How to Sell or Why They Buy
(download free Buying Motives e-book below)

People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy is my #1 (trademarked) rule of selling. It is an undeniable rule that on the surface seems relatively simplistic, but when you dig deeper, you’ll find the complexity lies in uncovering the MOTIVE of why people buy.

Uncovering buying motives goes against the strategy of “selling.” Selling implies informing the prospect of who you are, how great you are, what your product is, what your product does, and a myriad of features and benefits that most buyers are completely aware of or could find out in about 1.5 seconds by Googling.

Uncovering buying motives (the real key to the sale) is harder to do and requires a lot more work on the part of the salesperson, but if done properly will both double your sales and eliminate your competitors.

Why “Why” is So Important

The fundamental principle is uncovering the prospects “why.” Why do they want this? Why do they need this? Why is it important that they buy it now? And assorted other emotional questions that creates what is known as buyer urgency. Once you as a salesperson understand WHY a customer wants to buy, all you have to do is match those motives with value, believability, and trust.

Here’s why people buy: Their history, their past experiences, their expertise, their wisdom, their need, their want, their desire to solve or resolve, their desire to recover, their desire to change, their desire to change, their desire to own, their desire to win, their passion (their desire to own + win = their passion), their fear, their greed, their vanity, their desire to impress, their peace of mind, and their desired outcome.

People buy for their reasons, not your reasons. If you understand that, then their urgency to buy is your reality.

The Element That Loses the Sale

There’s one more element that trumps all the other elements. That is the element of risk. Regardless of the prospect’s desire and motive to buy, if they perceive you as too big of a risk, they will not do business with you.

Your job is a salesperson is to uncover the motive and eliminate the risk. Once you have accomplished this, the customer will buy from you.

More sales are lost by “selling” than any other form of sales error.

Your selling skills are not one one-hundredth as powerful as the customer’s reasons for buying. Your reasons for selling are useless if they don’t match the customer’s reasons for buying.

This reasoning is as powerful as it is overlooked.

ASK YOURSELF THIS: “Why did my last ten customers buy from me?” My bet is that you don’t know. I mean the REAL motive, not the surface one like price or friendship. If uncovering these motives are at the heart of your future success in sales, maybe you should take a deeper look at what caused the purchase.

The Beef Is in the Buying Motives

What are buying motives? They are the REAL reason or reasons for making a purchase.

Many times the salesperson (not you, of course) is fooled into believing that the surface issue is the real reason for purchase. When a potential customer asks for “bids” the salesperson thinks that “low price” in the motive to buy, and nothing could be further from the truth.

Think about the way you buy. First there’s a REASON, then you go shopping. It’s the same with your customers. Price is simply a barrier to owning what you want or need.

AND, if you can get deeper into the buying motive, you can get higher in the decision-making chain (ie: above purchasing and procurement). Cool, huh?

And here’s the best part — it’s hard work. This means you eliminate all the lazy salespeople from the race.

OK, so let’s get down to the reasons. The motives to buy. Take a look at these and you’ll see that your discovery process needs to go deeper in order to make the issue of price less of a barrier. And, there may be several motives for the same purchase.

Let me give you some motives as food for thought. To make it easier, I have broken them down by motive category:

Purchase oriented motives:

Out of stock

Need for production

Need for manufacture

Need for business operation

Previous experience

Emotional oriented motives:

High desire

Value of purchase

Desire to gain

In a panic — timing

Vanity or greed — ego gratification

Low risk or no risk

Experience oriented motives:

Preconceived notion

Previous experience

Certain of performance

Confidence in quality

Confidence in service

Brand loyalty

Supplier loyalty

Salesman loyalty

Profit or money oriented motives:

Fear of loss — losing ground to competition

Fear of loss — losing customers

Fear of loss — losing revenues

Better productivity or performance

Work reduction or efficiency

Increase profits

Have the money or budget

Best choice

Best price

Cheapest price (I put this here because sometimes price is the real motive to buy — but rarely)

Result oriented motives:

Increase customer loyalty

Enhance brand value

Better market image

Improve the present product

Gain a competitive advantage

Which of these motives fit your customers?

Answer: Lots of them.

Answer: More than you know.

Answer: Uncovering them is the key to your sales.

Answer: Often it’s a combination of motives

Are some motives more powerful than others? Heck yeah! Fear of loss is greater than the desire to gain. You determine the value by the number of sales that result from each you uncover.

