If you haven’t heard, a dealer reached out to us and asked for help guiding them back into profit.
In the beginning of this conversation, Chris Mele spoke with the Distressed Dealer about moving away from product based selling. He gave the example of Julie who is going through a divorce and wants to remodel her kitchen as a way to start fresh. The Distressed Dealer was having a hard time grasping why Julie is not buying cabinets but buying a new start. Here is another snippet of their conversation.
The Conversation Continued
DD: You mean put a price on her ability to move on?
CM: Yes. What would you pay in her situation for the ability to move on and forget about “him”?
DD: I don’t know. I guess at some point you’d pay just about anything to move on with your life.
CM: Exactly. Now of course this example is a bit extreme, but it demonstrates a point. If you told Julie all about product, she wouldn’t really care. She wouldn’t really understand. All she would hear is a bunch of product stuff she may or may not need with no real way to understand how it will help her move on, which is why she wants to change the kitchen in the first place.
Consequently, she becomes price sensitive because she doesn’t understand. You’re throwing all this garbly gook (i.e. product details) at her and she’s zoning out. But if you had put together a plan for her which truly helped her move on in every way – from the design to the upgrades – it would be less about price for her and more about her true motivation in buying.
DD: So you’re saying people don’t care about price?
CM: No, I didn’t say that. But what I am saying is that price is not always THE motivating factor in a project – especially in higher ticket sales. What I am saying is that people love to buy and hate to be sold.
When you’re throwing stuff at prospects that you care about and they don’t, you’re selling. People hate that. Actually, they detest it.
DD: What did you mean by “higher ticket sales”?
CM: A significant purchase of any sort is a higher ticket sale. For some it’s anything above $500, for others it’s maybe above $2,500. It depends on who you are dealing with.
Anything that is “higher ticket” means more complexity – more things you have to address and think about when helping someone buy. This means emotion is king. The higher the ticket, the higher the emotions involved. Since kitchens are definitely significant purchases because of the money involved, it is important to understand how to sell differently.
With higher ticket sales – the prospect doesn’t buy on price alone. That’s usually the one that salespeople will have a heart attack over, but I’ll say it again:
Prospects don’t make significant purchases on price alone. There’s many other factors that have to be addressed. The mistake that is most often made in our industry is everyone assumes it’s always all about price.
DD: I thought it was our job is to tell prospects what they need. How do I get them to buy without “selling”?
CM: Here’s how it works: when we want something, buying it makes us feel good. Then we rationalize our decision with logic. As long as you help customers buy what they want and help them rationalize that their decision was a good one, people will be less focused on price.
The “What they want” part is crucial. You have to answer that question for each prospect without using any product related words.
