The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

Most people really hate sales. Yet in many ways we are all salesmen, trying to sell a point of view, a product or a service. In fact, some professions have restrictions on how they can advertise their services, such as lawyers and doctors. Yet they still find a way to do exactly that, because everyone has to. But no matter if you use a hard sell or a soft sell, or any of the other methods out there, you are going to encounter the word ‘no’.

I’ve been following a series of training videos by Brendon Burchard. In it he talks about the six reasons people don’t buy. It is important to know these for when you craft an offer that tries to overcome all these objections.

The first reason people don’t buy is that they do not understand the value of what you have. The flip side of that is that you have to sell to people who already understand the value, or educate people about the value. It is more difficult to do the latter.

The second reason people do not buy is that they don’t understand what it is. A lot of marketers spend an inordinate amount of time on this area. They describe feature after feature, so people understand what it is. This is a popular approach, and a beginning point for many when they think of marketing. There is always tension between the marketer, who wants to highlight the value, and the deliverer of the service or the engineer, who often thinks the product should sell itself without any hyperbole.

Sometimes people don’t buy because they do not believe you can deliver the product or service. For example, someone is selling expensive French cuisine and you walk into the restaurant, only to find it is decorated like a hamburger joint. There is a disconnect between what you are seeing and what you are seeking.

The fourth reason is that people don’t buy because they don’t believe they can. As a teacher of weight loss kickboxing, I encounter this all the time. Some persons just do not have confidence in themselves. This can be offset by having testimonials with people that look like them, or experience similar things that they are experiencing.

An important objection for people when buying is that they do not want it now. That is why lead generation advertising is really important. We’ve all been there before; something great comes along but we don’t have the money at the time. Or maybe we just don’t have the time to evaluate it now. But given another time we will buy. So it is up to the marketer to keep in touch with the prospect.

Finally, people do not buy because they don’t believe they have time for it. The more complex your product or service, the more expensive it should be, because you are going to get less people to make that commitment. Remember to include these six elements when crafting your offer, and you will meet with greater success.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. He is also treasurer of the Bahamas Olympic Committee. To contact him he can be reached at DArcyRahmingsr@gmail.com.