Uncovering Motives

How do you expose these all-important motives from your customers? Start with the past. Past successes and present loyal customers. Existing customers will help you understand why they buy from you. Explore their history. Get their experience. Ask deep — three or four consecutive “why’s” will get to the hidden motives. Ask them why that was important? Get their story of the long-term use of your product or service, even if it was not only purchased from you. Motive after motive will come forth.

Then go into the dark side. The real truth will come from lost customers. Why did they leave you? Why they left was tied to their unmet motive to buy. You may even regain a few relationships.

Here’s a way to perceive this process. Don’t think of it as “motive.” Think of it as “money.” Find the motive means find the money. Or at least the path that will lead you there.

Show me the motive and I’ll show you the sale.

It’s Not the Pitch That Makes the Sale

Here’s a real-life illustration of this crucial fact. Once, my team was at a conference making a BIG sale. A seven figure sale. Big enough for you? I’ll disclose a few details of what transpired between the buyer and us below.

Let me begin by saying our “selling” was only 25% or less of the total impact of the buyer’s desire to purchase.

And let me add that it’s the same for you in your selling situations.

What matters are: their motives to buy. And I had the rare opportunity at the end of the sale, for my customer to reveal his motives — his decision-making process — to me in detail.

CAUTION ONE: This lesson will not be a be-all-end-all solution. BUT, it WILL be an insight into the mind of the buyer, the decision maker, and how he takes your sales information and converts it to a purchasing decision.

CAUTION TWO: You will have to convert and adapt some of the lesson to your product or service. Our product is online training. Customized internet-based learning that is available 24/7 to an individual, and completely accountable to, and coachable by his or her manager.

We started our meeting with the traditional questioning. I try to uncover areas of opportunity by assessing present situations, past failings, existing game-plans, current strategies, and immediate goals. If a buyer has a need, there are specific reasons for it. And my job is not to just uncover them. My job is to create ideas and solutions that the prospective customer will feel comfortable with. Comfortable enough to buy. Same with you.

BUT — shrewd buyers will almost never reveal their deep feelings or motives. The “motive” is the reason BEHIND the situation that will cause them to buy or pass.

I also try to get them to ask questions without prompting. The more they ask, the more I believe they are interested.

We had long since reached the point of “friendly” in the conversation, so I felt at ease to ask anything without fear of “losing.”

About half way through my presentation, I noticed one of the buying group (there were three of them and two of us) writing furiously on a yellow pad. “Taking copious notes?” I inquired casually. “Yes, I have a developed a method of determining if we should make a purchase. I always use it when the deal is sizable.”

“Will you share it with me.” I asked innocently.

“Sure, if we decide to purchase from you.” He said with a smile.

Two hours later, they agreed in substance to purchase. Needing only a budget addition, and a CEO blessing, our new customer was ready and willing to share his formula for making a buying decision. And I was all ears and laptop.

What followed was the most open and informative dialog I have ever had with a customer. What I recommend is that you take a close look at his purchasing criteria and apply it to whatever it is that you sell.

The “Golden List”

My customer started out by saying that he had a list of “purchase-criteria” questions that when answered, made the decision to buy evident. But before he put down any answers, he outlined existing situations to make sure that all the information he had was relevant.

Here are the questions:

What do you offer?

What do you offer that no one else has?

What do you offer of value?

Does it really fill my need?

Is it real world?

Will it work?

Will it work in our environment?

How will it impact our people?

How could it impact our success?

Will senior or executive management buy-in?

Will my people use it?

How will we produce as a result of the purchase?

How will we profit as a result of the purchase?

Do I trust the people I’m buying from both as people, and their ability to deliver what they promise?

How will it come together — how do we buy it?

Do I have the comfort to sign off now?

Once these questions are answered, and the answer to buy is “yes,” then he makes a plan to implement the purchase BEFORE he leaves the meeting.

Wow! If you ever wanted to know what went through a purchasing prospects mind, there is THE list. The golden list.

The Golden Lesson

Now the question is, how do you apply this gold to your sales? And the answer is simple: Make certain you incorporate the answers to these questions in your sales presentation.

Simple: yes. Easy: no. This is a complex process that must be studied, practiced, implemented, and refined. And let me promise you that the hard work will pay off — in hard cash.

I told you I’d give you the resources you need to go from being good at sales to being great. Download my free e-book with more insights on Buying Motives here >>>

Check back next week when I’ll be discussing in depth about the questions you’re asking your customers—and what it says about you and reveals to them.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved
Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer

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