Heritage

Spare potential buyer nuts and bolts of deal

sales

Provide a potential buyer with the basics of what meets their needs. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Many times all the buyer wants is to make a decision to buy is an appreciation of the situation and not a technical explanation of it.

For instance, consider the driver who takes his vehicle to the mechanic because only the front windows aren’t opening.

To the question, “What was wrong?” the mechanic could choose to share the technical explanations of faulty wiring, burnt fuse or broken switch (and inviting more questions in the process); or, as he receives payment for the job done, he could just say, “It wasn’t much; just like a bulb ikichomeka (blowing) in your house.”

Or, to show that the grating sound coming from the engine is not a serious problem, he could put the buyer driver at ease, by equating it to the common cold: Ni homa tu.” And therein lays the objective. The buyer isn’t asking to get the nuts and bolts of the situation.

All he needs is assurance and confidence; assurance that the problem can be resolved and confidence that you can do it.

In fact, unless it’s one techie speaking to another, sellers rarely need to explain the coding behind the software, just how it works. You learnt how to drive (or type) but you don’t really care much about how the vehicle functions (or, Microsoft Word allows you to type).

Besides being lay, another reason why buyers want simple explanations is because they are decision makers and don’t have the time to listen to the wiring of your product or service but whether (more than how) it solves their problem.

At such times, dwelling on the wiring may cost you the sale or delay its completion. They likely have technical people who have already approved the wiring.

READ: For faster sale, inflict prospect with pain of real buying reason

And so to them, a confident “Companies X and Y (whom they respect) have doubled their profits with this service” is adequate. You will know you are dwelling on the wiring when the executive takes a keener interest on his cell phone or remembers an email he was to respond to.

And you move that further away from closing the sale. Decision makers also include the SME owner; when he contracts the auditor or website developer he just wants to know that they know what needs to be done and are competent enough to pull it through.

But where does the seller draw resources to help him simplify the complex equation? Without being academic about it literary devices come in handy.

These are examples (it’s like the bulb blowing off); personification (the car just has a cold); alliteration (million member march, by the CEO on a membership drive); similes (the mechanism that powers our lifts is as silent as the turbines that power your factory); allusion (delaying approving this decision will make the losses you incurred with the failed Project Hercules look like child’s play); imagery (you’ll be wowed by how loud the silence at our exclusive resort is); metaphors, storytelling, anecdotes, and dozens others you can use.

These simple explanations dispense of unnecessary debilitating details and accelerate the sale to a close.