There is a saying about how people buy that’s really important to understand if you hope to be a really good managed services salesperson:
“People make buying decisions for emotional reasons, and justify their decisions with logical reasons.”
What is meant by this wasn’t crystal clear to me the first time I heard it, so I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you are shopping for a new car. If you were buying your new car purely for logical reasons, you would get the car with the best combination of:
- Price
- Gas mileage
- Safety
- Maintenance costs
And maybe a few other factors – all very logical. If everyone made their decision this way, we’d all be driving a Hyundai. But we aren’t. Why not?
The answer is that people don’t buy for logical reasons; they buy for emotional reasons.
You may want a Mercedes because you want to be associated with “the best”, or a BMW because you want to look hip and sexy, or a big truck because “real men drive trucks”. These are all emotional reasons, and they are the primary drivers of purchasing decisions.
Once you’ve made your decision, you justify it with logical reasons. “Well, it’s ok for me to pay $25,000 extra for the Mercedes because it’s so safe and has a great resell value.”
I hope the example helps clarify.
What does this have to do with selling managed services? Everything.
If you want to sell your services as quickly and at the highest prices possible, you need to get your prospect emotionally connected to their problem and your solution. If you don’t do this, you will miss out on many sales opportunities, and/or miss out on selling at as high of prices as you could have.
To get them connected emotionally, you need to take them down a path of questions that intensify their emotions by making their problems more personal. A conversation may go something like this:
Mr. Prospect, what problem are you hoping to solve by hiring us?
Well, we’ve been having some challenges with X, Y and Z.
I see, and what is the impact of X, Y, and Z on your business?
Answer.
And how much is that costing you?
Answer.
What else is it costing you? Time, frustration, disgruntled employee, delays hitting your goals?
Answer.
If you don’t solve this problem, what do you think that will mean for your business?
Answer.
And what will that mean to you personally?
Answer.
Is that ok to you?
As you can see, the questions start to get more personal in nature, and force the prospect to really consider the impact of their problem. Your goal is to get them so worked up about their problem that they can’t stand to go another day without getting a solution – your solution!
As I stated in my last post, asking good questions takes practice! If you were to try this line of questioning without having practiced it several times, it’s going to come across as forced and invasive.
ROLE PLAY!
Spend time learning how to use this line of questions to uncover and magnify the prospect’s pain, and you’ll win many more deals.
MRC
PS – we cover sales techniques in our membership site, MSP Coach.
