Do you know why your customers don’t buy from you? Ken Allred, CEO of Primary Intelligence, does. His firm specializes in what’s called “win-loss analysis”—that is, they analyze why sales opportunities are won or lost. Every year, Primary Intelligence interviews thousands of buyers about their purchase decisions—the sum of which typically totals more than $2 billion. Primary Intelligence did a discovery session with the salespeople and asked why they think their prospects didn’t buy. Then they asked the customers.
Guess what happened? The two responses couldn’t be more different. The sellers claimed they lost the sale because the customer couldn’t afford the product. But the buyers said they didn’t buy because it would take too much effort to make a change.
One of the number one reasons your customers don’t buy from you has nothing to do with a competitor down the street and very little to do with big brands with cool new products. They aren’t buying from you because they prefer the status quo.
This change in buyer behavior is a new one. But why? As a society we’re suffering from information overload. We’re busy and burnt-out. Time is the new currency—and we’re all broke. Admittedly, my own life is a series of 1,246 unread emails (including yours—I promise I’ll answer it soon), unclaimed insurance receipts, unpaid traffic tickets, missing pieces, and lost parts.
Your stressed-out customers simply can’t fully grasp your new, complex offerings. They may like your product, and they may even see the value in it, but they don’t have the bandwidth to understand what you’re selling or why they even need it so they’re wary of making a change.
So what are three things you can do about it?
Watch my video: “Three Ways to Deal With Your Number One Objection”
And while those three strategies will help you move your customer’s from the status quo, remember this……..“Your customers don’t have to understand a product in order to buy a product—they just need to know that you understand them and that you’re a trusted, reliable, and honest resource. I still don’t know how my car works, but I trusted the salesmen and bought it. And if I point it towards the gym, voila! I somehow wind up there.”
Here’s to helping your customer’s make the change!