The psychology of selling: why people buy

A s you learn about the psychology of selling, why people buy, and emphasize benefits in
your sales presentation in this chapter, keep the Golden Rule in mind. Customers want to
trust you! They depend upon you to tell the truth. Use your selling skills learned in this
chapter to help people by being a better communicator. Periodically asking a person about
what you have just said is a great way to find out what they think about your talk. Do the
right thing for the person, even if it means a “no sale.” After all, you are with the person
to unselfishly help that person make the correct buying decision for his or her need, not
your need to make a sale. Ethical service builds relationships and is based upon the truth.

Why people buy- the black box approach:

Salespeople know that some customers buy their product after the presentation, yet they
wonder what thought process resulted in the decision to buy or not to buy. Prospective
buyers are usually exposed to various sales presentations. In some manner, a person
internalizes or considers this information and then makes a buying decision.
This process of internalization is referred to as a black box because we cannot see into the
buyer’s mind—meaning that the salesperson can apply the stimuli (a sales presentation)
and observe the behavior of the prospect but cannot witness the prospect’s actual
decision-making process. The classic model of buyer behavior is called a stimulus–
response model. A stimulus (sales presentation) is applied, resulting in a response
(purchase decision). This model assumes that prospects respond in some predictable
manner to the sales presentation. Unfortunately, it does not tell us why they buy or do not
buy the product. This information is concealed in the black box.
Salespeople seek to understand as much as they can about the mental processes that yield
the prospects’ responses. We do know
■ That people buy for both practical (rational) and psychological (emotional) reasons.
■ That salespeople can use specific methods to help determine the prospects’ thoughts
during sales presentations.
■ That buyers consider certain factors in making purchase decisions.
This chapter introduces these three important topics. Each topic emphasizes the
salesperson’s need to understand people’s behavior.
Psychological influences on buying:
Since personal selling requires understanding human behavior, each salesperson must be
concerned with a prospective customer’s motivations, perceptions, learning, attitudes,
and personality. Furthermore, the salesperson should know how each type of behavior
might influence a customer’s purchase decision.
Human beings are motivated by needs and wants. These needs and wants build up
internally, which causes people to desire to buy a product—a new car or a new duplicating
machine. People’s needs result from a lack of something desirable. Wants are needs
learned by the person. For example, people need transportation—but some want a BMW
while others prefer a Ford Mustang.
This example illustrates that both practical and rational reasons (the need for
transportation) and emotional or psychological reasons (the desire for the prestige of
owning a BMW) influence the buying decision. Different individuals have different
reasons for wanting to buy. The salesperson must determine a prospect’s needs and then
match the product’s benefits to the particular needs and wants of the prospect
Economic needs are the buyer’s need to purchase the most satisfying product for the
money. Economic needs include price, quality (performance, dependability, durability),
convenience of buying, and service. Some people’s purchases are based primarily on
economic needs. However, most people consider the economic implications of all their
purchases along with other reasons for buying.
Many salespeople mistakenly assume that people base their buying decision solely on
price. This is not always correct. A higher product price relative to competing goods often
can be offset by such factors as service, quality, better performance, friendliness of the
salesperson, and convenience of purchase.
Whatever a person’s need might be, it is important for a salesperson to uncover it. Once
you determine the individual’s need, you are better prepared to develop your sales
presentation in a manner relating your product’s benefits to that particular need. This is
not always easy to do because people may not be fully aware of their needs.
You have seen that people purchase products to satisfy various needs. Often, however,
these needs are developed over such a long period that people may not be fully conscious
of their reasons for buying or not buying a product. The buying decision can be
complicated by their level of need awareness. Three levels of need awareness have been
identified—conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
At the first level, the conscious need level, buyers are fully aware of their needs. These are
the easiest people to sell to because they know what products they want and are willing to
talk about their needs. A customer might say to the salesperson, “I’d like to buy a new car
and I want a BMW loaded with accessories. What can you show me?”
At the second level, the preconscious need level, buyers may not be fully aware of their
needs. Needs may not be fully developed in the conscious mind. They know what general
type of product they want but may not wish to discuss it fully. For example, a buyer may
want to buy a certain product because of a strong ego need yet be hesitant about telling
you. If you don’t make a sale and ask why, this buyer may present false reasons, such as
saying your price is too high, rather than revealing the real motivation. Falsification is
much easier than stating the true reasons for not buying your product—thus getting into
a long conversation with you, arguing with you, or telling you that your product is
unsatisfactory. You must avoid this brush-off by determining a buyer’s real needs first
and then relating your product’s benefits to these needs.
At the third level, the unconscious need level, people do not know why they buy a
product—only that they do buy. When people say, “I really don’t know what I want to
buy,” it may be true. Their buying motives might have developed years earlier and may
have been repressed. In this case, the salesperson needs to determine the needs that are
influential. Often, this is accomplished by skillful questioning to draw out prospective
buyers’ unconscious needs. An awareness of the types of needs that buyers may have will
allow you to present your product as a vehicle for satisfaction of those needs. Several
methods of presenting a product’s benefits are available.
A most powerful selling technique used by successful salespeople today is benefit selling.
In benefit selling, the salesperson relates a product’s benefits to the customer’s needs
using the product’s features and advantages as support. This technique is often referred
to as the FAB selling technique ( Feature, Advantage, and Benefit). *
These key terms are defined as follows:
■ A product feature is any physical characteristic of a product.
■ A product advantage is the performance characteristic of a product that describes how
it can be used or will help the buyer.
■ A product benefit is a favorable result the buyer receives from the product because of a
particular advantage that has the ability to satisfy a buyer’s need.
All products have features or physical characteristics such as the following:
■Size ■ Flavor ■ Shape
■ Terms ■ Taste ■ Uses

