Here's how to get a customer to buy now

Your company has done a great job of zeroing on viable prospective customers. Check. These future buyers are in the sales funnel and your marketing process is moving them towards the finish line. Check. Yet, the buying cycle is stretching out longer than you’d like. It’s frustrating.

Why?

After all, these are very qualified prospects. You asked all the right questions. Your website had the content they were looing for. Even your drip email campaign seems to hit on all cylinders.

Yet, these highly targeted people keep hanging around and don’t buy as quickly as you’d like. Maybe never.

How do you help someone who has shown serious interest in your offering and still isn’t ready to buy, take that next critical step?

In part 1 of the Three Rules of Marketing and Selling, I wrote about “Why Buy Anything?” -- how to qualify potential buyers with a singular focus on who will buy from you and why. Part 2, “Why Buy From You?”-- speaks to how to catch the attention of a qualified prospect.

Now it’s time to zero in on closing the deal using the Third Rule of Marketing and Selling; “Why Buy Now?”

It happens all the time. A customer is ready to purchase and then they decide to wait. Did their situation change? Are they unsure your solution is what they really need? Is a competitor whispering in their ear?

No matter what the customer says as to why they’re stalling, one thing is for sure -- you haven’t given a solid reason to buy now.

And when a sale begins to slow or comes to grinding halt, there’s a real possibility that it may never happen at all. This is true when selling in person, over the phone, and on the Internet.

Here’s how to get a customer to buy now.

Help customers see the value. You already know to keep buyers focused on benefits and not features. Now take it step further and link the benefits to results and what that means in terms of a return on their investment in your products or service. Think of this way -- people don’t buy anything; they only invest in themselves, their families, and their businesses. Directly speak to the gain your buyer will immediately experience. Better yet, explain the cost your buyer will experience by not making the investment now? If your customer doesn’t see the value you offer then they’ll only focus on price.

Help customers feel the value -- in terms of motivation. Scarcity tactics such as “order now before the price goes up” or “quantities are limited so buy now” can sometimes speed up sales by encouraging a potential buyer to take immediate action. Yet, most of time it’s artificial and smacks of desperation. Instead, market and sell strategically by understand how our brains work. It’s true that people buy with their emotions and justify with facts -- after they’ve made a decision. However, It’s still possible for people to talk themselves out of a purchase with their logical brain. It’s not so much feelings you’re looking for because that can trigger negative thoughts and actually stall a sale if the rational side of the brain takes hold. Put the motivation to buy in place early in the marketing and selling process. Speak the language that the decision-making, emotional side of the brain recognizes and appreciates. But, stay away from “in your face” scare tactics oozing with feelings.

Get your buyer to want and then to act on that want. Professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, Antonio Damasio, argues that that when we are confronted with a decision, emotions from previous related experiences attach values to the options we are considering. These emotions create preferences, which lead to our motivation to make a decision. Your goal is to clearly show how the value you offer directly impacts the buyer in the short term -- based on what they know to be true from past experiences. The outcome you want to achieve will look something like, "If I make a decision now, I will be rewarded with X" or, "If I don't make a decision now, we’ll lose X" or "If I don't make a decision now, my competition will win by X" or even, "If I make a decision now, I will look smart because of X". Help your customer fill in the “X” with dollars, time, or a percentage. Put another way, buying decisions happen when our emotional state motivates us to act.

People primarily use emotions -- personal feelings coupled with experiences -- rather than information such as features and facts to make decisions. Costs don’t matter, just outcomes achieved based on the investment made.

Create headlines, conversations, and presentations with an emotional punch that motivates, not digs up high anxiety. Use stories to communicate that your offering is for your target audience, what it means to your buyer, and why they should care.

The Three Rules of Marketing and Selling work together. Refer to them often and your company’s revenue will grow more quickly.

Ron Stein is President of FastPath Marketing (www.marketing-strategies-guide.com) and the author of the Rapid Impact Marketing & Selling Playbook. As a speaker, coach, and consultant he works with small business owners helping them to accelerate the path between their vision and the actions needed to reach, win, and keep customers. Ron is the creator of the FastPath to More Customers Now! 7-step marketing system based on more than twenty years as a successful business owner, corporate CEO, business development executive, and salesman. He is also a mentor at two nationally recognized business accelerators. Ron offers one-on-one and small group mentoring, conducts seminars, and consults. He can be reached at 727-398-1855 or Ron@FastPathMarketing.com.