The biggest secret in business is right in front of you. Take out your credit card receipt from last month. Review it. Do any of the items stand out? How many could you have done without for another month? How many could you have done without period?
The question begs asking, why did you buy? How did you buy? Whether you realized it or not, you “bought” long before you purchased. It started when you began noticing watches, TV’s, or whatever it was that caught your interest.
Your attention moved to desire. You pictured the object or service bringing pleasure, relieving pain or increasing value in your life.
At some point the desire hit a tipping point. It was fanned through consistent, credible or intriguing exposure.
Then you bought. You bought it and satisfied your desire that started with paying attention. Each of the steps were laid out for you to buy in a sea of noise from a ton of other products seeking to get your attention.
When you thought about what you bought, you aligned your thinking to justify your decision. You justified it because it is difficult to be incongruent. You have to be aligned. You already decided; now you need to justify.
This is you as a buyer. The good news is that you are not unique. You are typical of a human being who buys. Different things are important to different people. If you don’t care one iota about top of the line cheese graters, you are not going to shop at Williams and Sonoma. However, if you have a friend who invites you to a wine and cheese party and starts to share their story about living their early years in France and enjoying social events like this, then the interest starts.
They tell you why it is important to have the best cheese and the best grating. They got you to pay attention and started to educate you on something you did not pay attention to or appreciated before.
If this is you as a buyer, then how are you as a seller? Do you sell in the way that maps to the way billions of people buy? Or are you just selling? Most people who sell miss the buyer. They skip steps. They ask before they have permission. They interrupt when they are not recognized. If you want to blow the sale, simply follow the masses. They are simply asking the wrong question – “how do I sell?”
However, if you want to align how you buy to how you sell (after all, you do not like being sold), then ask the right question – “Why do people buy?” If you can get honest with yourself, the reasons you buy are beneath the surface. They happened long before the sale. So must your selling connect with your buyer. You must get them to buy long before the sale. Get their attention. Win their trust. Give them advice. Enhance the value over time. Keep bringing value to a tipping point. Ask when you have earned it. Don’t skip steps.
Everyone is in sales. We have to persuade people that what we want is good for them too. If you want to connect with your customer and win them by courting them, you will have more business than you can imagine. If you want to just show up and sell, then you will likely be in the same place several years later.
The biggest secret in business takes some thinking about behaviors. It takes action to put systems in place which makes a person want to buy. There is a price to be paid – hard work, thinking and money. That is why those who pay a price easily separate themselves from their competition. Learn how to get people to buy by clicking here. Getting people to buy is much more fruitful than just selling.
