can help your buyer uncover a number of hurts, these hurts will quickly appear to both of you as a full-fledged "illness." Then you can do what you are paid to do - perform a healing miracle. The exact buying motive you uncover with your questions will fall into one of these seven categories.

1. Pain in the present. This is the most important pain to e licit. It is also the one to go for first. "How much money are you losing as we speak?"

2. Pain in the future. Fear of an impending outcome is also a motivator to buy, but isn't as strong as pain in the present. "How much do you expect this problem to grow once your staff doubles in size?"

3. Pleasure in the present. In third place on the selling hierarchy is your buyer's desire for gain right now. "How much further ahead of your competition do you wish you were?"

4. Pleasure in the future. Delayed gratification is less compelling than immediate gratification. In order to sell to this emotion, you need a proven track record with the buyer. "What kind of an increase in ROI are you looking for next year?"

5. Pain in the past. Buyers may want to avoid repetition of an earlier mistake. "How would you like to never have to worry about that happening again?"

6. Pleasure in the past. Buyers may want to return to past greatness. "How important is it for you to regain the prominence you've lost?"

7. Interest, arousal, or curiosity. These are the weakest motives to connect with. Unfortunately, many salespeople place great stock in them. "Would you like to see something that will knock your socks off?"

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Selling in a Recession Obsession
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Wed - Nov 19, 2008 | 3 - 5pm