Impulse factors

Impulse factors are tools used to help push a buyer to make a decision during the conversation.

Fear of Loss – The idea behind this is that the customer feels if they don’t make the decision to buy now, you will take something away from them. For example, you’re doing a special deal this week that will take £100 off the asking price. However, the deal ends today and if the decision isn’t made, the customer will have to pay full price tomorrow.

Urgency – This is used to suggest that your time is just as important as that of the customer. The reason for this is that the more time a customer takes to think about something, the more chance there is that they will think of an objection or change their mind. One way to do this is to pull out the order form and suggest you need to do it quickly because you have another appointment. Or state that you need a decision now so you can get paperwork sent out by the end of play.

Greed – People love to get something for nothing. So if you can give them something extra on top of what they are paying for, they are more likely to say yes.

Indifference – This is about the way you speak to people. Obviously you want to make the sale, but it’s important that when you are speaking to the customer this doesn’t come across. The customer has to believe that if they don’t buy what you’re selling, someone else will – it’s their loss, not yours.

The Jones effect – People follow other people like sheep. They do what other people do and are more likely to buy something if someone they know has bought it, or a lot of other people are buying it. Use expressions like “what I’ve been recommending to everyone else...”, “everyone else has been going for option x” or “one of the reasons people have been jumping on board has been that...”. This will give the impression a lot of people are buying into the same thing