How To Overcome Buyer’s Fear

How To Overcome Buyer’s Fear:by Lisa Fugere

Even before you offer a sales pitch, you may may have to overcome prospects’ fear of buying. Even though you are in a professional area working with a professional buyer, that doesn’t mean that there is rational thinking going on all the time. You have to put your prospect at ease with the buying process before you can close a sale.

There are 4 major fears that can weigh on a buyer’s mind. Recognizing these and knowing how to navigate them can be the difference between making the sale and walking away empty handed.
Fear of paying too much for a product or service
Nobody wants to pay too much or find out they’ve been taken advantage of. Put your prospect at ease by showing similar products or services at slightly higher price points. This will immediately alleviate this fear. If there are no comparisons to what you have, offer your prospect a price match or fixed-term guarantee that if the price goes down or a comparable product comes on the market in the same time frame, you’ll match it.
Fear of disappointment
If a product doesn’t live up to market hype, or fails to deliver on the promises that the salesman makes, disappointment will follow. Customer testimonials offer the best way to alleviate this fear. If you have a good track record and the product or service you offer shows significant data to prove its worth, this is the place to use it. Data is good, but a testimonial is far better.
Fear of what other people will think about the decision to buy
This irrational fear kills more sales than the previous two combined. Every decision to purchase has the potential to affect the buyer’s reputation, so if there is any sense that a product might not be the right fit, or that buying it might require the prospect to venture onto an unexplored limb, the prospect could shrink back from a purchase. Prospects won’t express this fear outright. It will show up in the form of excuses, hesitations and other non-sequiturs. The appearance of these irrational and irrelevant objections is usually a sign of this fear. Highlighting the ways in which the purchase will reflect well on the purchaser and making a play to his or her sense of pride may be the best way to overcome these objections.
Fear of change
People are creatures of habit. They don’t like interruptions in their routines – especially when they involve money. In some cases, the status quo is your biggest competitor. Always keep this in the back of your mind. A prospect’s uneasiness about a sale may stem solely from reluctance to change. A good salesman can use transform this fear into an advantage: the fear of missing out on a great opportunity.
When you can identify these fears as they creep in sales conversation, you can immediately confront them and offer up rebuttals that not only diffuse the fear, but also reverse it. By putting the prospect at ease and turning fears on their heads, you can take a sales call from dead to sold.