Don't Make Feature-based Purchases, Without Facing The Fear Factor

Fear Selling is all about getting to that dreaded question of Whats it going to cost you if?. Heres a classic example of fear selling in action. An IT Sales Rep. calls up the purchasing manager or CEO of a company and says, Mr Customer, I work for Anti-Virus Software Ltd. Weve got a great deal on at only $49.99 a month. If this is the approach he uses, the sales guy might not get any further than this. And thats simply because hes likely to be one of the ten other sales guys making the same kind of call that day. The CEO probably has his turn-away call down pat. Possibly hes even started to have fun, saying Thanks. But wed rather not. And maybe on a good day, he even asks the Sales Rep. to go into all the benefits, just to see how well he knows his stuff.

But hey, what if the sales guy, turns his call around, and says: Whenever I speak with senior decision-makers like yourself, I often here the same three concerns coming up: computer viruses, computer viruses and computer viruses. Is this something you can relate to?. The Sales Rep. knows hes hitting a soft spot because hes done his research. And then its literally, a hop, skip and a jump away to that unsettling question, Whats it costing you in terms of staffing, and problem-shooting and system crashes?, which can be followed by a clincher: Ad if you were to put a figure on what is it costing you?.

Lets throw out a radical statement here. Good purchases need to be based fear-factor tested. Dont base your purchase on the features alone. Its easy when youre looking at features, to think that youre getting a great deal. What you want to do is predict what could go wrong, and make sure that whatever you are purchasing can handle the situation. This is, in part, the idea behind a checklist inspection. A team of experts would have sat down early on it the planning process and said: Whats really vital to the safe operations of this machine or tool?, and then they would have had an inspection team in an inspection bay, check that all safety criteria were matched.

I-80 Equipment Company (www.i80equipment.com) have over 15 years in operation, selling quality reconditioned bucket trucks and used digger derricks. They wont put a truck on the road without a 77point inspection, followed by an external inspection and certification process.

Today, truck drivers need to understand how their trucks operate inside out in order to ensure road safety at all times. I-80 Equipment aim to provide as much information as possible to a potential customer, so that when they walk onto the lot, theyve seen the video footage, and they know the trucks mileage, weight, engine and fuel type and transmission. This way, theyre more inclined to move onto road safety, and general maintenance issues.