WHY SHOULD I BUY FROM YOU?

Dan:

In your workshop you asked one of my colleagues to role play with you. You played the role of the customer and asked, "Why should I buy your product?"  First you asked them to reply like a typical rep then you asked him to reply like a superstar.   

Can you please review the correct response? I thought it was very powerful.

Thanks!

Margaret

West Linn, OR

Margaret:

Great question!  I'm sure that others will also benefit from a review of this question.

The reason the exercise is great is that it does a nice job of summarizing the difference between average reps and superstars.

It is best to first address what NOT to say when you are asked the question. Consider the following: 

Customer: "Oh, I noticed you work for ABC Company. I understand we are considering your offering. I only have a few minutes.  Please tell me why you think we should consider buying from your company?"

Sales Rep: "Sure, I'm happy to tell you why you should buy from us. We are the #1 company in the world. We have the best reputation, market share, and product. Not only that, our service team is the best in the world. Our system is faster and easier to use than any other product. The ROI, IRR, payback, net present value is better than any competitor. Blah, blah, blah..."

Translation:  I am a typical, average sales rep and I:

• Don't care about your needs
• Don't care about your time constraints
• Don't care if I sell a product to you that does not meet your needs
• Don't care how you plan to use the product
• Don't want to spend any time uncovering your specific short-term and long-term needs to see if my product is the right one for you
• Don't care if you could better solve your problem with an alternative offering that would be much better for you
• Don't want to take my time to analyze your specific business case to determine your ROI, payback, net present value, IRR.  In other words I really don't care if you can afford it or not. 

As an average rep, I believe that my only goal in this discussion is to convince the customer to buy from me and immediately provide a signed contract and down payment. I also believe that when a customer has only a few minutes it means that:

• I need to talk really, really fast.
• I need to toss everything my marketing department told me about my product against the wall and see if any of it sticks.

I think you will agree how wrong this approach is and that we now know what not to say.  

How does a true superstar answer this customer's question? First, the Superstar must determine where the customer is positioned on the Trust Triangletm. For those of you who are not familiar with the Trust Triangle, it is a powerful tool which helps us understand how people make major high-risk decisions. It helps us to determine what our actions should be to assist clients as they navigate the Trust Triangle. For more information on the Trust Triangle, see Building Trust, Growing Sales.

In this example, let's assume we have never met the client before and that the client is closed-minded, is early in the buying process and is therefore on the far left side of the Trust Triangle. Given this information we have a single goal in our interaction with her: to GAIN TRUST; NOT sell. To gain trust we would reply with a generous amount of empathy and credibility. Here is an example:

Customer: "Oh, I noticed you work for ABC Company. I understand we are considering your offering. I only have a few minutes. Please tell me why you think we should buy from your company?"

Superstar: "Sure, I'd be happy to address why you may wish to invest in our solution.  However, I would feel very uncomfortable about doing so without a comprehensive overview of exactly how you plan to utilize our offering both in the short term and long term. It sounds like you are pressed for time now. I would like to take the first steps in that effort. I would like to invest some time to get a better understanding of your business and your plans for using our system. Once I do that, if there is a match between us, given your short-term and long-term needs, I would be happy to review how we can help you. If there is not a match, I would be happy to recommend several other solutions that may be better able to address your needs. What is the best way for me to get time on your calendar next Friday morning?"

Translation: 

• I care about you.
• I respect your time.
• I care about your short-term and long-term needs.

Now let's change gears. If you have earned the trust of the client, they are deep into their buying process and therefore on the far right side of the Trust Triangle. Our goal, then, is to credibly share why we offer the right solutions given their objectives. Does that mean tossing all of our features and benefits against the wall? Of course not.  Like a laser beam you will review their key buying criteria and summarize how your solution specifically and uniquely addresses their needs.

Here is an example:

Customer:  "I only have a few minutes. We will be finalizing our vendor selection tonight. Why do you think we should buy from your company?"

Superstar: "Sure, over the past six months we have repeatedly discussed your specific needs and buying key buying criteria for this investment. You may recall that you finally settled on the following:

#1: Speed, #2: Quality &  #3: Service. Has the criteria or the importance ranking changed?

Customer:  "No, you are still right on track."

Superstar: "Ok, great, let me summarize how our offering to you uniquely positions us to meet each of those requirements..."