There is one critical ingredient that is missing in almost every sales presentation that will be given today by tens of thousands of salespeople worldwide. What is it? Tension management. What is tension management?
There are two factors in tension management that determines whether a prospect buys or doesn’t buy. They are simply resources and challenges. If their resources are high or if they believe they are and their challenges are low, or they believe they are they will NOT buy. Why? Don’t need it, everything is just fine the way it is. No need to change. They are in what we call apathy. This is the “do nothing” phase.
However, if their resources, or their perceived resources are low and their challenges or perceived challenges are low they will buy but most like for the wrong reasons therefore opening the door for a cancelled sale or unhappy customer. You see they are in what we refer to as stress and stress is the panic stage.
So, where do you want your prospect so they will buy and be happy they did? The key factor is to know where they are on the tension scale. There are 5 layers; stress, power stress, power, power apathy and apathy. If your prospect is in apathy you need to do one or both of the following. You need to show them where their resources are inadequate for the challenges they face so you can move them up the scale to Power Stress – this is where people buy.
If they are in stress, you need to show them how your products or services will reduce their challenges and increase their resources so you can move them down to Power Stress.
If this all sounds confusing, it’s really quite simple.
1) Identify which tension level your prospect is in with good questions then
2) Move them either up or down the scale by managing their awareness of their challenges and resources.
Yes, there is more to it but this gives you the essence. Basically what all prospects want is control and if they feel in control they won’t buy unless you can show them where they are out of control – playing with their resources and challenges. If they feel out of control they will tend to be more interested in what you have to offer as long as you can identify their level of tension and then manage it accordingly.