Techniques to help you sell when you don’t like selling

I hate selling. There, I said it.  That’s a problem if you are someone like me who runs their own business, or if you have a role that requires you to generate sales. So, how can we sell if we don’t like selling? By using techniques from behavioural science to shift the emphasis from selling to buying. Here’s how.

What is selling?

A sale is a transaction. They pay you, you deliver something to them. But beneath that, selling something requires a change in your customer’s behaviour. They need to move from not transacting with you, to transacting. From not buying, to buying.

When we think of it this way, we can get to the core of what stands in the way of them doing this. We can start to address the barriers to buying.

The shift in language away from ‘selling’ to ‘buying’ is deliberate, by the way.

Selling is about you. Buying is about them.

By changing how you refer to and think about this exercise, you do two things.

First, it helps you get over yourself. Instead of the pressure being on you to ‘sell’, which is doing something to someone, the decision to buy is on your customer’s shoulders. Selling TO them changes to buying FROM you. Sure, you want to help them do this, but more on that in a minute.

The second thing a ‘buying’ rather than ‘selling’ approach does is encourage you to think from their perspective. Where a selling mindset leads you to push product benefits from your point of view, a buying mindset encourages you to fit those benefits into the customer’s world. Their ‘what’s in it for me?’ (WIIFM) becomes top of mind for you. 

For example, I was recently asked to participate on a podcast. The host was trying to ‘sell’ me the opportunity. Their approach was to detail everything they wanted from me — my knowledge of behavioural science applied to their industry — forgetting to explain what the benefit was to me. They ran smack bang into the barriers to buying.

Barriers to buying

So why don’t people buy? Is it price? Product range? A better deal available elsewhere? 

Those are the types of reasons we usually hear when missed sales are being explained. But dive a little deeper, and there are only three root causes why people don’t buy. 

1. We haven’t engaged them, so they don’t care enough to bother. In behavioural terms, this is a ‘System One’ challenge, where we have to capture their attention and turn it into action. The podcast host, for example, could have engaged my interest by simply providing a WIIFM in their invitation.
2. We have confused them, so they don’t know what to do. This is ‘Choice Overload’, where any interest in buying is overwhelmed by the process to do so. Our job is to clarify what needs to be done, when.
3. We have made them anxious about proceeding, so it’s safer to walk away.  This is ‘Loss Aversion’, where the fear of what they stand to lose, like money, time or credibility, outweighs the benefits they may receive. Our job is to give them the confidence to buy, along with fear if they don’t.

Convincing them to convince themselves

Clearly, the art of selling without selling is to get customers to buy. Our role is less about convincing them to buy, and more about getting them to convince themselves to buy. What do I mean?

Pricing is one of the biggest turn-offs unless we handle it correctly. Be sure to provide a frame of reference — an anchor point — so they know that the deal is a good one. This not only helps engage your customer, it reduces their fear of losing out. For example, imagine telling your customer that the landscaping they want will cost $20,000. This places the onus on them to make a determination whether that is expensive or reasonable. Instead, imagine telling them a similar job down the road was $27,000, but their job looks like it could be done for $20,000. This context helps them know they are getting value for money.

Likewise, when asking something of your customer, say requesting they sign-up to your newsletter or complete an inquiry form, always lead with what they ‘get’ before what they have to ‘give’ you. For instance, ‘Get 10% off by signing-up’ rather than ‘Sign-up to get 10% off’. By leading with their benefit, you are signalling it is about them, not you.

And when it comes to closing a sales, or rather, buying conversation, don’t ask for the sale. Instead, approach the discussion as an opportunity to unearth why the existing status quo isn’t working for them, and what they’d like to see done differently. This will help them reach the conclusion that buying from you is the only sensible thing to do.