People Love to Buy, But Hate to Be Sold

Published on this site: February 14th, 2009 - See more articles from this month

I'm buying a new car at the moment and I forgot how much fun it is. Choosing the make and model, test driving - and being a girl, of course the colour has a huge influence on my buying criteria.

Think about the last time that you made a purchase that you were really delighted with. Do you remember the pleasure, the anticipation of how the purchase would enhance your life? Do you remember that little thrill you get just at the point of saying ' Yes!.'

Buying is great fun. Why do you think they call it ' retail therapy ' ?

Yet lots of people forget this and they focus on sales processes. The problem with this is that most selling is not only ineffective, it actually deters people. Think of what happens when people approach you to try and sell you something, notice how your barriers come up. It's almost like you have an inbuilt skepticism and resistance. That's why selling the old way is such hard work. You're actually having to fight with the customer's resistance and skepticism, most of which has been triggered by the salespersons approach!

Selling this way is expensive and exhausting. It may just about work for corporations who have large sales teams, but as a small business owner, you can't afford to waste your time and your energy in that way. Your time and energy are better spent on work that you get paid for. And the Client Magnets approach can help you to maximise that. So I'd like to invite you to forget about having a 'sales process' and think about designing buying processes that are fun and enjoyable for your prospects and make them feel glad that they have discovered you!

Isn't that a paradigm shift? Instead of thinking, 'Oh no, I have to think about marketing and selling', you can say, 'I'm going to help more people discover me and the results I can deliver today. I'm going to help more people solve their
problems today.'

An expression that sums this up well is 'Buying Facilitation'. Forget about selling, and think about helping people to buy. Put your emphasis on helping the other party make an informed decision. You aren't trying to sell to everyone, some people will be a better fit than others, but your buying processes should help prospects determine how well you 'match' each other.

Facilitate also means 'make it easy' so you also need to think about how easy it is to buy from you. If one of your clients referred me to you today, how quickly could I become a client of yours? Do you have a 'package' that I can buy immediately from your website so I can start using your concepts and ideas straight away and get a 'taster' of your full service offering? Or will I have to play telephone tag with you, ask questions about your service, find out when you are available, get you to put together a proposal, before I can become a client?

This week think about creating a buying process that is enjoyable for your prospective clients and adds some value. Take some ideas from my examples. I offer free reports, this newsletter, teleseminars, articles and talks. I aim to provide value BEFORE anyone becomes a client, so you can get to know me and sample my approach before you put your hand in your pocket! Doing this helped me almost triple my business last year, while working less hours, so take it from me - it works!

Bernadette Doyle: Publishes her free, weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them then sign up for the Client Magnets newsletter at http://www.ClientMagnets.com.