Get inside the mind of your buyer

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.

If you want my help in growing your sales, let’s connect.

I love the world of sales but I have over the last 12 months been geeking about understanding WHY and HOW people buy.

What drives people to buy?

How does the buying brain work?

I first started to get a love for the concept of Behavioural Economics when I read a book called The Voltage Effect by John A. List. It’s a really good read which outlines how campaigns go mainstream. I was then recommended Melina Palmer’s book ‘What your customer wants and can’t tell you’ and I fell in love with the whole concept.

I have always believed that sales (in any form) is about really understanding the world and mind of your buyer. When you really get to see the buying journey from their perspective, you can adjust your actions and approach to get the result you want.

The goal for all of us should be to ‘be a fly on the wall in the brain of our buyer’ and I always share with people the story of the film ‘What Women Want’ with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. In the film, Gibson bangs his head and for a period of time, is able to ‘read the minds’ of anyone he is with, so allowing him to say all the right things to win business! Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could do this! What would you give to be in meetings with potential customers and be able to ‘read their mind and know what they were saying’

Them: I am not sure whether it will really achieve what I want it to and its a big investment

You (with your special mind reading powers

): If I was in your shoes, I would be thinking ‘can this really achieve what I want it to and will it provide a return on my investment’. Let me show you how we work to implement a solution that ensures results.

When you read, understand and get inside the mind of the buyer, amazing things happen!

So what are some of the things we can do to get inside the mind of our buyer? Here are 3 simple tips.

Review the buyer journey for which you sell your service and write down at each stage in the process the things that are good and also the parts that need improvement. Be honest with yourself and what you do. Don’t be over critical and harsh for harshness’s sake but write down which areas and parts of what you do need improvement at each stage. Once you have identified these, you can start to find solutions which make your service look better in the eyes of the buyer.

Understand the context in which your service fits into their day-to-day life and world. All too often, we think about sales from OUR perspective and yet what we do is probably only a small part of the buyer’s world. They have other pressures and challenges on their agenda and what we do probably makes up less than 10-15% of their world. Realise this and adjust your approach to your potential buyer to show them you understand this

Think about risks and barriers. If anyone could go forward in time and GUARANTEE that the solution they buy would 1000% work and achieve the results they want, they would buy without hesitation. They don’t because they have worries, risks and barriers which get in the way of them making a buying decision. Identify these and then bring them up in conversations so that you show the buyer that you really understand them. ‘If I was in your shoes, I know this and this would make me unsure and so here is how we resolve that’

If you can apply these 3 simple steps within your sales work, you will get in the mind of the buyer and it can help you take the actions required to win the business.

Try them out and let me know how you get on!

I thought I would leave you with this excellent image which shows the way different colours have a different affect on emotional triggers within our minds. Maybe use this if you are creating images and materials for your marketing that can drive action.