Approaching Different Kinds of Buyers

Willingham, in Integrity Selling; How to Succeed in Selling in the Competitive Years Ahead (New York: Doubleday, 1987, pp. 41-43, does not recommend categorizing prospects immediately. Rather, engage them in conversation, not relating to what you're selling, and learn about them. the first meeting will be a meet and greet. Then, when you're done, think about what kind of buyer they are.

This is good advice, as you shouldn't try to close before it's time to do so, and you don't know your prospect well enough to understand what he or she needs, much less wants. But you've listened to them talking, and you have some preliminary ideas about what group each buyer may fall into.

Remember, everybody is a mix. You need to acquire a different kind of persona depending on the person to whom you are talking so that you can match his style.

Here are a few questions to ask each type. Remember these are just sample questions. You need to evolve your own, but these should get you going:

For Talkers:

"Who will be involved in using the product or service?"
"What do other people like or don't like about what they've been using."
"How will morale be influence?"
"Who else will be involved in the final decision?"
"How do you feel about my product?"

For Doers:

"What do you want to accomplish?"
"What do you want to happen that isn't happening now?"
"What can I do to save you time?"
"How important is it to them to get more done?"
"What problems have they had that you can help them solve?"

For Controllers:

"What return on investment are you looking for?"
"What would help their organization run more efficiently?"
"What are the questions that call for facts and specific answers?"
"What do you do to manage your job most efficiently?"

For Plodders:

"What would help you do their job better?"
"What risks can you help them avoid?"
"What details do you need explained?"
"What's worked for you in the past?"
"Can you help me out?"

What do you think about this? Post a comment to this blog.

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.