The knowledge in sales trainings

WHY DO WE BUY AT ALL?

Have you ever wondered why we buy at all?

What factors make buying a lot of us a very pleasant activity?

Looking at how much time people spend shopping, both in shopping malls and online, we want to know the causes of these phenomena. Understanding human needs in the category of purchasing motivations will help us better understand the way our customers think. It's such an element of commercial empathy when we try to think just like our interlocutors.

Why do people buy? This is probably due to a number of human needs and desires that come from a sense of lack of "something". In general, human needs can be twofold. The first group includes rational needs that we can also define as practical ones. In the second group there are emotional ones, which are referred to as psychological. In turn, we can also divide human needs into conscious and unconscious ones. It is repeatedly the case that when buying certain products, we are guided by factors whose existence we are unaware of.

The role of a professional trader is precisely to make customers aware of the needs, both conscious and unconscious. Only after a moment when customer’s needs are diagnosed the seller should start the stage of presentation of the product using benefits language.

I have mentioned earlier that the needs may arise from the lack of "something".

For example, when feeling desire, we need to drink. Similarly, by eating food, we satisfy our hunger. Sometimes, however, behind a seemingly practical need can hide and the deeper one.

Likewise, many car drivers feel the need to buy new alloy wheels. It seems that there is simply a practical desire to buy a certain item, which is a necessary equipment of every driver, however, when we try to look more deeply at the merchant motifs, it turns out that this desire to stand out from the crowd generates desire to have alloy wheels. Many men are a type of visual sight, for whom appearance is of great importance. It appears so often that, despite the practical nature of our needs, an emotional need may be the source of our needs.

What seems very important from a point of view of professional sales is the fact that very often the lack of satisfaction of a particular need can cause a person a strong tension, indeed a state of frustration. Our customers are often unaware of the complex mechanisms of their merchant motivations.

It should also be noted that most often each of them can have their own individual needs, which are difficult to categorize in a clearly defined way.

It is worth relying on the so-called the pyramid of the human needs of Abraham Maslow, which in a very general, albeit true way, depicts the categorization of typical human needs.

Let's look at the illustration that is an introduction to this article. In this way, the categorization of typical human needs is very often used model in both scientific literature and business activities. Many companies use it to create their sales and product strategies. Maslow's concept also has opponents who accuse it of being too vague.

Returning to my question at the beginning, I would like to show you how you can relate the needs of our customers to the pyramid presented by Abraham Maslow. Well, let's look at the ones that were ranked lowest. I fully agree that physiological needs such as hunger and thirst can be classified among the least important ones for the human being.

A few years ago, on the initiative of a district labour office, I conducted a course of sales representative for unemployed people who have been unemployed for a long time. The aim of the training was to prepare the course participants for effective work in the new profession. When I presented Abraham Maslow's pyramid of needs, this caused a lot of resistance from the group. According to the unemployed, it is physiological needs that should be in the highest place. All in all, I don't think I was surprised by this approach at all, because they were people with a very high sense of disbelief in their own skills. Moreover, several participants were also palpable with clear claim thinking. In an attempt to suggest a different attitude to the problem, I asked the most pessimistic students about the reason why a man hooked up to a ventilator often asks for approval for euthanasia. Despite the fact that his body is systematically supplied with water and all necessary substances for life, somewhere inside it appears a voice that this is not how his life is supposed to look like. After all, we have been created for other purposes. And what motivates every person's vital activity certainly goes beyond the area of existential needs.

By listing the next presented by A. Maslow incentive factors, we come to the safety needs, which have been categorized as those more significant for man than those existential. These needs include, in particular, the protection against threats and acceptance. Thus many solutions of the common part of the automotive industry are designed for this, to satisfy this need. How can we use this knowledge in our sales talks?

Note that this need is of a special nature – it expresses itself in the form of concern. In other words, human concerns may arise from the need for security, so it is worth taking this into account in the process of examining needs.

"Human concerns can be needs,

so it is worth taking into account

in the process of needs analysis"

Working as a sales and technical advisor in the construction industry, many of my trade talks were based on reaching safety needs. It was the protection against risks that particularly affected the outcome of the decisions taken, in particular on the market for large construction investments. The construction manager, who was the chief decision-maker here, felt strong concerns about the completion of the construction works within a certain period of time. This was due to the fact that even after the construction work was put into public use, there was no certainty about safe use. Very often this was also dictated by the guarantees that the investment executive company had to provide. During a strong price pressure, when I was forced to compete with many cheaper products, I have repeatedly tried to diagnose the possibility of such concerns. Sometimes it happened that, despite the fact that my client did not mention security concerns, it turned out that this issue raised his interest when I was communicating through the language of the benefits.Over the years of my professional career, I learned to diagnose well needs, which then resulted in the customer's favor when paying more for the product.

