One of the biggest challenges to overcoming a sales barrier is customer uncertainty.
And the success of doing so depends greatly on the framing of a sales offer.
By way of illustration, if a person is asked whether they want to buy a pen, they have 2 simple closed answers - "yes" or "no" - that require little if any substantive consideration. A bit like asking someone if they want to go to the cinema, they will instinctively give one answer and rarely will be moved from it.
If, on the other hand, a person is asked whether they want to buy "this pen or that pen", then there are 2 options presented to them, which switches their mindset from one of "final decision" (which may go against a sale) into one of "preference". This is something everyone likes to feel they own and which is not only less pressurised, but makes the customer feel more involved in, as well as in control of, the purchase process - not an unreasonable expectation, given they are the ones being asked to part with cash! To continue the simple cinema analogy above, if the question is phrased in terms of "would you like to go to the cinema tonight or instead grab an afternoon matinee then bite to eat", you have doubled your chances of the offer being taken up or discussions ensuing from the open framing of the question that result in a compromise.
We talk about the relative merits of niche as against generic business offerings in our post entitled "Break Time Quickie: "Niche" versus "Generic" business offerings".
But offering the type of choice enablement model described above need not necessitate adopting a more generic business offering; it could be that a service or product is offered as a basic or premium version, for example; or there could be 2 different pricing options available for the same service or product. And so on and so forth.
By providing even limited or minor options or variations to a main theme, that can cost a business very little, it demonstrates sensitivity to a customer's needs while acknowledging them as individuals and appreciating that one size does not fit all.
Whereas a sales process confined to a take it or leave it offering that can only be embraced on a "yes" or "no" basis, can stall a sale process or dialogue before it even starts, the risks of this are explained in our post entitled "There is nothing to be gained from a "Mexican Stand Off"".
Organisations should therefore construct their sales processes carefully and avoid at all costs the self perception that their service or product is so overwhelmingly good that it is attractive to all in only one form - as this is rarely, if ever, the case and a sizeable market share could be being sacrificed by such a delusion.
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