In an article called "The Secret Lives Of Buyers" from the Online Publishing Insider, David Koretz leads us through his perceptions of buyers and more importantly, their perceptions of Return On Investment. He does so by dividing the population of buyers into 4 segments.....
"When Being Nice, Isn't
Some people just love to say yes. Even when they do not mean it.
Unfortunately, evolution has not yet wiped out those who are polite, but insincere.
Rather than look you in the eye and tell you "no," they will instead string you along to avoid the social discomfort of turning you down.
If you are selling to someone who is just giving you a hollow "yes," you need to create a comfortable atmosphere for them to express their real concerns.
Otherwise, you will hear the right answer right up until you miss your numbers."
We call the above a Technical Buyer at times, someone who can't say yes. The strategy to get around this is to invite anyone involved in the decision to the table so they can be part of the discussion and you can open up the floor to questions so the level of comfort is where it needs to be.....
"The Disease of Middle Management
I have had the painful experience of interviewing hundreds of middle managers that hail from large, once great companies that have since lost their luster.
All too often they brag about the most ludicrous of concepts: the size of their budget.
The idea that the more money you spend, the more capable you must be, is a horribly perverse concept.
Managers that measure success by the size of their budget never seem to mention the return on their investments. This is the last person your company should ever hire, and a very challenging person to sell to.
If you are selling to someone who prides themselves on the size of their budget, selling a solution that will save their company money is an exercise in frustration.
Instead, you need to give them the ammunition to justify spending a premium on your product."
This is a great opportunity to recommend the heaviest schedule delivering the maximum Return on Investment but is sold on how "big" the campaign is and being able to back it up with Return. Sometimes you have to play to a persons ego....this is one of those times....
"The Bigger the Company, the Smaller the Responsibility
Generally speaking, the larger the company, the more disconnected people get from the importance of spending company money carefully.
All too often, managers make decisions for personal reasons, at the expense of the company. They want to look smart and advance their career.
If your customer is focused on career growth, you need to adjust your sales pitch accordingly.
If his goal is to look like a hero internally, then you can't just deliver great ROI.
You need to make it look like it was his idea. Your sales pitch should be designed to do just that."
And the fourth buyer personality according to the article....
"Risk is a Four-Letter Word
If necessity is the mother of all invention, then success is surely the father of all complacency.
The more money a company makes, the more risk-averse it becomes. Ironically, the very-risk taking that made it successful is viewed with a critical eye.
When selling to risk-adverse customers, it is often more important to reduce the perception of risk, than sell the benefits."
What you can take from this article, although it doesn't exactly fit the mold of the 4 buyer types we aim to identify with the Luce Performance Group but rather introduces 4 variations of the actual decision maker, the Econonic Buyer, is that ROI needs presented in various forms to still provide a solution based on Benefits/ROI, Risk, & Opportunity Cost....
"All four of these customer profiles are weighing the same three buying criteria, yet arrive at very different conclusions.
Therein lies the paradox of sales: ROI is not an absolute number, but rather a variable dependent on the perspective of the person you are selling to.
If you want to survive in this economy, you need to figure out how to deliver your customers the greatest ROI from their viewpoint.
Every idiot can calculate ROI, but only an idiot assumes he knows how his customers measure it.