As a sales professional, you always have to be assessing the type of buyer you are dealing with. The faster you can make this assessment the easier it will be for you to gauge how much time you need to allocate to the call, demo, or appointment.
Let’s quickly review the 5 types of buyers.
- Need Buyer – this is a buyer who is in need of a certain good or service. The more you can establish rapport, build trust, and ask great open-ended questions the easier it will be for you to uncover the need and provide value and a solution.
- Bargain Hunter – we all know this type of buyer, they will search to the ends of the earth to find the best deal. They normally aren’t as concerned with service or quality, price is all that matters…until it blows up in their face and then they become angry and bitter at the salesperson, product or service and the company. Hey, you get what you pay for. These people, I personally don’t waste a lot of time on.
- Impulse Buyer – this is a person that is driven by emotion. They buy when you strike the correct nerve or when there is a lot of hype-driven behind a good or service. This is actually a lot of salespeople, we are the best consumers. It is best to have a lot of energy dealing with an impulse buyer and really express the value of your good or service.
- Wanderer – This type of buyer is really just bored, they aren’t serious and really just a huge time suck. I, at all cost, protect my time. So, when encountering these people, I will quickly determine needs, and even ask for the business right away to get a gauge on their seriousness. I learned early in sales, it is ok, to turn some people away, your time is valuable so don’t waste it on people who don’t respect it.
- Seasonal Buyer – These people can be great prospects. They will typically start the vetting processes early on, do not confuse them with a wanderer, you just have to ask great opened questions about why they are shopping, find needs, and really dig in on their buying cycle. If you can get a seasonal buyer to trust you, you will gain a client for life.
It is important to understand buyers and buying cycles. When a salesperson hears no, they usually hear it is as “NO=FOREVER”, when I hear NO, I hear “NO=Not today, Not no forever”, this is why follow up and taking notes is so important. Some of my best clients were people that said no, the first two or three years I asked for the business but said yes in year four or five. People appreciate people who are persistent because it shows you care!
Check this video how to Win Over Prospects & Clients
