“ELAvate” Your Customer up The Decision Ladder
In my last ELAvate Sales blog post, we reviewed the customer behaviors and attitudes on the Decision Ladder. Moving the customer up the Decision Ladder brings you to closing a mutually beneficial sale. The biggest mistakes in selling come from not listening to what the customer thinks and feels is important. The second biggest mistake is responding inappropriately to where the customer is on the Decision Ladder. To refresh you, find the Decision Ladder from my last blog below:
The Decision Ladder illustrates where the customer is at in making a buying decision.
Buying — positive and accepting
Neutral — neither positive nor negative
Not Buying — negative, non-accepting
Customer willingness to make a buying decision improves with each step s/he takes up the ladder.
Today, we look at how we “ELAvate” the customer up the Decision Ladder. Let’s review the ELAvate Decision Ladder process when responding to customers for all attitudes on the Decision Ladder.
The ELAvate Decision Process
The process is straightforward. It has four skill actions:
- Listen to the customer with your ears and your heart
- Identify where the customer is on the Decision Ladder
- Align with the customer action or attitude
- ELAvate the customer conversation up the Decision Ladder
In this second post on the Decision Ladder, we will review and explore how to employListen, Identify, and Align skill actions.
Our third and next post in this series will demonstrate the skills to ELAvate the customer conversation up the Decision Ladder.
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Listen to the Customer with your Ears and your Heart
Many salespeople are so preoccupied with what they want to say next, they forget to listen effectively. Customers can easily pick up your cues of poor listening and this will reinforce their perception that you, like all salespeople are only meeting to manipulate them to a sale. Listening with your ears AND your heart means you truly demonstrate that you understand and truly care about the what and the why of what the customer is expressing. Doing so allows you to better identify where the customer is on the Decision Ladder and enables you to respond with respect that connects to the head and heart of what the customer is expressing.
Identify where the Customer is on the Decision Ladder
While listening attentively to the customer, you employ your mental picture of the Decision Ladder to Identify where the customer is on the ladder so you may respond appropriately. If you are not sure, or the customer statement is unclear, probe for more understanding. You might ask, “Can you tell me more about what you said?” or “What do you mean?” or “I didn’t quite understand, please elaborate.”
Align with the Customer Action or Attitude
When we Align with the customer’s actions or attitude from the heart, our research shows that your success rate for closing doubles. Customers like to buy from people they like and trust. Aligning from the heart shows the customer we put his/her situation first. There are five ways to Align with a customer:
First, truly Listen, really listen to both the facts and feelings of the customer
Second, Agree with the customer statement or perception
Third, Demonstrate empathy with the customer situation
Fourth, Highlight consequences of not changing the situation
Fifth, Show respect for the customer’s facts, ideas, and explanations
Always remember when you Align properly that “Birds of a Feather buy from Each Other.”Here are some ways to Align with some customer statements on the Decision Ladder.
ELAvate the Customer Conversation up the Decision Ladder
If you have Aligned with care and respect, the customer can be more open to listen to you and discuss possible ideas and solutions. This opens the door for you and the customer to ELAvate your discussion up the Decision Ladder.
In my next ELAvate Sales blog post, we will finish this three part series by exploring tactics, skills and strategies to ELAvate your customer up the Decision Ladder to commit to move forward with the sale. Why not spend this week practicing your listening and aligning skills? You will then be ready to effectively use what you learn in the next blog post to ELAvate the customer to close.
Get out there and be all the ELAvate Sales Leader you can be! Have a good successful week building win-win relationships.