Before you rip up your sales process, take a look at how you like to buy stuff

Before your rip up your sales process, consider this. Business owners spend long hours stressing over how to improve key sales metrics.
Conversion rates, deal lead times, commission rates… you name it, it’s a cause of sleepless nights.

And it’s made worse by the social media commentary that makes it sound like everyone else has a simple fix. It’s only you that’s falling short.
Yet there’s a simple (and cheap) way of exploring customer behaviour: Take a hard look at how you like to make purchases.

Of course everyone is different, but closely observing your own behaviour gives you some insight into the twists and turns a buying journey can make. And an understanding of why.

When I recently replaced my garage door these sales lessons were shouting loud and clear.

How do you like to make buying decisions?

You might never have bought a garage door, and I realised quickly nor have I. Most houses already have one!
This makes it a prime example of an infrequent purchase. Yet with a price bracket of maybe £1000 to £4000 it’s a decision you’re likely to dwell on.

Here’s where the first buying choice was made.
Yes, I did a bit of internet research and visited a recommended showroom to take a look at modern technology. Apparently the up-and-over doors that my mum painted in lilac squares are no longer the fashion.
But I also spent time scratting through a scruffy file to find the receipt for a repair we’d had done five years ago. That job was done very efficiently by a friendly guy running a local business.
If only I could find him again…and bingo! My meticulous filing system worked out and still contained the receipt from 2021 with an email address.

Jamie* has probably carried out 1000 garage door repairs since then and he likely has no idea he had become our “go to” for future jobs. When we applied the Know, Like, Trust criteria he ticked all three boxes.

Sales insight: Most business owners we meet have an unhealthy fixation on new business and leadgen. But your ex-clients (and maybe your ex-colleagues) are often an untapped goldmine of potential.
A low-level means of keeping in touch with them – like a regular newsletter – ensures you stay front of mind when they are next shopping. At that point they are more loyal and quicker to convert than any new business lead.

The power of Good, Better, Best pricing

I was really pleased to reconnect with Jamie, but to be honest his quote was a bit beyond my carefully constructed garage budget.
I could see from his quote that he’d already applied a discount, but all the same I went back explaining it was a little over what I hoped and asking whether there was there an alternative.
At this point Jamie sent over a couple of options:

• A limited edition from my preferred manufacturer. Same quality but a very limited range of colour choices
• An alternative door from a less well-known supplier. A good choice of colours but – we both knew – not the same quality
  Either route would save c20% on the first quote.
  My wife and I thought it over for a couple of days and went back with a different question: Jamie, how much is that first door you quoted, finished in a bespoke colour?
  Perhaps not surprising, the answer was around 20% higher than the price that was “too high”.
  You can guess what we chose.
  At the top of this blog I mentioned it’s the first (and I honestly believe, the last) time I’ll ever buy a garage door.
  So yes, we went with the most expensive option put in front of us. The first quote looked a bit pricey, but scrutinizing the cheaper options helped us to clarify where exactly our perceived value sat in the transaction. The bespoke RAL colour that perfectly matched the front door felt like an architectural design choice that overcame my “price” objection.
  Sales insight: If you present your customers with a range of three price points they can decide what’s most important to them and you’ll frequently end up with a higher value transaction. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking price is the buyer’s only criteria.
  In this case a bit of to and fro by email established these three pricing tiers:
• Good: The entry level door with limited colour choices
• Better: The standard door with a choice of finishes
• Best: How would you like your door finished, sir?

Always account for your cost of sale

You’ll gather from this that Jamie is firmly installed as my preferred supplier for garage doors and associated repairs. Not only has he provided me with a range of options and information to prompt a decision. He’s also responded quickly and been available to chat through the technical aspects of fitting a door into a door-shaped hole.

It’s great service and that 121 connection is what most customers will choose.
But it nags at me just how much this might cost.
Sometimes you’re just not paying enough to warrant personal service. If you’re buying a widget on Amazon that’s obvious, but even spending a few hundred pounds on motor or home insurance has now become a self-serve experience. There just isn’t enough margin in the transaction to fund interpersonal connection.

Most small businesses will have a tipping point below which it’s not worth the founder being personally involved.
Sales insight: For most businesses the customer queries they receive are repeating topics. You can create targeted content documents (just short “how to” guides can be enough) to answer these or to automate repeating steps like construction of quotes.
You can take this onto a whole different level by using ai agents to answer recurring queries and to build those into a source of sales insight about what your customers are looking for.

Then you can focus your time on the big yes/no decisions that will make a meaningful difference to your sales performance.
What can you learn about selling by studying the last big purchase you made?

If you want to learn more about your sales performance then get in touch with us.