The Buyer’s Process

The final step in the purchase process falls on the buyer making a purchase decision. The steps include: 

1. Consideration
2. Negotiation
3. Purchase

Consideration

The buyer has now decided to consider your offer. At this stage, they will most likely review your proposal with the goal of gaining the alignment of other internal decision makers.

The tools your buyer will use at this stage:

• They’ll send the Company Pitch Deck to their peers.
• They’ll send the Sales Proposal to their CFO or financial decision maker.
• They’ll contact your references to get some more customer validation.

At this stage, you shouldn’t do anything but follow up and make yourself available to provide more supporting information if needed.

Negotiation

Now your buyer has decided that they wish to purchase your offer, but want to negotiate the terms and deals of the proposal.

The goal behind the buyer’s psychology is to feel that he or she was able to get a little more out of the detail. As a sales representative, prep in advance what you’re willing and not willing to trade-off in order to close a customer.

Some things you can do at this stage are:

• Do not devalue the price of your product/service. If the customer wants a reduced rate, offer this for a temporary period of time.
• Provide a tangible, qualitative benefit as opposed to a financial benefit. Offer your customer exclusive access to new products or give them VIP customer support for free.

Your goal of the negotiation should be to show the desire to add more value to your prospective customer, not less.

Purchase

This is the final stage in the buying process. At this point, your buyer makes a decision to either purchase your products or to defer the purchase to a later time.

If the customer decides to purchase, congratulations! You’ve successfully closed a new customer for your company.

If the customer decides that they are not interested in purchasing your product at this time, then appreciate them for their consideration and make sure you end off on a positive note. Schedule a follow up call/meeting within the next couple months to re-engage with the prospective customer, re-assess their set of needs and re-start the sales and buyer’s process all over again.

Want more?

Fore more on the topic of understanding the buyer in the sales process, check out:

• 5 Stages, B2C Buying Decision Process
• Buying Decision Process
• Buying Process Management
• The 6 Buyer Personas and How to Sell to Them
• Buying Process vs. Sales Model
• Understanding Buyer Psychology

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The goal of this post is to provide you with an initial understanding of your buyer’s point of view so that you can best cater your sales process to match the needs of your buyer.