pick me… pick me… pick me…

For the last three weeks, we were talking about decision making and my mantra Decisions require – brainpower, time, and money.
1. brainpower to think about the change.
2. time to implement it.
3. money to spend in making it happen.

Last week I declared that the money decision “is not a PRICE decision – it is about money as an available resource.”

Price conversations come AFTER a decision has been made to spend money. At that point, the decision is about both who to spend money with and how much it will cost.

This is when salespeople are jumping up and down like little kids in gym class shouting pick me… pick me… pick me… . Perhaps not ACTUALLY doing this, but in your prospects mind – this is what it looks like.

Let’s take a step back and consider what the prospect is actually choosing.
* the salesperson
* the conceptual piece of what they getting
* the company selling the “thing”
* the actual “thing” they are buying
the FINAL choice is how much it costs.

the salesperson
If you’ve ever walked out of a store, car dealership, or hung up the phone and just looked at it in disgust when buying something – you know what NOT choosing a particular salesperson is like.

Choosing them is sometimes a much more subtle thing. This choice is personal; do you feel listened to? is there an understanding of both your excitement over a purchase and the fear of making a bad decision? can you trust them?

You get the idea.

the conceptual piece of what they getting
Most sales training doesn’t talk about this part (at least in my experience). What is the IDEA or CONCEPT your prospects and customers need to buy into before they buy FROM you?

The idea of adding a vendor. The concept of how your offering is different than what they use now.

This is the non-tangible piece of the sale – even when you’re selling something tangible when they actually buy from you.

the company selling the “thing”
Vehicles are the easiest example of this. Everyone has someone in their life that says “I’d never buy a __________ (insert car manufacturer here)!!!!!”

Plus, for everyone who says that you can probably think of a few people – for the same manufacturer – who would change that sentence to read “I’d ONLY buy a…”

Prospects have to buy into the company before they will buy anything.

the actual “thing” they are buying
Product choice is always talked about in sales training. Features… benefits… you know the drill.

how much it costs
Cost is a two part decision.

>> part 1 do I have enough money?
This isn’t about YOUR price vs. the competition. It is a decision about spending money vs. not spending money.

The prospect is deciding between the risks around doing something vs. the consequences of doing nothing.

>> part 2 is this the best price I can get?
FINALLY… the last piece of the decision puzzle. Is this the best deal. Of course there are entire sales courses on this simple question.

*whew* I’m exhausted writing about making a buying decision! That is probably why our prospects are as well. Plus we didn’t even get into the fact that in a corporate sale – there are multiple people making all these decisions simultaneously.