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Why People Don’t Buy Your Products or Services
Three key steps to help you become a more effective salesperson
There’s a story about the comedian Jerry Lewis that when he was touring the country doing gigs, he kept a diary. On any night where the show went well, he would write some variation on “I killed it tonight!” On a night where the show went badly, he would write “The audience sucked”.
This is reflective of a pattern I see in many of the entre/solopreneurs, business owners, and salespeople I’ve worked with. When things are going well, it’s because of the brilliance of their product, service, or salesmanship; when things are going badly, it’s because of the state of the economy, their industry, or “stubbornly resistant customers”.
Rather than try to teach them better coping strategies or “clever tricks to overcome resistance”, I often guide them in an exploration of the nature of buying. Given that no one has to buy anything from you (ever), the more you understand how people make buying decisions, the more effortless and graceful your selling will become.
Here’s the question in a nutshell:
Why do people buy when they buy, and why don’t they buy when they don’t?