There are really only 7 reasons why a prospect will buy.

1)To Make Money

2)To Save Money

3)To Save Time

4)To Save Effort

5)To Improve Their Health

6)To Increase Pleasure (eg. entertainment)

7)To ELIMINATE PAIN  (I put it in caps because pain is the loudest of all voices)

If you what you bring to the table doesn’t fit into one of these categories, you’re in for an exercise in frustration.  You must bring a solution to your customers problems.  Remember, people aren’t buying a product or service, they are buying an answer to a problem.  They are buying the results that your product or service is providing.  Honestly, when I think about why I become a customer, it all really boils down to eliminating some sort of pain. And the greater the pain, the faster I move from prospect to closed.  Let me give you an example.

Last summer, our van (the old Scooby Doo type), broke down yet one more time.  Family vacation to the beach was literally two days away. The shop couldn’t get it fixed for 2 weeks. Seriously? No vacation = PAIN!! The voices of disappointment in my wife and kids was more than I could bear.  They didn’t complain, not once, which made it worse.  I had been deployed overseas for most of the year and was scheduled to leave again right after the beach.  I decided to just “look” at new vans.  All the salesman did was listen to me and my problem and provided a solution, actually several solutions.  We bought it after a 15 minute test drive.  He eliminated my pain, saved me time by cutting to the bottom (buying a car can be like pulling teeth), saved me the effort of endless tours of car lots, saved me money (rebates and bottom line pricing), and definitely increased my pleasure (the kids had never had a new car before plus vacation was saved.)

If you can do that for your prospects they will love you, become loyal and give you untold amounts of new business by bragging on you.  By the way, if you need a new car:

Boo Yah!!