Would you believe me, if I tell you that you can read your potential customer’s mind, while he is still browsing through your product and he/she is on the verge of making his decision of buying or rejecting the product?
Even before the buyer makes his mind you would already be knowing his concerns and can answer them on your own before he says yes/no to your product or service.
In this Blog, I will be sharing with you a simple three steps process of decoding the thinking process of the Buyer.
Yes, there is a particular way of thinking while the customer is making the buying decision. And if you get this right, you will be able to convert that lead into a customer and have the potential to increase your sales conversion ratio significantly.
In 1967 JP Guilford published his book “The Nature of Human Intelligence”. In this book he mentioned that there are three types of thinking, human beings get involved in, during the process of decision making.
These three types of thinking which lead to the decision making are given below:
1. Cognition thinking: This type of thinking helps the decision-maker to understand his situation and the problems that he is currently facing, and he wants to get resolved.
2. Divergent thinking: After thinking and understanding his problems, he explores the various options and solutions to resolve the problem. In this step, he thinks very divergently in different directions, and he weighs different options.
3. Convergent thinking: after considering the different options and solutions he starts narrowing down the various options and then he converges his thinking towards one or two solutions that he finally wants to select.
Now let us discuss how the understanding of this three-step thinking process will help you evaluate your situation better and how will it help you take appropriate actions accordingly so that you can crack the deal at the earliest possible.
1. Cognition thinking
In the first step, the customer thinks about the different prospects of his problem i.e
- What exactly is the problem?
- The gravity of the problem?
- The problem area?
- When did the problem start?
- Why did the problem happen?
This cross-questioning with himself, basically tells the customer where he is standing today in regard to his problem.
Understanding of cognition thinking is very critical in the selling process. Because unless you as a salesperson and your potential buyer do not reach to a common understanding of the problem, both of you will not be able to reach the right buying decision. This is obvious because in the absence of a proper understanding of the problem the customer will not be able to define his requirements and as a seller, you will not be able to offer him the appropriate product.
Poor cognition thinking leads to wrong decision making and ultimately consumer regrets the buying of the product. That is why the sound selling begins by the understanding of “what is there in the customer’s mind”.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you and your customer see things the same way. But this means that as a seller you begin with the proper questioning to understand the explicit and latent requirements of your customer.
2. Divergent thinking
This is the second stage of the decision-making process. At this stage, the customer explores various options for resolving his problem. Divergent thinking is naturally the second step because logically you cannot go to an exploration of the solution unless you are clear about your problem. At this stage, the customer asks few questions for example how about trying this? What could we do to resolve this problem? What if we try this? Let us consider this and others…?
At this stage, the customer goes through a brainstorming and freewheeling process through which he generates potential solutions. As a seller, you can help the customer explore various options. You should also understand that whether the customer is sharing this information with you or not but logically he is exploring the competitor’s product as well. Therefore, it is your responsibility to not only educate your customer on your product but also share the relevant information at the right time with the customer about the competitor’s products as well.
3. Convergent thinking
After exploring and evaluating the various options for resolving his problem in the customer narrows down his thinking towards a selected few options. In this third step, the customer finds the best options for the given situation. Logically this step looks to be the actual decision-making step. But this is the third step in the decision-making process. The customer says few things to himself like, this is the logical choice, we should zero down on this, it is obvious to go for this etc.
A salesperson has a huge role in taking the customer from divergent thinking to convergent thinking. The salesperson needs to explain how his product meets all the requirements of customer situation. The salesperson must help the customer evaluate the various options and finally lead him to zero down his product.
This is also important to understand that these three types of thinking do not go strictly in sequence, rather they keep overlapping.
That means that while the customer is thinking about the final choice for resolving his problem, he may still be thinking about the various problems he has, and he may still be evaluating the final product for his problems. The decision-making thinking process does not move just in in forward direction, but it keeps on going back and forth. As a salesperson you must understand that what must be going on in the customer’s mind at a particular moment so that you can guide your customer accordingly and finally help him reach to the conclusion and close the order in your favor.
Therefore next time when you are meeting a new prospect, approach him with high clarity about these three steps of the decision making process. If you do so you will be able to help your customer, make the decision faster and in your favor.
CONCLUSION
I Rakesh Sharma, is a Business and Performance Coach having more than 30 years of experience and 10 years of coaching experience. I have trained more than 15000 professionals over the years.
I will always advise you to keep the customer at priority and remember Seller needs to act faster and smarter than the Buyer.
If you want to discuss more, connect with us at Prime Performance Solutions.
We wish you all the very best and fruitful sales journey.
Happy Selling
