Sales is a psychological game in which the end goal is to provide our customers with solutions to their problems, whilst making sure we hit our own targets and keep out our competition.
But to achieve those goals we must totally understand what our buyers are thinking and what their motivations are. And let’s be honest, its extremely hard to know what our buyers are thinking. We can listen to what they are saying but what if they are pulling the wood over our eyes. We can try our best to read the signals, but how can we be sure that we are reading them correctly? They may say positive things, but are they just being polite? They may say negative things, but should we take it at face value? We’ve all heard about buying signals before, but what actually are they? How do we spot them? How guaranteed are they? And then what do we do when we spot one? The difference between consideration and intent buying signals
Here are 5 examples, what to do when you spot any of them and how to avoid overselling and talking your way out of a sale. Why buying signals are so important? You are a Sales person, you want your prospects to buy. So the signal that they are considering or intending on buying is obviously a good thing, but it goes deeper then that. For a start, most prospect aren’t a simple on/off switch, there are loads of factors and requirements that need to be met before they decide to buy. There are psychological hurdles and internal wants or needs that require meeting before they decide to buy. And then even if those are all met, there are multiple products that they might end up buying. And there are competitors that might steal those sales.
So buying signals need to be used in 2 ways. Firstly, to ensure prospects are interested. And secondly, to gather additional information that we can use to sell. But regardless of the help buying signals provide the most important thing is that if don’t spot them, then we are missing out.
If the buyer gives us a signal of a want they have and we miss it, then they think we can’t fulfil that . Even if we can, be that cost functionality, delivery times, contractual terms, whatever. Then the sale is lost over silly misunderstanding. Or if the buyer gives us a buying signal disguised as an objection, and we think it’s an outright no, then we are missing out on a potential sale just because we didn’t dig a little deeper.
And then again the sale is lost over simple misunderstanding. So the buying signals are a complex and tricky to interpret psychological puzzle that if understood correctly can massively alter the course of a sale process. That’s why they are so crucial. An that’s why we should always be on the ready for them
Sales processes are a game of cat and mouse. The buyer doesn’t want to reveal their intent because they are scared of being taken advantage of. And the seller what to be a sale as easy and fast as possible. So they want to find out what they buyer wants and their needs, so they can buy right away. But whoever needs it more holds the power. If you are starving you do anything to eat. So if the customer is starving, the salesperson can charge whatever they want. But if the salesperson is starving, then the customer can pay whatever they want. So most sales situations have a combination of both. The customer want a pain removed, and the salesperson wants the sale. So in order to get the best price and service possible, customers hide the fact that they need your product. They pretend they don’t need it. They pretend they’re not in a rush, and they don’t have very much budget, but there are a few ways to spot what they are thinking.
We’ll go through the top 10 buying signals. But before we do I wanted to lay out the difference between the 2 types of buying signals. Firstly is consideration. This is as the name would imply. The customer is considering the product. This is an initial opportunity stage where the buyer is very early on in the buying process. And this could be considering buying any product like yours, for example buying a new car. What manufacturer they use will depend on their needs and what various companies can offer. Whether its an SUV or a coupe, again, depends on their needs and what’s available are. Again, it could be considering buying your product over a competitor’s, but it’s consideration. They haven’t made the conscious decision to buy your or any products. They’re interested in the benefits that they could receive, but are still deep in the research stage. These buyers can be easily spooked and scared away, so do not sell to them too hard. But there is al an opportunity waiting to be captured. The second buying signal is intent. This is when the customer intends on purchasing. It’s just a case of what, when and how much. This is late opportunity stage where the buyer is far down the buying process and they intend on buying a product like yours.