We moved into our new house five months ago. The day after we moved in, when there were still boxes on the driveway, I heard a knock at the door. A man, who introduced himself as Shane, told me that he ran a plant nursery and was delivering locally. He then asked, given that I had just moved in, whether I would be interested in buying from him.
Shane was so positive, enthusiastic and interesting that, before I knew it, he had opened up his van and was showing me samples of box shrubs, bay trees and olive trees. I didn’t buy at that point, but agreed that he should pop by whenever he happened to be in the area.
Shane visited us for the third time last week and we eventually bought several items from him – a cloud box shrub (pictured), an olive tree and a pair of skimmia shrubs.
Before Shane visited, I had no interest in any of these plants. I had no ‘need’. Yet, yesterday, I happily handed over £500 to Shane. (He told me to focus on how much I’d saved, rather than how much I’d spent!)
The truth is that I, like most buyers, am open to ideas. The buying process, even for business-to-business buyers and internal buyers, has a significant emotional side to it. We might like to think we’re analytical, independent self-servers, but in reality, we’re all persuadable.
The key for “sellers” is therefore to make sure that they’re proactively and enthusiastically sharing ideas and possible solutions. How effectively are you offering new, interesting and compelling ideas to your customers?
© Stuart Cross 2017. All rights reserved.