How to calm an anxious buyer
  • sales
  • Blog post

How to calm an anxious buyer

Salespeople tend to forget just how anxiety-provoking a major purchase can be. To the salesperson, the product or service isn’t scary at all. He or she lives with it every day, knows its ins and outs, how much value it can deliver.

The buyer may know none of that. To the buyer, your product or service is a stranger who shows up on the doorstep. Asking for money.

There’s a lot to worry about if you’re a buyer. What if the product or service doesn’t live up to expectations? What if it becomes obsolete? What if I see it advertised for 20% less next week? What if my boss doesn’t like it? What if my business needs change? Maybe I should sleep on it…

Sometimes buyers hesitate because you really DID overlook something in the sales discovery process. And, yes, some buyers will play hard to get just to wring a concession from you. But sometimes you’ve done everything right and buyers are simply afraid to take that final step.

That type of hesitation — purchase anxiety — requires a light touch from salespeople. Your instinct is to push just a little harder — the buyer is soooo close to saying yes. But that’s usually the worst thing you can do. It just makes the buyer more anxious, and back further away.

Instead, you need to stop, take a breath, and relax. Act as if you have all the time in the world. Let the buyer talk through their jitters. Remind them that it’s perfectly normal to feel some butterflies. Only after you’ve calmed the buyer’s anxiety can you move forward and close the sale.

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