■ Packaging ■ Price ■ Delivery

■ Color ■ Service ■ Ingredients
■ Quantity ■ Quality ■ Technology
Descriptions of a product’s features answer the question, What is it? Typically, when used
alone in the sales presentation, features have little persuasive power because buyers are
interested in specific benefits rather than features. When discussing a product’s features
alone, imagine the customer is thinking,
“So what? So your product has this shape or quality; how does it perform and how will it
benefit me?” That is why you have to discuss the product’s advantages as they relate to
the buyer’s needs.
Once a product feature is presented to the customer, the salesperson normally begins to
discuss the advantages that product’s physical characteristics provide. This is better than
discussing only its features. Describing the product’s advantages, how a product can be
used, or how it will help the buyer increases the chances of making a sale. Examples of
product advantages (performance characteristics) follow:
■ It is the fastest-selling soap on the market.
■ You can store more information and retrieve it more rapidly with our computer.
■ This machine will copy on both sides of the pages instead of only one.

How does the prospective customer know that your claims for a product are true?
Imagine a prospect thinking, “Prove it!” Be prepared to substantiate any claims you make.
Companies typically train their salespeople thoroughly on the product’s physical and
performance characteristics. A salesperson may have excellent knowledge of the product
yet be unable to describe it in terms that allow the prospect to visualize the benefits of
purchasing it. This is because many salespeople present only a product’s features and
advantages—leaving the buyer to imagine its benefits.
While your chances of helping the customer increase when you discuss both the features
and the advantages of your product, you must learn how to stress product benefits that
are important to the prospect in your presentation. Once you have mastered this selling
technique, your sales will increase.
People are interested in what the product will do for them. Emphasizing benefits appeals
to the customer’s personal motives by answering the question, What’s in it for me? In your
presentation, stress how the person will benefit from the purchase rather than the
features and advantages of your product.
To illustrate the idea of buying benefits instead of only features or advantages, consider
four items: (1) a diamond ring, (2) a camera, (3) STP motor oil, and (4) movie tickets. Do
people buy these products or services for their features or advantages? No; people buy the
product’s benefits such as these:
■ A diamond ring—image of success, investment, or to please a loved one.
■ A camera—memories of places, friends, and family.
■ STP motor oil—engine protection, car investment, or peace of mind.
■ Movie tickets—entertainment, escape from reality, or relaxation.

As you can see, people are buying benefits—not a product’s features or advantages.

How to determine important buying needs – a key to success

Your initial task when first meeting the customer is to differentiate between important
buying needs and needs of lesser or no importance.
Determine buyers’ important needs and concentrate on emphasizing product benefits
that will satisfy those needs. Benefits that would satisfy buyers’ unimportant needs should
be deemphasized in the sales presentation. Suppose your product had benefits involving
service, delivery, time savings, and cost reductions. Is the buyer interested in all four
benefits? Maybe not. If you determine that delivery is not important, concentrate on
discussing service, time savings, and cost reductions. This selling strategy is important to
your success in helping the buyer.
A list of common psychological buying needs includes these:
■ Fear ■ Personal pleasure
■ Vanity (keep up with the Joneses) ■ Desire to succeed

■ Desire for gain ■ Comfort or luxury

■ Security ■ Self-preservation
■ Love of family ■ Prevention of loss
You must determine the buying needs that are most important to the customer.
How can you do this? Several methods are frequently used to uncover important needs.
These methods create the acronym L-O-C-A-T-E:
Listen: Prospects may drop leading remarks like “I wish I had a television like this one.”
Observe: Look at prospects; study their surroundings. Experienced salespeople can
determine much about people by observing the way they dress or where they live and
work.
Combine: A skillful salesperson may talk to others, listen to a prospect, probe with
questions, make careful observations, and empathize—all in an effort to uncover the
prospect’s needs.
Ask questions: Questions often bring out needs that the prospect would not reveal or does
not know. The salesperson asks, “Is a quiet ceiling fan important to you?” “Yes, it is,” says
the buyer. “If I could provide you with the quietest ceiling fan on the market, would you
be interested?”
Talk to others: Ask others about a prospect’s needs. For instance, ask an office manager’s
secretary about the manager’s satisfaction with a copy machine.
Empathize: Look at the situation from the customer’s point of view.
Once you determine the major buying need, you are ready to relate the person’s needs to
your product’s benefits. Like the television camera that transmits images to the television
receiver, buyers picture desired products in their minds. Before they focus the picture,
buyers often need to be turned on and tuned in. Once you find their real reasons for
wanting a particular product or identify major problems that they want to solve, you have
uncovered the key to helping them.
Uncovering these important buying needs is pushing the button that turns on a machine.
You have just pushed the customer’s hot button. You have awakened a need, and
customers realize that you understand their problems. Basically, this is what selling is all
about—determining needs and skillfully relating your product’s benefits to show how its
purchase will fulfill customers’ needs.
This is not always easy. As we have seen, people have a multitude of different needs and
may not understand or see their unconscious needs or problems. In this situation, your
challenge is to convert customers’ apparently unconscious needs into recognized and
understood needs. One of the best ways to uncover needs is to ask questions at certain
times during the sales presentation. This question is referred to as a trial close.
The trial close – a great way to uncover needs and sell:
The trial close is one of the best-selling techniques to use in your sales presentation.
It checks the pulse or attitude of your prospect toward the sales presentation. The trial
close should be used at these four important times:
1. After making a strong selling point in the presentation.
2. After the presentation.
3. After answering an objection.
4. Immediately before you move to close the sale.
The trial close allows you to determine (1) whether the prospect likes your product’s
feature, advantage, or benefit; (2) whether you have successfully answered the objection;
(3) whether any objections remain; and (4) whether the prospect is ready for you to close
the sale. It is a powerful technique to induce two-way communication (feedback) and
participation from the prospect. The Selling Tips box gives examples of trial closes. Learn
these—you’ll use them throughout the course.
If, for example, the prospect says little while you make your presentation, and if you get a
“no” when you come to the close, you may find it difficult to change the prospect’s mind.
You have not learned the real reasons why the prospect says no. To avoid this, salespeople
use the trial close to determine the prospect’s attitude toward the product throughout the
presentation.
The trial close asks for the prospect’s opinion, not a decision to buy. It is a direct question
that can be answered with few words. * Look at the trial close examples shown in Selling
Tips. Remember the prospect’s positive reactions. Use them later to help overcome
objections and in closing the sale. Also remember the negative comments. You may need
to offset the negatives with the positives later in the presentation. Generally, however, you
will not discuss the negative again.

