If you\u2019re searching to purchase a business\u2014let\u2019s say a franchise\u2014here\u2019s a shocking revelation: your future customers will make their buying decisions on emotion, not logic.<\/p>\n
At Allegra, we\u2019ve been counseling would-be entrepreneurs and training franchise owners for 40 years that selling is not talking up state-of-the-art features, price points, or added-value benefits, it\u2019s about solving problems.<\/p>\n
A recent online article in PrintWeek titled, \u201cLearn to capitalize on your customers\u2019 deepest desires,\u201d validated our solution-based selling methodology stating that \u201cgaining psychological insights\u2026improve results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Writer Rob Gray acknowledges that a solutions-oriented mindset is a must, but difficult for new entrepreneurs to grasp. Selling is not a transaction. It\u2019s building a relationship, identifying the need and meeting it as a problem-solver.<\/p>\n
Gray quotes Andrea Norcott, a sales director at a greeting cards company, who says \u201cwe need to understand people fully in order that we can build solid relationships\u2026Strong salespeople strategically unleash psychological triggers, which enable them to influence clients and close successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n
For entrepreneurs, Gray says \u201cthe psychological aspects of selling are often neglected and little understood.\u201d Norcott adds that ultimately the science behind selling effectively is listening and understanding specifically what it is that the customer needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople might think they know what they like and don\u2019t like, but actually that is all up for grabs,\u201d says Peter Ayton, an expert on behavioral decision theory. \u201cYou can be made to like certain things and dislike other things simply by the way they are offered to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an example, Ayton serves up this simple experiment involving, of all things, ice cream: \u201cParticipants were shown two servings of ice cream in tubs and asked to judge which they would be pleased to receive. One had 8oz of ice cream served in a 10oz cup, so it looked a short measure; the other, 7oz of ice cream bulging out of a 5oz cup.\u201d Not surprising, the majority expressed a preference for the smaller serving where the cup runneth over.<\/p>\n
The takeaway according to Ian Speakman, senior lecturer in Key Account Management at Cranfield School of Management, is \u201cyou have to get inside the customer\u2019s head. The days of presenting canned presentations and going along with feature, advantage, benefit and just trying to sell product are well and truly gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the article, Gray digs deeper into gaining psychological insights and how entrepreneurs can turn them to their competitive advantage. For Entrepreneurs who join our Allegra Network, the advantage is our solutions-based selling programs and ongoing support. You won\u2019t make vanilla sales calls, but robust presentations flavored to the palates of your customers. To learn more about the Allegra franchise opportunity, contact us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you\u2019re searching to purchase a business\u2014let\u2019s say a franchise\u2014here\u2019s a shocking revelation: your future customers will make their buying decisions on emotion, not logic. At Allegra, we\u2019ve been counseling would-be entrepreneurs and training franchise owners for 40 years that selling is not talking up state-of-the-art features, price points, or added-value benefits, it\u2019s about solving…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-starting-a-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5460,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions\/5460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allegramarketingprint.com\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}