Create Urgency!
You want to know why you are struggling to sell? Coach Nate here to remind you of a simple fact. Fear Sells. Without creating urgency, nobody is motivated to buy. Couple that with the fact that most buyers are indecisive and you have a recipe for “Maybes” and “Let me think about its”. You have to generate urgency to help the buyer make a decision. It’s as simple as that. In this article, you will learn the #1 Sales Skill, how to sell fear.
2 Primary Motivators
There are two primary motivators that drive people to buy:
- The desire for gain
- The fear of loss.
Most salespeople use the wrong motivator when trying to persuade a prospect to buy, and it’s time to change that.
The Experiment
Most purchases involve some sort of risk for the purchaser. It’s a matter of figuring out which risk will move the prospect to make a buying decision in your favor. There was a famous experiment done by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman that examined how people make decisions involving risk. They found that:
“People are willing to run greater risks to avoid losses than they are to make gains.”
This means that telling a prospect how much money you can save them isn’t as effective as telling them how much they might be losing. The insurance industry has long known the value of selling fear. Fear is often used as a sales tool, albeit in a subtle way. For instance, Michelin tire television advertisements use fear (the fear of losing a loved one) to sell tires. They suggest that inferior tires may blow and cause an accident, which could hurt someone you love.
Don’t Be a That Guy
But be careful when using fear as a sales tool, and use it appropriately for the selling situation. Don’t go overboard with fear tactics. The fear of loss motivator can be used in conjunction with the desire for gain motivator. They’re not mutually exclusive, but be careful not to overdo it. Your goal is just to create urgency and help your prospect to make a decision.
6 Ways to Use Fear Rather than Gain
To illustrate, here are some examples of how you can move the emphasis from the desire for gain motivator to the fear of loss motivator:
- Sales training: Rather than saying, “Your salespeople will be able to close more sales” (desire for gain), you could try, “How many sales might your people lose over the next year if you don’t train them now?”
- Financial planning: Rather than saying, “We’ll be able to save you money on your taxes,” you could say, “Why pay more taxes than necessary and lower your buying power?”
- Advertising: Rather than saying, “Advertising will increase the traffic in your store,” try, “Not advertising could lower store traffic and reduce daily receipts.”
- Group health insurance plan: Rather than saying, “It’s important to offer an attractive package to prospective employees,” say, “How many good prospective employees will you lose if you don’t have an attractive benefits package?”
- A computer backup device: Rather than saying, “This backup unit will store all your important data in case of a problem,” try, “A backup unit could keep you from losing tons of data and days of lost productivity.”
- Mat rentals: Rather than saying, “The proper mat will keep people from slipping on wet floors,” try, “The proper mat can help you avoid lawsuits from angry customers who may slip on a wet floor.”
Putting it All Together
Now it’s your turn to dig up your fact and benefit sheet and see how many of those positive sounding benefits that emphasize the desire for gain can be reworked into the fear of loss. It might not be easy, but sticking your product or service in the middle of a fear-of-loss pitch could be the key to unlocking more sales.
Check out The Power of Selling Benefits to help you put this all together!
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