Understanding the importance of the safety needs is also important in the context of overcoming customer objections, which I will discuss more broadly later in my book "The art of selling in practice-practical training guidebook".

To sum up, the need for security is a very strong stimulus of merchants. Customers will consciously and unconsciously look for solutions that will give them a sense of security. Individual industries, such as insurance, medical and many technical ones, use this knowledge to market appropriate product solutions. Note that many older people are ready to pay monthly insurance premiums, giving them a sense of security. The products, which are designed to meet these types of needs and concerns will be of interest to this group of customers especially.

The further group of needs identified by Maslow is those related to the sense of affiliation, that is, belonging to a particular social group. It is a group that affects many of our decisions, related not only to buying, but also to everyday life. In my opinion, the need to be part of a particular social group is also linked to the desire to meet the need for security. Generally speaking, we feel safer acting in a group, among other people. Similarly, it can act on our psyche to have friends and life in the family.

In sales practice, we can see that very often customers are able to pay for solutions that will allow them to be associated with another social group and join it. There are professions in the job market that enjoy less or less social respect. Among those with a high reputation, there are, for example, such professions as: firefighter, university professor, doctor or judge. Of course, the hierarchy of prestige of professions is changing in different countries, which is dictated by many factors influencing increases and decreases in social respect. So how can we use the above information in our sales methods?

Let my own experience serve as a hint.

In the past, I have had the opportunity to conduct training for a group of sellers of a local press release. The main duties of the commercial department included, inter alia, the sale of advertising space in regional weekly magazines. One of the services that caught my attention in a special way was the sale of sponsored articles, by conducting an interview with the person representing the customer. During the interview, the person interviewed could present his company's silhouette as broadly as possible in the most attractive way. It has sometimes happened that such an interview was included in special additions devoted to selected fields, e.g. in the field of medicine, education, sport. During our training, I learned that a group of doctors, especially young ones, very often even decided on one-sided interviews, allowing them to advertise in this way. The form of such advertising, of course, was associated with very high costs. I think the need to promote itself in this way was not only due to the need for affiliation, so important for a young group of doctors. The reason may also be the desire to gain social respect, and most often it consisted of a number of other factors.

I am convinced that having many luxury goods for many of us is motivated precisely by the feeling of a strong need for social recognition. Luxury cars, watches, expensive jewelry are examples of products that we can unwittingly buy in order to identify with the "higher" in our understanding of the social group in the general hierarchy of social respect.

According to estimates of the calculations, information about the other person is derived from:

- 7% of words

- 38% of the vote

- 55% of body language

Of course, these are indicators that can change depending on the form of communication. Our appearance also matters, especially because of the effect of the first impression.

Taking into account the above, our customers are able to pay for certain product solutions that will give them a sense of belonging to a certain social group.

As a sales and technical advisor in construction, I used the knowledge of this strong purchasing stimulus in conversations with distributors. Very often, they were inclined to sign a cooperation agreement when I used the argument of belonging to our company's exclusive distributor group. Using the language of benefits, I emphasized that signing a distribution agreement will give the customer numerous benefits of joining our prestigious audience.

The needs of affiliation are also widely understood needs for acceptance. Certain social groups can accept our person when we have certain products associated with a particular environment. The feeling of being accepted and accepted is a very strong need not only from an economic point of view, but also from a social point of view. We can use this information in sales as well as in team management. For example, creating an employee's ability to join a team responsible for some special tasks can be a very big motivational factor for him. In this way, the prestige of such a person will increase.

This type of needs can also include the need for success and prestige. That's why so many people still use their business cards with scientific titles. Those with such needs will want to consciously or unwittingly increase their prestige in a given environment by presenting their achievements in the field of science. I also think that the sheer desire to succeed is such a strong need for almost every person that we can easily find it in each of us. Despite the fact that success can be paid for by a series of failures, those achieving it become a role model for us. For many of us, success will have a different meaning, but it is always a very strong internal motivation. On the other hand, many people became embroiled in a number of life problems that were dictated by an almost obsessive desire to achieve it.

In this way, we came to the need that was placed at most by Maslow in his hierarchy, that is, the need for self-realization. Most generally speaking, progress, achievements and personal development are among the most generally. Progress, or progress, is the transition from the lower stage to the higher. Achievements, in turn, are a set of learning outcomes, doing work, playing sports and functioning in all other areas of our lives. Looking at the lives of professional athletes, but also not only, we see that they are willing to spend a lot of their income on products that will accelerate their achievements. Many people I know often characterize thinking of this type:

"If I do not grow constantly, I stand in place,"

"If I don't grow, I just go back."

