NLP & GO

--FINANCIAL GROWTH 6: Sales 2

Date: 10/23/2005

Another purpose of sales is to protect the buyer. This is based on an idea in the first chapter of "Reframing" by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. 

There are two applications of this: 

The first is if people have any negative feelings toward your profession.  For example, some people are suspicious of door to door salespeople.  If you buy something from a door to door salesperson you may have to deal with your friends' comments afterwards.

          "How could you buy from them?  They sell such junk!"

          "You overpaid; they really took you for a ride."

Hearing comments like these can give the buyer second thoughts about his purchase.  If the buyer will then go and advise his friends not to buy from this door to door salesperson that means a loss in clients and in sales.

One way to deal with this is to anticipate the problem right up front.  Tell the client:

          "I know that door to door salespeople have a reputation for overcharging or for selling merchandise of inferior quality.  It is very important to me that you are 100% satisfied with your purchase.  I want you to feel confident that you have made the correct decision.   If you want to shop around and compare, or if you just need more time to think it over, that is fine with me.  If you have any reservations I will tear up the contract with no obligation to you."

This way you are protecting the customer (as well as yourself).  It is unlikely that the purchaser will have buyer's remorse when friends make negative comments.  Instead the buyer will be thinking "the sales person told me this would happen."  The negative comments were neutralized from the outset.

Even though this approach may cause a loss of a small number of sales, it results in many referrals from satisfied customers and ultimately a lot more sales.  And, it is certainly a lot more ethical.

The second application would be if the purchaser has his own personal reservations. 

I know someone who sold computers about 5 years BPE (before the Pentium era, that is). They were IBM compatible, manufactured in China, and cost almost half the price of a similar IBM model.  I was curious why anyone would pay almost twice the price just for the name IBM.

          "As they say," he explained to me, "nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM."

In other words, here the buyer's reservation would be:

          "Will the boss be upset if something goes wrong with this Chinese computer and hold it against me for not buying a well-known brand such as IBM."

The sales person might deal with this by telling the buyer:

          "Listen, this computer is every bit as excellent as the IBM and much more cost-effective.  I want both you and your boss to be happy with your purchase.   Please go and discuss it with him.  If you prefer buying the brand name than you can back out of the deal and it is fine with me".  (You might want to elaborate more on the advantages of the Chinese computer).

Give it a try!  Listen actively; often their reservation will surface at some point during your conversation.   In addition, observe the client. Are they hesitating?   Are there changes in their facial expressions or in their voice tone?  These may be signs that they have some reservation. If you do observe any of these, ask them if they have any questions.  If they do have reservations, deal with them as above.   Remember to practise this with someone before using it in real life.