March 2023 8th issue: Learn the customer's decision-making process and lower the hurdles
First, get to know your customer. Learning about your customers is the first step in doing business.
When and how do customers make decisions? Do they have a decision-making process in place? Who is their key decision-maker? Do they have any criteria for making decisions?
If you don't know your customers, you can't plan your strategy. Getting to know your customers, especially their decision-making processes, is critical to running a successful business.
If customers are reluctant to place orders or accept your requests, it may be because you have not learned the customer's decision-making process. If you make sales at the wrong time, make requests to the wrong person, or make proposals that do not meet the customer's criteria, it will not go well.
The purpose of learning the customer's decision-making process is to be able to make proposals that are easy for the customer to accept, as well as to avoid making mistakes in approaching.
Even you apporach to a right person in a good time, there can be high hurdles for customers to accept your offer. In such cases, it is important to eliminate the reasons why customers do not accept proposals, in other words, to lower the hurdles that prevent customers from accepting proposals.
The lower the bar, the easier it is for customers to accept your offer. For example, when proposing a disadvantage to the customer, it is more likely that it will be accepted if the proposal is tied together with the advantage to the customer. The key to lowering the hurdles is to review the proposal from the other person's point of view. Think about how you can make the other person more receptive. For example, it would be a good idea to come up with a few patterns, prepare at least three options, and let the customer choose.
Learning the customer's decision-making process, lowering the hurdles, and whether or not you can continue to do this steadily will make a big difference in whether your business will be more likely to succeed.
*Return to Topics
