Why Do They Buy?

Why did she buy that? Really, why? Why that? Why from that person? Why from that company?

Whether your customer/prospect buys something from you, or from somebody else, there is a reason why. There might be a reason “why not,” but for the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on the reasons why the person chose what she chose.

1. Lowest price.  Fine. That means that none of the prospective sellers did a good enough job to create any representative value such that even the second least expensive option was chosen. Ouch.
2. Only one in stock.  OK. (See above.)
3. Because that’s what they’ve always bought. Super…if it’s ours.
4. She believes the product itself is actually better. Might be. Might not be. But if she thinks/believes it is…done.
5. She believes the overall solution is better. That’s not just the product, it’s the total presented solution.
6. She likes the providing company better. Great. That’s not about product or price or availability.
7. She likes the salesperson better. Perhaps the most challenging incumbent to displace.

Any other reasons that weren’t listed? No. Any other reason we could come up with likely fits into one of those 7. So let’s take the approach that we didn’t get the deal in any of those scenarios. Can we get the next one?

1. Lowest price.  We can lower our price and get every order from now on. Until somebody goes lower.
2. Only one in stock.  Got it. I’ve been telling the boss we need to ramp up our stocking program.
3. Because that’s what they’ve always bought. This can be changed, but it’s going to take some work. You know, something like lowering our price and guaranteeing that it’s always in stock.
4. She believes the product itself is actually better. This will take some work too, but surely we can show some data to prove that our commoditized product is truly superior to the incumbent commoditized product.
5. She believes the overall solution is better. OK, we can improve our presentations and fact gathering so that the specific solution is more robust. (Try sprinkling in words like “robust.” That’ll impress ‘em.)
6. She likes the providing company better. We can supplant them. They can’t do anything we can’t do. Our products and services are almost identical. But there’s something they do or have done that’s special to her, or saved her some time, or she thought nobody else could do.
7. She likes the salesperson better. Perhaps the most challenging incumbent to displace. The incumbent sales professional may have created such great trust, credibility and rapport, that the customer just doesn’t believe anybody else could do it nearly as well. Does that exist? Absolutely. You’ve probably got a handful of those yourself. And in those places, you’re as locked in as is possible to be. But it’s rare. Most places fall in the #1 – #5 categories.

Think about it: think about why she bought what she bought, or from whom.

Another point of importance is that #1-#5 are specific to that particular transaction. #6 & #7 are about an overall, ongoing perception of an organization or person. Those are “relationship-based.” That’s why they are so challenging to displace. And they are also, very, very rare. Most of the deals we don’t get, are a result of less-than-convincing product/solution presentations combined with inadequate relationship status. Ouch. Yep. The truth hurts and the world of selling consists of a dynamic where, for many of us, more than half of our engagements are of that unsuccessful variety.  And that’s no fun. But having an open and honest awareness of how we are being perceived – and therefore received – is the critical first step of making incremental improvements.

The better job we do of putting ourselves and our company in the #6 & #7 positions with our customers, we’ll spend less time, energy and resources battling with everybody else scratching and clawing for the short-term, lo-profit #1 – #5 positions.