WHY THEY DON’T BUY
DAVID RUBINSTEIN
EDITED BY
JIM OLSON
Ask 10 Sellers to come up with the number of reasons for Buyers not buying and guess what you’ll get? More than half will say “about a million.” A couple will figure it’s a trick question and say “one.” One smart-aleck will say “73.” Nothing uniform, that’s for sure. And, without knowing ‘em, how can we be expected to deal with ‘em?
My Sales Training experience has shown that dealing with objections is more perplexing than almost any other challenge Sellers face. Furthermore, most Sellers try to deal with these objections by “telling” their way out of it. Which frequently leads to trying to “I believe” their way out. The result is neither satisfying nor effective.
So, why don’t Buyers buy?
There are actually four (4) reasons that explain this. Each is generic in scope, applying to all industries and products. I believe this quartet covers more than 95% of the reality of not buying.
· PRICE. And those things financial. It can be as simple as “your price is too high.” Or, “there’s no remaining budget for this buying cycle.” Or, “it won’t fit in the budget.”
· PAST PERFORMANCE. Otherwise known as the “We screwed up” objection. This Buyer, or their company may have used us in the past and something happened – bad delivery, a breakdown, a bad experience with accounting – you name it – something happened. Amazingly, sometimes we suffer because that Buyer thought it was us and it really wasn’t. Or, they used a company like ours where their experience was bad and we suffer for it. It just ain’t fair!
· PRESENT VENDOR. What we’re selling they’re getting from another vendor. They are either loyal to another brand or company – or to both.
· RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. Sometimes folks just don’t want to change what they’re doing. People get “dug in” and won’t move regardless of the wisdom of moving – it’s easier to do nothing than something. This is also known as the “path of least resistance.” For example, my golf group never plays on Thursdays and I asked why. The answer is “because we never do.” Oh!
Take the simple route in Selling. Listen well to your Buyers. With the right questions, they’ll tell you which objections are in play. The next step is to be able to correctly deal with the situation.
In our next Morsel we’ll look at our options and the best techniques in dealing with objections.
How’s that sound?
Good Selling!
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