How Different Customer's "Buying Modes" Vary
The emerging of digital information has transformed the task that salesmen face, particularly in the technology industry. Due to the accessibility of information on the Internet many salespeople will find that their roles seem almost obsolete. The key to understanding the fundamentals of being an efficient seller in the modern market is to examine and recognise different the different buying modes of customers.
Transactional Buying: Requires low cost transactions
As most customers tend not to differentiate between different technology companies because most of them have very similar products, its not unreasonable or surprising that a lot of consumers want to buy based on whoever gives them the best price.
Something of note however is that recent studies have shown that many of these transactional buyers would forgo the cheapest option if they saw value in the sales process.
This was dramatically demonstrated recently by one of US Technology Company who declared to the market that they would no longer compete for business on the issue of price. Their prices were high relative to some of the competition, but they were willing to earn the premium.
To start with their sales did drop, but the sales team concentrated on providing value for customers beyond what was inherent in their products and the results amazed their competitors. In the first year their profit had gone up around 12% and their revenue was up 6%. The previous year however, when they were competing on price, both profits and revenue were down.
Consultative Buying " selling value with the product
In technology, as in every market, there are consumers who are willing to go further than a transactional purchase when the salesperson offers more than just high quality products or services. For this type of buyer, a key component is being able to access the knowledge and expertise of the business.
This type of customer will welcome new relationships with your business if you can make them sure that you will become useful assets and that they will have access to your knowledge and expertise. To ensure that your product holds value to a customer, the seller must tailor their selling process for a particular customers requirements, and throughout the sale process, describe ways in which their solutions holds the answers to the consumers problems.
Think about two fundamental conditions of communication: People value more what they conclude than what they're told. People value more what they ask for than what is offered.
It is very important that companies recognise these different buying modes in potential customers. Also, its important to know the difference between telling and asking. A lot of salesmen will ask the potential customers questions to get a good picture on their needs, but what sellers must consider is whether or not the questions being asked are creating value in the customers mind i.e. can the customers gather information about your solution to their problem from the questions being asked?
Transactional Buying: Requires low cost transactions
As most customers tend not to differentiate between different technology companies because most of them have very similar products, its not unreasonable or surprising that a lot of consumers want to buy based on whoever gives them the best price.
Something of note however is that recent studies have shown that many of these transactional buyers would forgo the cheapest option if they saw value in the sales process.
This was dramatically demonstrated recently by one of US Technology Company who declared to the market that they would no longer compete for business on the issue of price. Their prices were high relative to some of the competition, but they were willing to earn the premium.
To start with their sales did drop, but the sales team concentrated on providing value for customers beyond what was inherent in their products and the results amazed their competitors. In the first year their profit had gone up around 12% and their revenue was up 6%. The previous year however, when they were competing on price, both profits and revenue were down.
Consultative Buying " selling value with the product
In technology, as in every market, there are consumers who are willing to go further than a transactional purchase when the salesperson offers more than just high quality products or services. For this type of buyer, a key component is being able to access the knowledge and expertise of the business.
This type of customer will welcome new relationships with your business if you can make them sure that you will become useful assets and that they will have access to your knowledge and expertise. To ensure that your product holds value to a customer, the seller must tailor their selling process for a particular customers requirements, and throughout the sale process, describe ways in which their solutions holds the answers to the consumers problems.
Think about two fundamental conditions of communication: People value more what they conclude than what they're told. People value more what they ask for than what is offered.
It is very important that companies recognise these different buying modes in potential customers. Also, its important to know the difference between telling and asking. A lot of salesmen will ask the potential customers questions to get a good picture on their needs, but what sellers must consider is whether or not the questions being asked are creating value in the customers mind i.e. can the customers gather information about your solution to their problem from the questions being asked?
About the Author:
Terry Forsey is one of the country's top technology sales and marketing coaches and can help your business grow and succeed. To see how Terry Forsey can help your business visit his website at http://www.forsey.info