Sales Triggers




Sales Triggers Follow these decision concepts to boost your odds of getting the sale
	Question: I’ve experimented with different product promotions to enhance sales. However, I can't seem to make sense out of what makes some customers react to certain promotions while others don't. Can you shed any light on this? Answer: Advertisers, marketers and everyone involved in sales would like to know more about why people react differently to purchase information, and how to make them buy more, or buy faster. In reality, this topic seems like little more than a combining of behavioral studies with economic data. However, studies in behavioral economics pose some intriguing questions about buyer differences in perception of price, value, or cost. For example: Why, given the same information about a company, would one broker recommend a stock purchase, and another recommends a sell? Why will some buyers go out of their way to save 10 cents on a can of peas, but won't cross the street to save $25 on the purchase of a big ticket item? Why does a significantly lowered price cause some buyers to react positively, and some to react negatively? What are the causes of opposite decisions like these? And much more importantly, what are the causes or reasons that enhance a positive buying decision with most buyers? While many of the studies of purchase decisions seem too complex to draw any conclusions, a few seem to make a lot of sense. If properly addressed, here are a few concepts that should enhance sales: Buying Concept #1 — People will decide to buy more readily, more quickly, with less “shopping around” when all the work is done for them, should they decide to buy. For example, buying a new car. The automobile companies have mastered this technique. Years ago, if you wanted to buy a new car, you had to sell your old car on your own. You had to get financing on your own, and on & on. Today, if you decide to buy a new car, the dealership will do everything for you — take your trade, arrange financing, pay the sales tax, register the car, fill out all the forms, prep the car, install the license plate, down to even doing things like taking your trailer hitch off the old car & installing it on the new one. Sure, you pay for it all, but the buying decision is made as easy as possible.	Buying Concept #2 — People buy more readily when the price “makes sense” compared to what they know. They also buy more readily without questioning price when they see value, and they have no basis for comparison. For example, remember the $700 toilet seat, the $500 hammer used on the space vehicles? We all got upset about those costs because they sounded extravagant to us — we all know what a toilet seat and a hammer should cost, because most of us have priced them &/or bought them. Yet, few of us object to the cost of building or launching a space vehicle, because we don't have a basis for comparison. When preparing sales quotations breakout known costs from unknown costs, to reduce the apparent cost of a “known product”. Customers will more readily pay “list” for these systems if they understand the return on investment. Buying Concept #3 — People buy more readily when the price is reduced by a significant percentage relative to the known, or “usual” price. Percent reduction is more important than actual dollar cost reduction. This is the reason some people will “shop around” to get the lowest price on a can of peas, but won't cross the street for $25 less on a car deal. 10 cents off the can of peas might be advertised as 25% off list price. $25 off of a $20,000 car deal is only one eighth of 1% off list price. The perception is that a great percentage off the price is a good deal, regardless of the dollar amount. For instance, if you must use price reduction to sell, advertise price reduction as a large percentage off small prices, rather than a small percentage off large prices. For example; $5,000 off the price of a $100,000 item is a 5% price reduction. Rather, advertise a 50% reduction on the cost of systems that compliment the purchase. While the actual price reduction might be the same (or less) than $5,000 off the original price, the perception is of a better deal.

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