Using Buying Signals to Gain Profits

Do you know what true buying signals are? If you aren’t sure how to identify and respond to a buying signal from your prospect you may be chasing “maybes” while “sales” walk out the door.

What are buying signals?

Generally speaking a buying signal is a verbal or physical signal that a prospect is giving you saying – “Hey I want to buy!”

Here is the key – some buying signals are real and some are fake. So how do you know which are real and which are fake? The best way to know if they are real or fake is to be present during the sales call. What do I mean by being present?

Simple – you have to ask good qualifying questions, shut up and listen. You MUST be genuinely curious as to what they are thinking and saying. In other words you have to care. Because if you don’t care you probably are not going to do a good job listening and paying attention to identify the REAL buying signal.

Buying Signal Strategy

Here are a TWO STRATEGIES you can use to Identify if Buying Signals are REAL or FAKE:

1. Let’s start with FAKE BUYING SIGNALS a.k.a. the False Positive. False Positives sound like:

“I love your proposal.” “I can’t wait to show this to my boss.” “This looks great.”

The problem with these positive responses is you aren’t really sure what they mean. Are they just being nice?!? Do they really love it?

You have to remember that prospects can sometimes tell sales people what they think they want to hear to get them out of their office. You know what I mean because YOU and I have done it to salespeople while we were the prospects.

How do you get around it? You have to be curious and qualify what they mean. You can use questions like:

“Thank you Mr. Prospect, I was curious when say you love it – what do you love about my proposal?”

“I am glad you want to show this to your boss. Is she available now so I can review the proposal with the both of you?”

2. What are REAL BUYING SIGNALS? The more specific the prospect is in their answer the better. For example it could sound like: “How long would it take to receive the product?” “Can we install it ourselves?” They are now seeing themselves using your product or service.

Ask OPEN ENDED PROBING QUESITONS. These questions will require the prospect to explain and describe how they feel about addressing this issue AND how they see your product or service as the solution.

Here is a great question to understand just how much they really like your product or service:

“Mr. Prospect – how do you see our software helping with your project management challenges?”

“Mr. Prospect – what happens if you are delayed in upgrading your software? Can you live with the delay?”

Their responses let you see how they have internalized using your product. Their responses show you if fixing their problems NOW is really important to them or not.

The more specific their answer is the better. If they aren’t specific then chances are they are NOT SENDING YOU A BUYING SIGNAL.

Remember – don’t fall for the False Positive? Get curious and ask.

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