The difference between wanting and buying – The ROI in sales
Consumers
People and people in companies want many different things.
People and companies only buy a limited number of things.
We all want many things that could make life better or to have a better feeling about life.
Companies
Managers want or aim for getting many things or solutions for different reasons:
- Productivity increase
- Convenience for their employees or workers
- Social status – enterprise status
- Ego
- Expressing of their power
- Spending lots of money or running an expensive department can help a career.
- Clearing out the budget at the end of year
Decision takers who are employees of a company mainly think or consider themselves first and the company comes in second position.
- They want a lot of things.
- They get little.
Decision takers who are founders of the company are entrepreneurs who will take risks in order to grow the company faster.
- They want a few things.
- They get almost all.
Both want different things for different reasons giving salesmen different chances to actually sell to them.
The ROI in sales: the expertise of the salesman
However when it comes to the actual purchase the gap between wanting and buying becomes clear and evident: a budget or an economic reason needs to be present. The power of a decision maker is a big parameter.
All capacities in a company are limited. Also the capacity required for selling is limited. Hence a Return On Investment (ROI) needs to be made based upon estimated chances.
The salesman, using his expertise acquired over many years, needs to differentiate between the wanting or the needing demand of the lead.
This is where the salesman plays an important role by evaluating, qualifying and deciding whether a suspect or lead is a prospect or not.
His experience and expertise are is required to estimate the chances for success (= sales) with a suspect or lead as he (or the VP Sales) decides to invest more or less time in a potential customer.
However he needs to take the power of the decision maker into the calculation as his ego, his social status, his enterprise status or his need for expressing his power can overrule any rational or economic reason.
How many times have you mistakenly took wanting instead of needing?
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