The Five Reasons Why People Buy

Through my research and studies, I have deduced that there are five main reasons why people buy, and they all begin with the letter “P.”

If you have a deal pending as you read this, give some thought as to which of these five Ps might help you close the deal.

These are not in any particular order of importance, but each reason should be known and thought about prior to — and during — a sales presentation.

I suggest that you as a seller study each of these reasons and see how they fit into your sales style. Circumstances vary by product and customer, but one or more of these reasons, if studied and applied, will help you win the order.

Protection: Obviously, insurance people use this one all the time. But how does this fit into the sales of cleaning products or services? How about protection of property, floor surfaces or fixtures? How about protection of health for the tenants of that facility? How about job protection? After all, your customer’s job is judged by his or her performance, and the better their performance, the better the job protection.

How you present these issues is a matter of your personal selling style and your customers’/prospects’ situations.

Pride: When buying a new suit, dress or jewelry, pride is an easy subject to discuss. In the jan/san business, however, we need to remind our customers about pride — such as pride in doing an excellent job, pride in obtaining excellent results for their efforts, and pride in maintaining a clean and healthy facility.

Pleasure: In buying a boat or a car, pleasure comes easy, but what about selling products or services in our business? How about someone saying to our customer, “It really is a pleasure working here in this clean facility.” Or an employee saying, “Thanks, it really is a pleasure using all of this professional equipment and material.”

Profit: This one is of interest to any money manager and probably to any decision maker. When someone sells you or your company something for resale, profit is one important consideration. When you sell a product to an end user for his or her own use in custodial work, then how do you sell profit? Any savings in a custodial program goes to the company’s bottom line and therefore becomes profit. We all know that a lot of things go into saving money and that labor is the biggest cost. Sell savings that show a profit and be sure to remind your customer what you have done for them.

Price: Price is certainly a factor when people buy things; not just low price, but total price. Study your selling situation. Know or find the facts and sell total cost — not price. Remember, price is only part of the cost. Think about this: when you set out to buy some new clothes, a car, tools, furniture, jewelry — you name it — is price your major concern? Or is it quality, useful life and appearance that help you make your buying decision?

For the fun of it, think of one or more items you have purchased and ask yourself which of the five “Ps” were in play when you made your decision. Remember this: when people buy, it’s always for one or more of these reasons. It is your job to find out which ones are in play, depending on the customer, and how to best use these reasons to come away with the “prize.” Another “P”: the purchase order.

Next time, we will cover five reasons why people don’t buy.

To share your selling ideas, fax: (414) 228-1134, contact Mr. Dixon at (877) 379-3566 or e-mail seiche.sanders@tradepress.com.