2 Powerful Ways to Become Your Customer’s ‘Assistant Buyer’
You customer is, by nature, an extremely emotional creature.
When making a big-ticket purchase, even normally stoic and even-keeled people feel a keen sense of heightened emotional response. And why not? Parting with a large chunk of hard-earned cash for a life-altering purchase calls for some emotion!
Which is why you, the sales person, play such a key role in the buying process. Big-ticket purchases come with certain built-in service needs for your customer. And the best sales people meet these needs with grace and skill.
I recommend that big-ticket sales people assume the role of ‘Assistant Buyer.’ If I, as a sales counselor, understand you, the customer, extremely well, I can offer insight, suggestions and guidance that are in your best interest.
I exist to help you buy.
The Assistant Buyer paradigm assumes that the sales counselor exists for the customer, not for themselves. Many sales people find this to stretch their thinking quite a bit, especially those who believe that sales is something they do to their customer rather than for and with their customer.
The Power of Trust
The sales process is a partnership. Think about that word, partnership. It implies some degree of trust between partners. Whether these are business partners, marital partners or tennis partners, a partnership is, by definition, a trusting relationship.
As we all know, building trust is a process.
When I talk about building a trusting relationship with your customer, I am not necessarily talking about building the type of friendship where you want to go camping together (though it happenS!).
Instead, we need to establish enough of a relationship that your customer knows that you actively seek their best interests.
Think of it this way: would you buy a car from your brother-in-law? How you answer that question depends on your relationship with your brother-in-law.
Some of you automatically thought, “Absolutely!” Others immediately thought, “Not in a million years!”
Odds are that your response is directly proportionate to the amount of trust that exists between you and your brother-in-law.
You may react negatively not because you believe your brother-in-law will rip you off, but because you know that he is not competent to assist you in this area.
Similarly, your customer will evaluate both your emotional intelligence and your competency as the two foundations of a trusting relationship.
The trust relationship you develop with your customer becomes the platform on which you build your entire sales presentation.
No trust = no credibility = no influence = no sale.
In addition to expert knowledge about your industry, work to add understanding of the emotional nature of big-ticket buying. Then, assume the role of “Assistant Buyer.”
Equipped with these tools and this perspective, you will change your customer’s world.
