TT#045 - Your prospects have a secret buying criteria…
All business decisions are personal decisions.
And whether you’re selling to your neighbor or to Coca Cola, a person is deciding whether or not to buy.
The question is - how are they deciding?
This newsletter is my attempt to give you an edge on your next sales call.
The Motivated Millionaire
I’ve spent a couple years working with someone with multiple exits and millions of dollars under his belt.
He absolutely doesn’t need more money.
But he’s motivated like nobody you’ve ever met - specifically to get to 5000 clients by 2025.
His motivation isn’t financial. It’s emotional.
And if you framed your service as only providing financial benefits, he probably wouldn’t be interested.
But something is driving him.
The Aspiring Entrepreneur
A client of mine was fully established in a high paying executive role he didn’t hate.
But there was one problem: he really wanted to build a remote business.
He was willing to put in the work, invest long hours, and make some investments to make it happen faster.
Why?
He wanted to (a) live his dream life in the mountains, and (b) homeschool his kids with his partner.
As he was looking to buy products and services, all he cared about was whether it would directly help him to get the life he wanted.
The ‘Logical Buyer’ Misconception
Here’s how we usually assume selling works:
Our potential client looks at our offer, thinks logically about whether it will help them grow their business, and then makes a purchasing decision.
But it’s not really like that.
In truth: we make decisions to buy on emotion - and then justify those decisions with logic.
Your potential client is looking to accomplish something emotionally in their lives.
Maybe that’s feeling free. Maybe that’s feeling accomplished. Maybe it’s something else.
And their business is their vessel for doing so. It’s a ‘means’ to a larger ‘end’.
So, in order to get our marketing right, and to sell with any level of success is - we need to understand what that ‘end’ is.
In other words, we need to understand our prospects’ Ideal Emotional Outcome.
The ‘Ideal Emotional Outcome’
Both our Motivated Millionaire and Aspiring Entrepreneur were extremely motivated by an Ideal Emotional Outcome.
A life in the mountains might mean freedom.
It might mean adventure.
It might mean feeling established.
Whatever it means, the associated feeling is what your prospect is really buying.
And if you knew what feeling that was, you’d be able to frame your service as helping them achieve it.
And if you didn’t, your sales pitch would fall on deaf ears.
The 8 Questions That Reveal Their Secret Buying Criteria
Once you’ve understood your prospect’s Ideal Emotional Outcome, you’re able to market and sell directly to it.
To get there, you’ve got to understand the problem they’re really trying to solve, and their emotions around that problem.
The following questions are the most direct way to understand that.
Use them wisely.
What is the problem that keeps you up at night?
Why is that problem so painful? (What is the ‘pain’ that makes the ‘problem’ a problem?)
How does that problem make you feel? (All sales are about a transference of emotion.)
What does the problem keep you from doing? (Time with family? Working on other parts of the business?
What happens if you don’t solve the problem? (What’s the ‘nightmare’ scenario?)
What happens if you do solve the problem? (What’s the ‘dream’ outcome?)
What does solving the problem mean for you? (Wealth? Freedom? Happiness? Travel?)
How would solving that problem make you feel? (Confident? Competent? Calm?)
These questions will help you get below the surface and create deep connections with prospects. And that’s how you convert prospects into clients - and evangelists.
