Understanding Why It’s Harder to Sell Now
Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on March 4, 2010
Industrial and commercial businesses are not the same buyers they once were. The troubles brought on by the recent economic downturn have made them cautious and battle-weary. The rules of the game have changed and it no longer feels like “business as usual.”
Now more than ever companies need reassurance that they are making the right choice. Controlled by their fears – fear of making a bad decision, fear of losing their job, fear of insufficient return on investment – buyers and sourcing professionals appear to be stuck between the ‘research’ and ‘consideration and comparison’ stages of the traditional industrial buying cycle.
As an industrial or commercial seller, if you want to be successful in your sale today, you must understand not just the practical needs of your targeted buyer groups but the inner workings of their psyche in order to learn how to effectively help them manage their fears. Your job becomes more complicated because now you have to play psychologist and determine what information they need in order to feel safe. To succeed, you must move your targeted audience from a feeling of “too much risk” to one of “manageable risk.”
So how do you do that? Ask them what’s holding up their decision. Let them know you understand their current challenges and you want to help them reach their goals successfully. Ask them to relate to you why they are apprehensive and how they imagine the outcome will be. You will most likely learn pretty quickly why they are stalling. Armed with this information either you can gather the information they need to help them feel safe or, depending on the nature of the response, abandon the sale for the time being.
The more you can learn about your client’s present state of mind, the greater your chances are of presenting him with the information he needs to be convinced that he is making the right decision by selecting to do business with you.
You have well defined the difference between the commercial sellers and commercial buyers. I must say a nice post to get good buyers and to get maximum benefits of your business.