Buyers are extremely important for the business. Business is not possible without buyers.
Buyers buy products & services for their reasons. Different types of buyers have different mind-set. Every buyer requires different treatment, but one of the biggest mistakes is that most business owners and salespeople treat all of them in the same way.
If you are also doing the same mistake it is time to learn something. It is time to learn about the five most common types of buyers and how to sell them? How to do effective communication, when you sell to different types of buyers?
5 Types of Buyers – How to sell them?
#1 Cheap Buyers
One of the most common buyers that I come across in my business is Cheap Buyers.
Cheap buyers are buyers that make buying decisions based on price. They want a good price. They buy based on price & not so much on value.
They want a good deal, right? They want a discount, they want, a bundle of things for a low price.
Cheap buyers are always looking for –
- Sale
- Discount,
- Coupons
- Bundle Deal
- Deal of the week or
- Deal of the day
Sometimes these are the buyers who end up buying a bunch of stuff that they don’t need. Simply because it’s a good deal.
So, when you’re selling to these types of buyers you need to structure your offer in a manner that it seems like a good deal.
Let’s try to understand this by example –
During Diwali Days we see a lot of special sales and discount offers by retail shop owners. Not only that we also see Great Indian Festival and Diwali sales by Amazon and Flipkart during Diwali time.
Do you know why? It is to attract cheap buyers to purchase the things.
Before Diwali, they mark up the price. So, let’s say cloth worth INR 1000 they mark up the price to INR 1500 and then they do big discount they sell the same product with 20% discount means they sell the same cloth at INR 1200.
The actual price is INR 1000 but during Diwali after the discount product is sold at INR 1200.
And marketing gimmick or mouth publicity is it is INR 1500 worth cloth sold at INR 1200 due to Diwali.
So, cheap customers think – “Wow, that’s a very good price.” and they end up buying a bunch of stuff that they may not need.
But, they like the thrill, right? They enjoy chasing a good deal.
That’s how they get their satisfaction.
So when you are communicating with them, don’t just focus on, “Hey, this is so good,” or, “This product is far superior to everything else.”
Because if you’re talking to them that way, in their minds, “Well, then it must be overpriced,” or “this must be expensive.”
They want to know, “How is this a good deal?
- Tell me why this is a great deal
- What is the urgency of grabbing this deal?
- Why do they need to get this right now, right?
- You’ve only got so many of this product left.
- Limited quantity, limited time right?
They are motivated by this, so when you’re dealing with a cheap buyer, that’s what you need to do.
And remember more than 50% of buyers you come across in the business are cheap buyers.
#2 Difficult Buyers
Difficult buyers are most difficult to handle and that’s why I call them difficult buyers. I come across many difficult buyers in my business.
It is very, very difficult to please difficult buyers. You do whatever you want to do, you give them a lot of information, but they just don’t pull the trigger, they don’t buy.
Doesn’t matter if you go the extra mile, you visit them multiple times, but they still don’t buy, right?
And they’re always challenging you, right?
Whenever I handle difficult buyers I feel that I am playing boxing with them in the ring 🙂
Understand that difficult buyers, like a good fight.
They want to fight with you, they almost like to them, the whole buying thing, it doesn’t interest them that much.
They’re much more interested in making your life, like a living hell, right?
How many of you have customers like that? I think many.
You’ve dealt with buyers that are just extremely difficult.
They were very difficult to begin with, even after then they become a customer, they are still very difficult to maintain.
These the ones who are sucking up a lot of your time, a lot of the energy, they’re the energy drainers, right?
So be very, very careful. Are you spending a lot of time dealing with Difficult Buyers?
You have to be very careful in dealing with difficult buyers. Because as per my experience difficult buyers are sensitive and require a lot of care and soft speech.
In short, you need to do a lot of “Chamchagiri” or apply a lot of sugar to your words while talking with them.
Difficult buyers remind me of one song every time I deal with them – जो तुमको हो पसंद, वो ही बात कहेंगे जो तुमको हो पसंद, वो ही बात कहेंगे… 🙂
#3 Sophisticated Buyers
I also come across sophisticated buyers. Sophisticated buyers are my favorite.
