Do you sell your services as if you are the buyer? By Matt Everatt

DO YOU SELL YOUR SERVICES AS IF YOU ARE THE BUYER?

Let me start by talking about the dirty word, SALES! We all cringe a little when we hear the word sales or sales person, don’t we?

Let us deal with this firstly. Leading author in the Business world, James Ashford, suggests that to ‘Sell is to Serve’. By serving your customers you are helping them solve a problem, be that dentures for a new patient or some amazing full mouth rehab. We are serving our Dentist colleagues and patients alike.

How do we serve them? Do we think about how we like to be served, or sold to? What are you like as a buyer, what is your buying persona and how much does that influence how you sell to your customers?

Let me tell you this, your buyer persona is all but useless. We are all very different individuals and we all make very different buying choices and how we actually buy. Thank goodness, otherwise it would be a very boring world to live in. For example, my car buying habits are random and totally based on feelings rather than practicality, yes I have 5 cars, 3 of which are totally impractical having 3 children and a dog with me most of the time! However, I bought them for very different reasons and I love the process of car buying. On the other hand, a colleague who has very similar demographic to mean has 1 family car that does everything the family need it to do, and hates the thought of having to shop around for a replacement when the 4year lease is finished.

I read a post in a business group this week that gives a very similar example to mine above.

“It was a tale about two English gentlemen…

Both were born in 1948 in England and grew up in Blighty. Both have been married twice, have two kids, are wealthy, and they both like dogs.

The difference is, one of them is Prince Charles; the other one is the prince of darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. Same demographics, polar differences in just about every other area of life, not to mention the buying persona. If we relied upon their demographics alone, we might struggle to know which type of music they would like to buy.

So the reason why most buyer personas are useless is they rely on demographics rather than psychographics. It is not as easy as; they are all just dentists, they need a lab to provide their restorations and mine are cheaper/ better/quicker.

Psycho…what you say? Psychographics, simply put, it is WHY we buy from people. There’s a saying, ‘People buy from people they know, like and trust.’ If we can gain some rapport and engage with some personal interest they may have, it is more likely they will want to try your services.

Let me give an example; If we are looking to attract new dentists to use my new lab services, would I go and visit all of the places I like first? Trust me, there aren’t many Dentists that enjoy watching Sheffield United on a cold Saturday afternoon!

I have to think a little more about the psychographics of my potential new customers. Are there any social media groups they will be in? Do they visit local eateries? Do they enjoy discussing investments? Do they participate in a sport? Do they enjoy exotic holidays or backpacking?

All of these things are little gems of information that may help you gain rapport with a new customer and it may just prompt them to give your services a try. There is nothing better than having something in common or even if you acknowledge an interest that someone has for gaining trust.

The trick is to try to stop selling to people as if you are the one buying the service and to respect that we are all very different. You may be driven by a cheaper price on something or how quick you can get it, don’t automatically think your new customer is driven by the same values as yours.

By Matt Everatt I Editor & Author

Demographics

Marital Status Gender Where you live Profession Age Salary

Psycographics

Sporting fan Strong Family values Enjoys exotic holidays Pet owner Likes dance music Likes 80s retro