Why is the Selling / Buying Decision So Challenging
By: Roberta M. Fisher, Gadd business Consultants
Sale performance is declining due to a few facts: salespeople are failing to meet quota, sales end in a decision not being made, time is wasted by both the buyer and seller deciding on whether the sale should go through and can the seller meet the customer’s expectations for the item/service.
Everyone wants to be heard when it comes to making a purchase, which makes it harder on the seller to meet all the expectation of the customers and to finalize a sale.
The buyer has a purchase problem and the seller has a problem when it comes to closing on a sale. This happens more than you think, due to a purchasing team not agreeing on which item to purchase and from whom. The team must agree on the item, warranty, price, location and reputation of the company they are purchasing from. The agreement on a single purchase could take weeks or months.
Too Much Information
The days of not having enough information to consider before making a purchase is over. Consumers are now flooded with too much information, everyone claiming to have the most updated, the most functions available, the best price, service and the fastest delivery service on the market.
All this information makes it harder to make a recommendation, submission or a decision for the purchasing agent or committee. Buyers tend to spend as much or more time weeding through all the information as speaking with providers.
Be sure you are providing only the information that will be the most relevant to the buyer too make it easier for the buyer to decipher and for the seller to make a sale.
Chaotic Process
Try stepping in the shoes of a buyer and be your own critic, how well are you handling the sales situation in every case and is there a successful sale at the end?
If you don’t sell a product or service than the item is purchased sporadically over a period of every 5-10 years, therefore there is not a common/ tried and true buying plan in place.
The buying process is a series of stages that includes several tasks that are assigned to different people on the buying committee. This method leads to a lot of going back and forth and reviewing what has already been looked at multiple times.
The Root Cause
Knowing your product or service inside and out is the best way to get the sale completed. This would also include knowing your customer. Who and what is in the decision-making process and who makes the final decision?
Continue to work on improving your process for selling and learning about your buyers
wants, needs and patterns.
The 5 Things You Can Do to Help
1. Identify who is involved in the deal and what do you know about them? Build client relationships
2. Know the process or cycle a purchase will need to go through by the buyer in order to get a sale.
3. Have an internal champion at the buyer to answer the following:
Identify any obstacles in the way
Tell them the questions they need to ask their committee
Tell them who needs to be involved in order to get started
Provide them with the tools to help in the buying process
Offer different perspectives to add value they can use.
4. Help your buyer if they have a planned completion date, by providing a timeline when each milestone will be met in order to meet the completion date.
5. Review Your Performance by asking a few basic questions on how helpful and informative you were? What could you have done better? Your buyers will appreciate the fact you are striving to do better.
Reference: 5 Ways to Work through the Noise With Buyer Enablement: https://www.saleshacker.com/buyer-enablement/, Kevin Dixon 12/30/2019