They are very, very different. They buy based on value, but they’re also, they’re very smart, right?
They do the research, they are the type of buyers who would do a lot of research, maybe online, talk to different people, before they commit to a major purchase, right?
They know what they’re getting themselves into. So when you’re dealing with a Sophisticated Buyer, what you don’t want to do is, do a lot of telling.
You don’t want to tell them, “Hey, you need this, and you want this and you should get this.”
No, let them come to their conclusions. What you could do is provide information, right?
Providing information, being a professional, right?
Being a professional, provide information that they need and say, “hey, okay you’re looking for this”, and they love the fact that, when you tell them what your product won’t do.
Because that builds trust.
Tell them, “Hey, our product’s good, but just so you know, it won’t do these things”.
Or even better yet, what are some of the flaws of your product?
So, Sophisticated Buyers, know, no product is perfect.
So when you tell them what your product won’t do, it builds a lot of trust.
Also tell them, “Hey, you know what, this is a little bit more expensive than what you’re used to”, or, “we charge more than our competitors because of this”.
Also make sure that when you’re dealing with a Sophisticated Buyer, you stay away from the typical sales tactics, where you’re very pushy, you’re pushing them to buy, but they do not like that.
You need to give them some space, you need to give them some room so that they can make decisions on their own.
Does that make sense?
And then you have, what I call, Affluent Buyers.
#4 Affluent Buyers
Affluent Buyers mean wealthy buyers, they rarely buy based on functions. They are wealthy and they have the financial resources, to buy almost whatever they want.
Now, when you are dealing with Affluent Buyers, let me give you a perfect example, they buy feelings and emotions, and they also buy convenience.
They buy feelings and justify them with logic.
Chances are, with an Affluent Buyer, you need to think about how you can make his or her life a little bit easier.
So example, I buy clothes from Jade Blue, so the, Sales Rep, that works with me, that he does a lot of things that goes the extra mile, which helps me save time.
So example, when I go in there, he already, has a lot of the items that he has selected ahead of time.
So, I go in, I don’t need to waste time browsing through the entire store.
He already knows what are some of my preferences. So when I choose, a lot of things, okay great.
We measure, he has my measurement, I want these shirts, all that, it’s done, and when it’s done I pay.
He does whatever I need, to the concierge.
Sometimes I don’t even need to go to the store. He makes delivery at home. Now, that is going the extra mile, that is selling convenience.
Affluent Buyers, hate inconvenience, right?
They want luxury, they want status, and sometimes they buy things because of status, right?
So understand what motivates a Cheap Buyer, does not motivate an Affluent Buyer.
When you’re sitting down across the table, face to face, belly to belly, you’re talking to an Affluent Buyer, and you tell that buyer,
“Hey, this is a very good deal, this is very cheap, you’re going to save a whole bunch of money”, it’s an instant turn-off.
I don’t want something cheap, I want the best, right? It’s very different.
Do you want a good deal or do you want the best?
I want the best. Sometimes when you are talking to an Affluent Buyer, you want to communicate that “This is expensive, this is not for everyone, right?
This is what I learned while dealing with Affluent buyers. So, when you’re talking to them, understand that it’s a very, very different value proposition.
#5 Spendthrift Buyers
Another type of buyer I come across in business is spendthrift buyers.
The spendthrifts feel little or no pain in making a purchase. They love purchasing what catches their eye immediately. Spendthrifts are more likely to do impulsive buying.
They form the smallest percentage of the overall population.
You need not convince them for buying, they buy without any sales speech. But it is very difficult to get these types of buyers in your business.
So, let’s recap, we have Cheap Buyers, we have Difficult Buyers, we have Sophisticated Buyers, and we have Affluent Buyers and we have spendthrift buyers.
One of the most important decisions you have to make in business is, what type of buyers you want.
You want Sophisticated Buyers and the Affluent Buyers or Spendthrift for business. You don’t need cheap buyers or difficult buyers.
