Last weekend, my wife and I had a great time seeing Harry Connick Jr. in concert at Chateau Ste Michelle Winery – a wonderful outdoor venue. We couldn’t get side-by-side seating so we had seats one in front of the other. The couple to my right, without being asked, offered to move their chairs so we could sit together. There are wonderful people everywhere you go.
The people to my left arrived after most had been seated. A father, mother and twenty-something daughter worked their way across the row with the daughter ending up next to me. Before sitting she glanced at me with a look of fear and frantically asked her father to, “Switch with me.” The father said, “You’ll be fine.” The mother responded, “You know she’s afraid of Asian guys. Don’t make her sit there.” The father switched. Obviously the young woman had experience that made her afraid of Asian males. Her face displayed real fear when she looked at me.
Because their conversation was far from a whisper I heard everything. I could have had a negative response. But having been in similar situations, I know we all have experiences that are the foundation of our perceptions so I chose to say nothing. Throughout the concert, the father and I had friendly exchanges, so much so that when they went to get food he asked if I could please watch their things. We continued to talk throughout the evening, even though the mother and daughter were visibly uneasy. However, by the end of the evening, the daughter seemed more relaxed and the frown that started the evening changed to a smile as they were leaving.
I don’t know what her experience was but I hope she ended that evening having lost a bit of her fear of Asian males. I’ll never know but I will know that I was respectful to and that’s really all I could do.
In business, we sell to people who have many experiences that serve as the foundation of their perceptions – their personal motivations for buying. My services were recommended to a start-up CEO who agreed to meet with me. 45 minutes into the meeting he said, “I’m having a hard time believing you were at Microsoft for 18 years and a VP no less.” I asked why and he said, “I thought you guys were all overly aggressive jerks. I may have to rethink that.”
Since people make business decisions for personal reasons it’s important that we understand their personal motivations for buying so that we can sell to them effectively. Have they had bad experiences with our company before? Have they had bad experiences from implementing innovative products? Have they had salespeople who misrepresented the facts, making them untrusting of salespeople? Is their company culture highly political causing them to assume that everyone is that way?
There’s no better way to understand the customer’s personal motivation for buying than to understand their history. It wasn’t appropriate for me to ask that young woman why she feared Asian men, especially during the concert, but it’s always appropriate to learn how decision-makers earned their position of leadership. Knowing the experiences that got them to where they are is the only way to understand the foundation of their perceptions – their personal motivation for buying.
If they got to their leadership post by catalyzing paradigm shifts, they will be attracted to innovative change. If, on the other hand, they’ve arrived at their position by avoiding risk, they will be motivated by safe choices. The permutations are endless but the lesson is the same – we must understand our customers’ personal motivations for buying by understanding their history.
People make business decisions for personal reasons. Understanding the customer’s personal motivations for buying is an important part of what you learn from The Five Abilities® sales framework. My article “Five things people buy that aren’t on the invoice” tells you more if you’re interested.
©2015 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC
