Find The Buying Motive

Last week a closer shared this situation with me - she was asking for the order from a prospect when he announced that he had done some research and found that a competitor had a lower price for the same service.

He said that if she could match the price then he would go with her company. She told me the problem was she couldn't match the price. What should she have done, she asked me?

My answer was - "Find his real buying motive."

I told her I would have asked the prospect the following question:

"_________ I'm not saying I can match this price, but if I can, and with all things being equal, why would you go with me and my company and not the other?"

I told her that one question would reveal why he preferred her company, and that buying motive would become the leverage she needed to close the sale right then.

In the end, even though she couldn't match the price, she told me that the prospect called her back and purchased the service from her. I asked why and she said the prospect explained that he liked the way she dealt with him, took time with him, and explained things thoroughly.

This was his real buying motive and it outweighed the difference in price. Had she asked the question suggested earlier she probably would have been able to close the sale earlier as well.

In the end, understanding your client’s real buying motive can often mean the difference between making the sale or not. And as we've seen, sometimes all you need to do is ask a simple question to find that out.