Your buyer’s perception:

Why would two people have the same need but buy different products? Likewise, why
might the same individual at different times view your product differently? The answers
to both questions involve how the person perceives your product.
Perception is the process by which a person selects, organizes, and interprets information.
The buyer receives the salesperson’s product information through the senses: sight,
hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These senses act as filtering devices that information
must pass through before it can be used.
Each of the three perception components (selection, organization, and interpretation)
plays a part in determining buyers’ responses to you and to your sales presentation.
Buyers often receive large amounts of information in a short period, and they typically
perceive and use only a small amount of it. They ignore or quickly forget other information
because of the difficulty of retaining large amounts of information. This process is known
as selective exposure because only a portion of the information an individual is exposed
to is selected to be organized, interpreted, and allowed into awareness.
Why does some information reach a buyer’s consciousness while other information does
not? First, the salesperson may not present the information in a manner that ensures
proper reception. For example, the salesperson may provide too much information at one
time. This causes confusion, and the buyer tunes out. In some cases, information may be
haphazardly presented, which causes the buyer to receive it in an unorganized manner
A sales presentation that appeals to the buyer’s five senses helps penetrate perceptual
barriers. It also enhances understanding and reception of the information as you present
it. Selling techniques such as asking questions, using visual aids, and demonstrating a
product can force buyers to participate in the presentation. This helps determine if they
understand your information.
Second, buyers tend to allow information to reach consciousness if it relates to needs they
recognize and wish to fulfill. If, for example, someone gives you reasons for purchasing
life insurance and you do not perceive a need for it, there is a good chance that your mind
will allow little of this information to be perceived. However, if you need life insurance,
chances are you will listen carefully to the salesperson. If you are uncertain about
something, you will ask questions to increase your understanding.

Perceptions, attitudes and beliefs:

You make a sales presentation concerning a product’s features, advantages, and benefits.
Your goal is to provide information that makes the buyer knowledgeable enough to make
an educated purchase decision. However, a person’s perceptual process may prevent your
information from being fully utilized. Understanding how people develop their
perceptions can help you be more successful in selling.
Perceptions are learned. People develop their perceptions through experience.
This is why learning is defined as acquiring knowledge or a behavior based on past
experiences.
Successful salespeople must help buyers learn about them and their products. If buyers
have learned to trust you, they listen and have faith in what you say, thereby increasing
the chance of making sales. If your products perform as you claim they will, buyers will
repurchase them more readily.
A person’s attitudes are learned predispositions toward something. These feelings can be
favorable or unfavorable. If a person is neutral toward the product or has no knowledge
of the product, no attitude exists. A buyer’s attitude is shaped by past and present
experience.
Creating a positive attitude is important, but it alone does not result in your making the
sale. To sell a product to someone, you also must convert a buyer’s belief into a positive
attitude. A belief is a state of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in something or
someone. The buyer must believe your product will fulfill a need or solve a problem. A
favorable attitude toward one product over another comes from a belief that one product
is better.
Also, a buyer must believe that you are the best person from whom to buy. If they do not
trust you as the best source, people will not buy from you. Assume, for example, that
someone decides to buy a 19-inch portable RCA color television. Three RCA dealers are
in the trading area, and each dealer offers to sell at approximately the same price. Chances
are that the purchaser will buy from the salesperson she believes to be the best, even
though there is no reason not to trust the other dealers.
If buyers’ perceptions create favorable attitudes that lead them to believe that your
product is best for them and that they should buy from you, you make sales. Often,
however, people may not know you or your product. Your job is to provide information
about your product that allows buyers to form positive attitudes and beliefs.
Should their perception, attitudes, and beliefs be negative, distorted, or incorrect, you
must change them. As a salesperson, you spend much of your time creating or changing
people’s learned attitudes and beliefs about your product. This is the most difficult
challenge a salesperson faces.