Have you ever stopped to think about why customers don’t buy even when your product offers them every advantage? A few articles ago we talked about purchase objections (here). Some of the objections we discussed were these:
· Time
· Money
· Understanding
· Suitability
Answering these objections makes it much easier to close the sale.
Most of the time.
Other times, answering the objections won’t be enough.
And even though everything seems clear and the customer can’t have any doubts left, the sale doesn’t happen. Why? Your product benefits the customer, you’ve answered the objections, and still the customer hesitates and ends up not buying.
It’s what we can call sales inaction, and you’ve very likely experienced it yourself.
An example of sales inaction
Here’s a classic example. The typical call from a phone company making you an offer that’s hard to refuse:
· Price? Cheaper than whatever you’re paying now.
· Incentive? We’ll give you a free mobile phone
· Paperwork to cancel your current provider? None, we’ll take care of it
· Early termination fee? No problem, we’ll cover it.
· No idea how to set things up? No problem, a technician will come to your home and install everything for you
· But you’ll raise that price later, right? Don’t worry, we guarantee that price for three years
And even with all this, there are people like me who don’t buy. How is that possible when every possible objection has been answered?
From the seller’s point of view, we have a customer who doesn’t take action, who apparently prefers to stay with their current problem rather than buy our product.
This usually happens for several reasons:
· Comfort: maybe the problem isn’t that serious, and they’d rather do nothing.
· Trying to solve it themselves: many customers may try to solve the problem on their own
· Distrust: the customer doesn’t trust your company and doesn’t believe you can deliver on your promises
· Previous attempts: some customers have tried to solve their problem with other companies in the past and failed
All of this can lead the customer to postpone the purchase indefinitely, or until they find a “better time” to deal with it. Of course, the customer’s best time won’t be the best time for you.
What to do in these cases of sales inaction?
A first option in some cases is to offer a lower-risk alternative that also has some chance of solving the customer’s problem:
· A cheaper product
· A simpler one
· One that takes less time
· Etc.
This is one way to tackle inaction, and it can work for you in many cases.
There are other very interesting and more effective options.
Something that sparks their interest and lets them try the product, or a lower-risk version of it.
We have to understand that inaction is due to two main factors:
· Lack of trust in the solution offered
· A feeling that adopting the proposed solution won’t end well. In other words, that the “solution” will create more problems
These two form a self-reinforcing loop: if the customer doesn’t trust your product, they’ll think buying it will cause them more problems.
If we go back to last week’s example of the phone company call, even though the offer may seem very good at first, there can always be concerns: we may think that switching to the new company will cause us problems.
And worst of all, that it may leave us without service for a few days.
That’s what can lead us to inaction: thinking the solution will cause us more problems.
That’s why I said that a lower-risk offer can help unblock these situations.
Mailrelay is a clear example: the free account is a lower-risk option that lets users try the system with less risk.
In that case, why are there users who still wouldn’t choose this alternative?
In this situation, you need to try to understand the customer’s fears and concerns so you can answer their objections.
And this is where we can break down three very important communication actions you should make the most of:
1) Why your product is better than what customers can do on their own:
Many customers, if they don’t see how serious the problem is, will try to solve it on their own.
In these cases, try to show them why your product is a much better solution. Its strengths compared with this kind of solution.
2) Why your product is better than your competitors’
At other times, inaction may be caused by too much choice. Too many options can leave the customer not knowing which one to choose.
Choose your product’s key differentiator and make the customer see it.
3) Show them what they lose if they don’t buy, even on a personal level
If there’s one thing you should learn about copywriting and never forget, it’s this.
Your customer has to “see” what happens if they don’t buy.
Avoiding risk is a priority for your customer. Avoiding losing money, avoiding losing time, avoiding dissatisfaction. Your customer thinks that not buying, when they’re unsure, saves them from these problems.
Your mission in these cases is to show them what their situation will be if they don’t buy, especially on a personal level.
· Will they have to spend more time and so have less free time?
· Will an unsuitable solution cause them family problems?
· Will they put their promotion at risk by not making the right decision?
To break the inaction, you have to make your customer see that doing nothing is much worse than doing something, even if they’re not completely sure.
This lesson is worth a lot of money.
Many of these objections have to do with psychological triggers and social norms that hold the customer back without them saying so.