The constant desire to develop is one of the larger human needs.

Well, you can consider that in your industry it is completely different, and none of the presented needs in the Maslow’s pyramid captures the truth about the motivational incentives of your customers.

"Each industry has its own

specific recipients with individual needs.

The role of a professional salesman

is to continually discover them"

At this point, I must admit that each industry has its own specific audience, characterized by individual needs. The role of a professional salesman is to constantly discover them.Therefore, the scope of discovered incentives by us incentives can significantly increase , much more as this would be due to the Maslow’s model. From the point of view of development commercial skills, it is just important to get to the heart of your customers' buying needs.

From my own experience, I can tell you that most often our customers won't want to tell you why they work with you and the company you represent. I have repeatedly asked in direct conversations, "What made you choose my products?", "What special properties have made you apply them so often?" Customers, as a rule, reacted with a smile, not wanting to talk too much about the positive aspects of my offer.

The culture of our country is that we do not particularly like to give positive opinions. Traveling on business, I had the opportunity to ask hotel staff many times: "How often do you get positive feedback from customers in surveys?" Unfortunately, most of the hotel guests' responses related to the shortcomings of the hotel and catering offer. Of course, negative opinions dominated, especially claim customers.

So how do you read the positive feelings of your counterparts about your products indirectly?

To do this, you can ask the person who is not directly responsible for the purchases and is the end user of the product.

Working in the construction industry, I very often asked numerous open ended questions to workers directly on the construction site. These people had no interest in hiding their feelings from the use of my products. For example, I often learned that my products are better packaged than competing. This feature of the product allowed for much easier delivery of packages to the assembly site, which was most often carried out at high altitudes. Of course, I tried to use this information in my sales conversations with other customers. That's how I discovered the needs of my target customer groups. These practical direct conversations with target customers allowed me to create a list of product properties that met specific needs. In this way, I came to a specific opinion about the product, while learning additional expectations. The information gained could also be categorized into certain groups. I then had to segment clients into certain groups, e.g.:

a)      contractors, i.e. companies that were responsible for the implementation of the construction,

b)     architects, i.e. design labs proposing product solutions in the construction project,

c)      dealers, i.e. all companies involved in the distribution of products.

For example, a group of contractors had the following needs:

–  ease of reception. Potential products were intended to make it easier for customers to obtain permission to use the facility. To this end, they had to meet numerous legal and design standards and requirements.

–  supply logistics. The way products were delivered was a huge factor. Customers took into account not only the quantities they will be forced to order once, but also how cars will be discharged directly on the construction site.

–  fear of destruction and damage. It was this group of needs that largely determined elections and merchant decisions. Customers were concerned about how the products provided by my company would behave during many years of use. In order to allay such a concern, I had to provide a list of references of numerous companies that were able to confirm that the purchased products did not change their technical characteristics despite the passage of time.

–  installation speed. Although the construction market was saturated with numerous products which at first glance were no different, the difference was in fact their assembly time. So my role was to present the properties of the product, which definitely influenced the speed of work.

–  technical and implementing advice. Customers expected constant advisory care to facilitate their product assembly. To this end, I often decided to conduct product training, which solved many doubts before the start of work.

–  compatibility with other products, confirmed by appropriate technical tests. It has been repeatedly the case that the product selected by the customer did not have adequate tests to allow it to be used together with another product.

–  general terms and conditions. Of course, in addition to the product, aspects related to the form of its purchase were important to customers.

Companies offering favourable trading conditions could simply count on more orders. Individual components of contract contracts, such as payment form, transaction insurance, payment date, possibility of direct purchase without intermediaries, credit limit and many other aspects legal and commercial rights, influenced the decision to buy.

–  the desire to save, that is, a need that was of great importance throughout the supplier selection process.

The customers were looking for product solutions that, simply put, gave them the opportunity to save money. This was very important for overcoming price objections, which I will discuss later in the book. They were interested in whether the products delivered would bring numerous savings. In order to get an order at prices higher than competing products, I had to show what financial savings would result from the use of my products. I have often been forced to make such an calculation. Very often, the exact calculation showed that, despite the fact that the product I offered was more expensive, its use allowed a significant saving. This was due to many characteristics and technical parameters of the products. I hope that you could have seen many times that buying the cheapest product does not mean savings in its further use. Most often, the cheapest product did not meet our previous expectations, and often provided us with many problems, resulting, for example, from the time-consuming handling of subsequent complaints.

