2. Be Prescriptive
Most of the time, the thing your customer is buying from you isn’t something they buy very often. In fact, your particular product or service may be totally unfamiliar to your audience or new to the market. Research from Gartner shows this makes navigating the buying process very difficult for your customers, especially if the purchase is risky or expensive.
This is where the best salespeople create amazing customer experiences by helping their customers do three things:
Define the problem
Drive the evaluation criteria
Set high-value next steps.
By shaping your customer’s journey so it intersects with your solution and leading them through those key areas of the buying process, you can create a much easier buying experience and reduce feelings of post-purchase regret.
While the power of prescription can create a better buying nigeria telegram data experience, if a customer feels a salesperson is pressuring them to take a meeting, commit to a next step, or “close them” at the end of a call (even the slightest of ways), they’ll become immediately resistant. It’s a scientific principle known as reactance and it’s the feeling of resistance brought about by a perceived elimination of behavioral freedom. It’s the same reason you snap back at retail employees offering their help the moment you walk into their store with “No thanks. I’m just looking.” Even asking your customers leading questions (e.g. “Is saving money important to your business?” or “Could you handle 3X more hot sales leads?”) can trigger their defenses and make engaging them impossible.
The simple antidote to avoiding this defense mechanism and delivering an amazing experience is making the customer feel in control by giving them the freedom to say no. While it may seem counterintuitive, this approach is backed by science and research. When your customer feels that they have the freedom to say no if they choose, it’s more likely they’ll say yes! If you’re looking for ways to identify and stamp out these offending behaviors, check out this post.