We Buy Like We Sell

I was thinking a little bit last night about how so often we are disconnected from our clients when trying to sell them our products. It spawned a post about remembering our audience on my blog at CopierCatlaog.com. I wrote what I think are the top five things your website (and your language) should include when talking to your clients.

Ken posted a response titled, Are You Being "sold to" or "told to"? 

Pretty good post. I recommend a read (plus, he makes me sound intelligible).

The fact is, if we understand how we buy, we'll be able to sell more effectively. More to the point, if we understand how people buy, we'll be able to sell more effectively.

The most important thing about buying is that we buy like we sell.

If are accustomed to selling fast and glossing over the details, we are likely to buy that way. If we focus on selling the commodity, we will want to buy the commodity. If we want to help our customer understand their business problem and want to help them solve it... even if our product is the best, we'll expect sales people to honor us the same way.

You may not agree with this, but I dare you to take a step back and see how you sell things and buy things. Even if you are not a salesman professionally, you sell things every day. You sell to your boss, your co-workers, friends and your spouse. You try to convince people to "buy-in" to what you are "selling" every day. Think about the tactics you use to sell that. I would bet a nickel that you expect other people to sell to you the same way... if they did, you would likely be interested in buying from them.

Think about that when you sell to someone. If you are trying to sell like you buy, you may miss the opportunity. They buy like they sell. If you can cross that divide and offer them your services the way they sell, you'll be far more effective.

Thanks to ZDNet, whom I stole the image from.