Do you ever find yourself asking these questions: Why don’t prospects buy more of my products and services? How can I increase my #sales and conversion rate? What are the psychological barriers to #buying? That’s the topic we’re going to cover today on #Fordify. We’re going to talk about how customers make buying decisions and how you can influence those decisions through your #marketing.

When talking about buying behaviors, you need to remember that there’s always the difference between emotional purchases and logical purchases. Every purchase is made on an emotional level and then we justify it logically.

So when you think about your products and services, you have to make sure that you’re appealing to both the emotional side and the logical side. So think about the selling situations in your business. Wouldn’t it be great to increase your sales and conversions? Uh, duh, of course it would. But have you really explored the psychological barriers that people have when making a buying decision?

What do I mean by a psychological barrier? Well, it’s what’s going on in a prospect’s heart and mind. You see, they have hidden objections. People always say the basic ones: I don’t have enough time. Not enough money. Whatever. But beyond time and money there are some psychological aspects we’re going to look at. The psychological barriers are actually broken down into four main categories: Value, Change, Conflict, and Work.

Value

Let’s take a look at the first one: value. You know what? It’s never a money issue. It’s always a value issue. It’s never a price issue. It’s always a value issue. If you want to increase your sales, you need to communicate more value.

Now for example, let’s say you’re selling video training on selling. Maybe you have a six part CD or online training series on how to increase sales. People don’t want the training; they want the result of the training. People don’t want your product or service; they want the result of it.

You just need to make sure you’re communicating what the training will help them do. It will help them close sales faster, overcome objections easier, shorten the sale cycle, and make more money. That’s what they’re paying for. They’re paying for the results. The benefits. The end result. Not your product. Now, you need to talk about your products too. We’ve talked about in other Fodify episodes, but just remember, if you want to increase your sales, you want to overcome those objections of “I don’t have the money.” Then focus on communicating the value.

Change

Let’s go to the next one: change. You know what? People want to basically do a few things. They want to look smart. They want to be healthy. They want to be wealthy. They want to feel good. You have to tie your products and services to the results of your products and services to overcome the objection of change.

Some people want change, right? They want to change where they are. They want to look smart or they want to make more money. They want to feel better. But you have to make sure that in the process of whatever products and services that you’re selling that you understand that change can be a barrier. People may want to change, but they also fear it. And you have to preempt that change by making sure you’re communicating that your products or services are going to make change a positive.

So the key is just to make sure that if what you’re selling is going to impact change in their lives, that’s it’s going to do it in a positive way.

Conflict

Next: conflict. Well here’s a good one. If your product or service is going to create conflict, you had better preempt it. For example, I’m sure some of you might be married or maybe have a significant other. I guarantee that in your relationship one of you is going to be the influencer and decision maker, right? You have to consider that making the decision to invest in you products/services might create conflict with a significant other, family member, friend, business partner, etc.

You need to make sure that if your product is going to create conflict, either for that individual or for that organization, that you overcome that potential conflict by showing them how to present it to the person or stakeholder in question.

Another example, let’s take a boss who wants to hire a keynoter to come in and speak at their conference. The meeting planner may want a certain speaker, maybe someone like me. But they may go to their boss or their committee and their committee says, “Oh no, that’s too expensive.” Or the meeting planner may not even bring that proposal to the table because they’re embarrassed that it might create conflict. I’m not going to leave it up to the meeting planner to go take me to the committee and create that conflict.

In that case, I would actually produce a video. I’d say to the meeting planner, “Hey, would it be okay if I produce a short two or three minute video that explains this process and why it would be a good choice?” Well, that reduces conflict for the meeting planner because now they don’t have to be the one to defend their idea of bringing me in. They can just say, “Hey, can we watch this three or four-minute video?” So if your product or service creates conflict, then just preempt it and look at “How can we reduce conflict in this selling situation?”

Work

And finally the last hidden barrier is going to be work. If what you’re selling is going to produce more work for that prospect, it’s going to be a barrier. Are they going to have to take more time? Is it going to be hard to implement? If it’s going to be hard to implement or take more time or they have to do too much work you’re going to have a barrier to selling it. So when you sell your product or service, be careful. If you’re bundling a whole bunch of bonuses in it. If you’re making the whole process too hard or too complicated, they’re not going to buy. And it may not be because the product’s not good or they don’t believe in you, it’s because you’re making it too hard. So go back and look at your products and services and make sure that they aren’t too hard to implement.

So here’s your action step for this week’s episode. I want you to take a proactive look at your sales process. I want you to create a plan and preempt the objections that you normally get, but specifically the hidden, psychological barriers. Those four barriers of value, change, conflict, and work.