Love = Sales
When someone says they Love a product or service that means they are a great customer living in a win win world. You want these kinds of customers. Did you know you can make these kinds of customers for yourself? Let me tell you how.
The Background
I think selling things to people has to be at heart a simple process. To be fair I think everything is simple at heart
People seem complex and like to make themselves seem more so at almost every opportunity. When selling cars, most salesmen I knew hated selling to “Analytical” customers. Analyticals are the types who come around with a clipboard drawn up with all the features and specifications and need to have the salesman explain everything in minute detail only to say, “I’ll think about it.”
I did quite well selling to analytical people because I realised pretty early on that under all this complexity were very simple people. Here is the most classic example:
I was talking to a young man and his friend. The buyer really liked a 3-door car with a full body kit that made it look like a sports car but it wasn’t. The full retail price was $21,697.70 Drive Away. I knew that the fellow liked the car but I couldn’t work out why he wasn’t purchasing. I was mostly getting the 'I have to look around' excuse. I felt impatient so I simply said, “Well why don’t you buy it? Is the price wrong for you?” Now get this, the fellow said to me, “No, the car is perfect and the price is just great! I love it.” His friend cuffed him and called him an idiot (jokingly). I said, “Let’s go do the paperwork” and he followed me to my desk. A very happy customer.
What I learned here was that all this young man’s analysis was simply an attempt to slow himself down from making the purchase his heart knew was what he wanted. He had seen the car a week before and fallen in love with it. This was massive proof of what I already knew:
When people fall in love they get motivated.
Look at Romeo and Juliet (and every other love against adversity story ever writ). In sales if you can get a person to fall in love with something then you are only overcoming objections whilst waiting for the inevitable moment when they take action and buy. I called this period “winding their clock down”. I was patient and could sit with someone for 3 hours at a time (and sometimes 3-4 times at that). I just took when my boss said “the longer someone spends in front of you and your product the greater chance you have of getting their business” very seriously.
What this all tells us is that:
- People like to make their lives complex to avoid perceived pain
- People like to fall in Love because Love is simple and has no complexity
- When people fall in Love complexity falls away and they get motivated
- Motivated, in-Love people are good customers
Create In-Love-Customers of your own
What you need to do is find out what pains people and what would solve their pain. Show them in a clear, simple way that also answers all of their procrastination and you will have changed the world (think of the humble Paper Clip and how much pain it has solved in your life alone). Finally you show people how to own this pain reliever and you have a sale.
In-Love customers can often be generated as simply as by showing people what your product can do for them. I bet that first time you saw a paper clip you were awed by the way in which the bent piece of wire held the pages together.
Try to avoid making average or me-too products as they make life hard for you. Make special products and let customers see how great they are and they will fall in love.
The Web is a great place to start to make customers fall in love. You can spend as much or as little time showing every customer how your product can lessen their pain as they like. You can answer every conceivable question they could ever have and then all your salesman has to do is ‘wind their clock down’ to a clear, happy sale. You can also encourage pople to talk about your products and evangelize for you.
If you want me to work with your business then please visit BRM Web Consulting
