Most of the online store owners and online service providers will agree with the fact that their customers leave the purchase halfway for some reason. It is important to take a crucial fact into consideration that customers don’t just buy your products or services because of the product features, one important reason why they buy from you is because they perceive some ‘benefit’. Unfortunately, most of the sales and marketing content talks about the features and the discounts but it fails to highlight the benefits of the product or service they are promoting.
If you feel that your customers are reluctant, you must convince the customers by showing them the benefits and through some psychological tricks.
Here we have curated some very effective and proven tips for convincing reluctant customers to buy:
Know how to distinguish between a benefit and a feature
Keep in mind that a feature is an element that the product or the service ‘is’ or ‘does’ while a benefit is an emotion. It is something that ‘means something to the customer or makes the customer’s life easy in a certain way.
Instead of saying: This car has airbags feature for your safety.
You can say: This car is equipped to keep you and your family safe.
Ask your client about his/her wellbeing
If you want to convince people to buy your product or service, when you begin the conversation, after introducing yourself, enquire about the wellbeing of your client.
This is a proven technique to win people. People usually feel good about the conversation when they are asked about their wellbeing; this is a sense of belonging. You start the conversation on a positive note by asking the customer about their wellbeing and perfectly drive the conversation to a sale.
Make sure that the list of benefits is short
It is a ground rule that people always remember quality over quantity. While it is important to highlight the benefits of the products or services but it is also important to restrict the number of benefits you talk about. It is important to keep the fact in mind that even if you talk about 10-15 benefits, people will only remember 2-3 of them. A long list of benefits will not be remembered for a very long time.
Instead of saying: These are the top 10 benefits of our product.
You can say: The three most striking factors of our product are…
Use client name in the conversation
Find out the name of the client and use it in the conversation. It is a psychological fact that people like to hear their name and there are more possibilities of having a casual friendly relationship with the client when you address the client with his/her name.
Having said that, it is also a good practice to ask the client about using his/her name in the conversation. For instance, if your client’s name is George when you ask the client’s name, also ask – ‘Can I address you with your first name?’ and then start using the first name of the client. A very safe practice is to add Mr. or Miss before the client’s name.
Highlight what is important, you or your company
Benefits that are comprehensive to your product category have the power to convince the customers to buy, but they won’t necessarily buy from you. You need to emphasize the benefits that differentiate you from the competition.
Instead of saying: Our web hosting service makes your website faster.
You can say: Our customers have reported a 20% better website speed as compared to the speed they were earlier experiencing.
Make your customers feel good
When you have a conversation with the customers, they happen to tell you something about their life or the way they do their business. This generally happens more in phone conversations. So, when you hear something worth appreciating, appreciate the customer for the way they have dealt with any particular situation or for anything you think can be highlighted, this makes the customer feel good and positive. Also, highlight your attitude towards the clients.
When you have a conversation with your client even if it does not result in a sale, make sure to say things like – ‘You are one of our most valued clients’ or ‘It’s a complete pleasure to do business with you.
This is a very simple and effective way to encourage the client to become a loyal customer.
Use striking but easy language
Customers will remember a certain benefit for a longer span of time if you convey it in the right way that evokes emotions.
Instead of saying: This web hosting provides protection if there is a cyber attack.
You can say: In case of a cyber attack, there is a good chance that your website will be safe.
Prove that your products are better than the products of your competitors
Instead of saying how you are better in comparison to your competitors, it is important to prove it. It is crucial to highlight the advantages of your products or services but in a smart way. Usually, customers talk to sales representatives or customer care representatives for asking questions about the product or service. If you get this opportunity, emphasize the fact that your product quality or offer is better as it provides the customer access to some special functions, enables customization, it is ethically a better product. Explain the features in a convincing way and you will be able to create a good impression on the potential customers.
If your offer is not cheaper as compared to the other products in the market, you can highlight the benefits that the customers get even though the price is high.
Avoid the use of heavy jargons
While it may sound impressive to use complicated words and jargon, but after all, it is important to convey the message to the audience instead of confusing them.
Instead of saying: There is a robust implementation of all the crucial features including virtualization.
You can say: You can manage your web hosting account virtually from anywhere.
Initiate further conversation
If you think that the conversation with your client is too short and is going to get over soon, then say something that will initiate further discussion. When the conversation is too short, people might not remember it, the feel-good factor comes when they talk to you for a certain span of time. Catch something that they say and keep taking the conversation further. For instance, you can say – Our VPS hosting has a vertical and horizontal scaling feature and I’ll be glad to tell you more about this.
Make your benefits concrete
Be very confident while talking about the benefits. Believe in whatever you say and you will sound more confident. Customers generally ignore the benefits that are conveyed through unclear adjectives and adverbs. Benefits that sound more particular and concrete are more convincing. When the client is convinced about something, it will be in their mind for a long time.
Instead of saying: We can immensely reduce your hosting costs.
You can say: We reduce the overall web hosting costs by 20%.
Conclusion
The art of convincing customers to buy is not very difficult. When you start practicing it, you will get a hang of it with time. The psychological and strategic tips mentioned above will surely enable you to have a good relationship with your client. If you keep these tricks in mind while having a conversation with the client, there will be higher possibilities that the client will buy your products or services. By having powerful conversations with the clients you work towards building your audience and then you move towards getting a competitive advantage.
