Nineteen: The Topology of a Sale
There are many distinctions between kinds of sales: B2C, B2B, simple, complex, peer-to-peer, and so on. None of them really describes what the authors feel is important about selling. More to the point, considering one sales situation to be inherently different to others often leads to ignoring good practices and adopting bad. The differences between arbitrary "kinds" of sales are the incidental details - the core of selling remains the same.
Regardless of the extraneous details, all selling is about one thing: persuasion. Regardless if you're selling to a company or a person, or whether it is an impulse buy or a formal procurement, etc. it all comes own to the same three questions:
- What action do we want to persuade another person to take?
- Who is the person whom we want to persuade?
- What would motivate them to take that action?
The details of a given sales situation may influence the answers to these questions, but the questions remain the same.
The Four Dimensions of Sales Complexity
The authors provide their own system for classifying sales situations - likely none of this is new, but they insist it has never been considered systematically.
- Urgency. The customer's need for a solution can be plotted on a scale from a dire necessity to a complete optional luxury. The more urgent their need for a product, the sooner they will wish to buy, and let less power they feel they have in the negotiations.
- Risk. The notion of risk is fairly broad, as it pertains to any harm that the customer might suffer, not merely in a physical sense, but in terms of their career, self esteem, or lost opportunities. This is generally in the risk that a product will not deliver the desired benefit, that there may be collateral damage, the money they have spent will have been wasted, or they may be embarrassed or regretful for not choosing something else.
- Knowledge, This pertains to the level of comfort a buyer has that have enabled him to correctly understand a need and identify a product that will serve it. If the customer feels secure in his knowledge, he will proceed apace; any uncertainty and he will hesitate.
- Consensus. Consensus pertains to a customer's need to confer with others to obtain their consent to proceed with a purchase. There may be a formal approval process in business purchases, or a person may wish to confer with a spouse, or they may merely be concerned with what others might think of their purchasing an item (they still have influence over the buyer, though their approval is not required).
(EN: I do not sense this is comprehensive or particularly systematic, but they are valid and likely important areas of concern for any buyer in any situation.)
The author provides a few examples of how these factors come into play to illustrate that each buying situation must be considered. Different buyers of the same good have different profiles, and even the same buyer of the same good may behave differently depending on the situation.
Four Types of Visitors
Salesmen often make the self-serving assumption that anyone who enters the store (or visits a web site) is interested in buying immediately - and the problem with this is that they behave too aggressively toward those who are not ready to buy, ensuring they do not return when they are. Specifically, the authors identify four categories:
- Accidental. These visitors stumble across your Web site while searching for something else, and are very unlikely to be buyers. (EN: The author doesn't mention them for brick and mortar, but generally when a friend accompanies a shopper, they are an accidental.)
- Browsing. These visitors are "window shopping" and do not have an immediate intent to purchase. They might make an impulse buy, or they may return later with a more directed intent, but for now they are merely looking about and daydreaming.
- Shoppers. These visitors have a general idea of what they want and are in the market to buy something, but haven't figured out quite what they need and are gathering information to make a decision.
- Buyers. These visitors have a clear idea of what they want, even down to the model number, and have come in with the intent to make a purchase. The authors also include in this category people who may not know exactly what product they want, but they know what need they have to address, and the intent of buying a product that suits that need.
Even accidentals and browsers might make an impulse purchase if they stumble across something that appeals to them - but pressing them for a sale immediately may decrease their interest in returning when they are in the mood to buy. It's also worth noting that it is possible to knock shoppers and buyers off the track to purchase if they are distracted from their activity.
Relational and Transactional Customers
The authors, among others, strongly advocate seeking to establish a long-term relationship with the customer - but at the same time, accept that the customer may not want to have a relationship with your brand.
The "relational" shopper is seeking to serve their ongoing convenience in serving a recurring need. They may even regard a retailer as a shopping assistant who can help the identify products to meet different needs that arise (consider that a person will go to a given drug store to find a remedy to whatever ails them). They have confidence and trust in the brand, though this is not unshakable - so long as they feel their needs have been met and the cost has not been excessive, they will likely return. They may even pay a higher price for the convenience of not having to shop and negotiate, considering time to be part of the purchase price.
That said, there are situations in which a person will take a transactional mindset:
- They perceive their need as unusual and not likely to recur.
- They are short-sighted, focusing on the immediate purchase and giving little thought to the possibility of future purchases
- They value their money more than their time and are willing to invest in hunting for the best price they can get
- They enjoy shopping and haggling, and feel their self-esteem is bolstered by telling others about the good deal they got on an item
- They are leery of vendors and shopping around eases their anxiety about being taken advantage of
- They are likewise fearful of looking foolish to others for having made a poor choice
Shoppers do not fall strictly into relational or transactional behaviors - it will differ according to the buying situation - but it can be observed that people tend to gravitate toward their preferred pattern of buying behavior, and certain products encourage some kinds of behavior more than others.
Is Everyone Your Customer?
In their desire to make as much profit as possible, businesses often seek to have general appeal rather than focusing on a particular customer or need segment. The problem is that you can't please all the people all of the time - and attempting to be too broad in your reach to draw in everyone may mean your brand is not relevant to anyone at all.
Simply accept this: no matter what you do, not everyone is going to like you, and your brand is stronger in the long run by focusing on the specific needs of a specific customer in a specific situation. The more strongly your brand is associated to a specific space, the better, provided there are enough customers in that space to be profitable to serve.