What is your customer afraid of?

Learning what your customer is afraid of and providing reassurance may be essential to closing the deal. The origin of customer fear may be a past experience, a story they heard, or something their imagination dreamt up. At the end of the day, you need to have found it and dealt with it.

Product quality is a common fear when consumers are shopping for durable goods. Some brands come with product quality fears baked in, but every product has some customers considering purchase who are worried about the likelihood of failure. Assuming that your customer is worried about quality may lead to an unintentional injection of fear. Assuming that they don’t could mask a serious impediment to the close. The solution is to not assume. 

Show the shopper some of the ways quality has improved from previous versions or is better relative to a competing brand. This gives you an opportunity to gauge the shopper’s interest in quality issues and opens the door for you to ask the shopper if they have had experience with related products or heard stories about them. “I am certainly glad I don’t have to sell those products today” signals that you are open to talking about the issue, care about your shoppers, and are confident in your product.

Some shoppers fear the reaction of others. Good sales people add a great deal of value in this area. These fears are an open opportunity for up selling:

•    “This engine has plenty of power for what you are planning to do, but the larger engine really makes a statement.” 

•    “In this community, not everyone approves of an SUV, but this hybrid logo on the side wipes all of that out and sends a clear message that you care about your community as well as your family.”

•    “There will always be some chance involved in who catches the biggest fish, but there is nothing left to chance about pride of ownership when you buy the best boat.”

Fear of financial commitment may be offset by energy savings, reduced maintenance costs, and lower repair risk. White goods can often pay for themselves over and over. A new refrigerator leads to less spoiled food. A new washer leads to longer lasting clothes. A new stove or oven leads to better meals at home and fewer nights out at expensive restaurants. 

Motor homes lead to fewer nights in hotels. A new boat that brings the shopper closer to his kids may be more important than bowling night. Your product is going to enhance the shopper’s life more cost effectively than something they are doing now, even if that something is not directly related to the purchase decision.

The better you listen to your shopper the better chance you have of identifying her fears and understanding how to overcome them.