–  price, i.e. the need to    obtain favourable price conditions , the lowest prices.

Personally, I learned to overcome objections of this kind gradually – with each passing year I managed to sell products at prices more and more than the competition. However, being completely honest with you, I must admit that despite many successes in selling prestigious investment projects at prices much higher than the competition, the desire to obtain a favorable price still represented a strong merchant stimulus. Another thing that behind this need is usually the desire to save, and not the mere fact of getting a better price! Customers are looking for low prices – this is normal merchant behavior. There are other, deeper motivations behind this, which we will thoroughly analyze later in the book.

Let's now move on to the second group of customers that dealers were. I mean building material distributors, who mostly act on the market as typical construction wholesalers. The customer’s needs, which were diagnosed by me you can successfully relate to the needs of distributors present in your industry. In the case of the construction sector, dealers paid particular attention to aspects such as:

a)      logistics. As in executive companies, the way goods were delivered was of paramount importance from the point of view of the classical distributor,

b)     additional sales support. I am referring to bonus schemes, special bonus tasks and helping distributors to actively sell products. Very often, customers were afraid, consciously or unconsciously, to enter into a cooperation agreement with a new company, fearing that they would not cope on the market with a large number of competitors offering similar products. From the point of view of the effectiveness of our business talks with distributors, it was important to propose and emphasize solutions that will help to further resale products. Often an additional important factor was the creation of special incentive conditions for dealer traders,

c)      ease of further resale. It may be considered that this need is   strictly  linked to the need for additional sales support described above. This expresses concern that our products will not sell from the distributor. Therefore, this requires a slightly broader discussion. Our potential dealer needs assurances about what would happen if our products were not sold . At this stage of the sales conversation, traders propose a range of different solutions, including the approval of returns for low product rotation. In this way, by offering customers their assistance in further resale, they accept a number of concessions in order to be able to sell their products at all. Although this is beneficial for our customers, it can lead to the care of little assertive attitudes.

By moving to the last group of customers, i.e. architects, you can distinguish the following needs, largely the same as those characteristic of dealers and executive companies:

a)      technical and executive advice. Project labs expected technical and commercial technical expertise from technical and commercial advisors to introduce optimal product solutions. It is not uncommon to convince the investor himself to apply the products in the project phase itself,b)     compatibility with other products, confirmed by technical tests. As with executive companies, this need was very important when choosing suppliers and product solutions,

c)      fear of destruction and damage, stronger in a group of architects than executive companies. Potential suppliers have had to meet the many requirements set out in building standards and many individual design preferences,

d)     installation speed. Despite the fact that the management company was directly responsible for the timely delivery of the investment, in many cases the tense deadlines caused such a need for the architects themselves.

e)      Price.  The design studio is increasingly forced to calculate the total construction costs due to budget constraints. The architects' most important questions about the price were as follows: "Was this price a market price?" It was therefore a question of seeking such product solutions, the average prices of which were at market level.

I have presented you with examples of the needs of the various customer groups in the construction sector.

If you don't have experience selling technical products, it can be difficult for you to understand it.

"Not every need can motivate a human being in the same way.

Everyone has their own personal needs

that provide them with different motivational sources"

Nevertheless, it is important for me to know my way of thinking and to think about how you can search for and diagnose the needs of your customers in your current or future industry. It is extremely important that you understand that each of the fields of education, culture and economy is characterised by its individual purchasing preferences.

However, I must admit that there is a need that characterizes each industry and most of the people I know. I mean the need to earn!

Most people are guided by the constant desire to multiply their wealth. Therefore, using the language benefits with the words "You will earn on the fact that..." very quickly allows you to gain the customer's purchase favor. His most common reactions to such phrases are a smile and a greater commitment to the subject of conversation. We will discuss the ability to speak the language of benefits later in the book.

At this point in our reading, I would like to point out that the way the seller communicates with the customer should be a reaction to the diagnosed need.

In addition to the concept of Maslow's needs hierarchy, other attempts to categorize needs stand out. Of these, the concept of Henry Murray's needs system and R.A. Webber's needs model deserve our attention. Both examples present slightly different actions of human needs. The ERG model developed by C. Alderfer is also worth analyzing.

Summing up this part, I would like you to remember that not every need motivates the human being in the same way. Each person has his own individual needs, which are different sources of motivation. So it is worth approaching each individually, asking about the needs characteristic of a group of customers with similar business characteristics. Your customer may not be aware of certain needs, so it is your job to make them aware of them.

This article is from krzysztof Czupryński's book “ The art of selling in practice-practical training guidebook” Sales book