Trying to close sales without understanding your prospect’s motivators to buy leaves you at a serious disadvantage. Until you know and understand the motivators to buy, all you have are dry product descriptions and a generic sales pitch. There’s no real way to help your sales prospects connect with your products. That connection is what allows your sales prospects to truly understand the value your products can offer them as individuals. As a salesperson, it’s up to you to learn about your prospect’s motivators to buy so you can deliver a personalized pitch to help close the deal.

Buying Out of Want

Often, when a sales prospect is buying something for themselves, they are buying because they want to. They want something to make their life or job easier, or something to entertain them, or they’re just buying something as a treat for themselves. These can be the most difficult sales prospects to deal with, since people often feel a sense of guilt when spending money solely on their own desires. Understanding those desires, and what your products can do to fulfill them, will help you to move the sales prospects past any sense of guilt, and into a purchase.

The direct approach is usually the best one in these situations. Ask the prospect about their wants, and look for ways that your products can fill them. Help them see how fulfilling their own wants can also have benefits for the people around them. Someone who is happier at work performs better; someone who is happier at home will generally have a better family life. If you can help them see how your products will quickly and affordably increase their happiness or satisfaction, it will be easier for them to justify the purchase. It all begins with understanding their wants as one of their motivators to buy.

Buying Out of Need

On the other side of the issue are those people who have a problem, and need a product to help solve that problem. This can get tricky, as it may not be their problem that needs solving. The sales prospect may be making a purchase to solve a problem at home or at work. They may be answerable to someone else, and need a quick, reliable resolution to satisfy that person. Either way, the problem has ended up in their lap, and it’s up to you to help steer them toward a solution.

Usually, these needs break down into one of two larger categories: they need a product to help make more money, or they need a product to help save more money. There are smaller sub-categories such as saving time or increasing convenience, but those also fit neatly under the larger categories. What you need are specifics. Is their business spending too much time on a specific process or task? Are they struggling to complete otherwise simple tasks at home? Do they have an existing solution that isn’t working out? You need to get as detailed a description as possible from the sales prospect.

Once you have a detailed description of the problem, and understand who has tasked them with solving the problem, you can start tailoring your sales pitch. If the sales prospect is the one looking for a solution, your pitch should focus on how quickly your product can make the problem go away. If they’ve been sent by another party, you need to focus on how your products will satisfy the needs of the third party, and how they’ll help the sales prospect fulfill their task.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

Understanding motivators to buy isn’t always a clear-cut process. You need to listen to your sales prospects, and ask pointed questions. If you keep your ears open, and show that you’re truly interested in understanding their motivators to buy, your sales prospects will give you all the information you need to seal the deal.