Most people don’t know what the biggest killer of sales.
It isn’t price.
It isn’t a competitor.
It’s complacency. The feeling I’m OK the way I am, and nothing really needs to change.
But often we know they’re not. We know they need what we have but how do we persuade them to say…
Yes, we want them to be thinking shut up and take my money now.
For this to happen they must feel one of two things.
Either there is enormous gain to be made (think FOMO and greed that motivated much of the hype into crypto, the metaverse and NFTs).
Or they must be in significant pain (not necessarily physical).
The reality is avoiding pain trumps the chance of gain every time.
But often your offer gets looked as a ‘nice to have’. If this happens the sale is dead. They just aren’t in enough pain to buy.
So, you have to do this.
Aggravate the pain. That is look at all the consequences of not buying now. Help them imagine what the future looks like if they say no (it should be ugly).
Here’s an example. I’ll assume you’re a relationship counsellor.
One partner is thinking of engaging you to help their marriage.
Now what does the future look like if the marriage fails?
Years of fighting. Hating coming home every day to see your partner again. The kids see you fighting all the time and assume this is normal, so they then go on to have bad relationships. The marriage ends anyway. You lose half your assets and end up sleeping on a friends couch because you can’t afford another house. You start drinking to numb the pain and before you long you’re drinking way too much. You can’t move on and find another relationship. Your kids don’t want to be around you anymore. Then one day you’re wondering if life is worth living.
Now I’ve gone hard here to prove a point. You wouldn’t just come out with a spiel like that. What you would do is ask questions that lead to that sort of scenario being painted in their mind. With that level of pain, it becomes easy to say yes to getting counselling to save the marriage.
The takeaway is this. Turn your ‘nice to have’ into an essential buy. You do this be helping them feel the pain of not buying now. The key is you lead the process, but their imagination does most of the work.
