Saturday, June 15, 2013

Buyers Remorse Can Kill Your Paycheck

Whenever "Buyers Remorse" strikes your client, it is clearly going to cost you money, one way or the other. When a person works on a commission basis and a cancellation happens, it usually comes out of your next paycheck rather quickly. Sometimes you can resell your client and refresh them as to why they purchased in the first place. It helps to find the client's "why" at the time of the sale, as a closing tool to make the sale in the first place.

We are talking about, Buyers Remorse, you may have experienced it firsthand at one time or another. Don't allow this subject to be the elephant in the room. You are ready to close your sales deal, the criteria has been met and the client is ready now.

At a time when you were buying that pretty car, then later felt like you spent too much money, you may have personally experienced buyers remorse.

Maybe that time you had somebody at your kitchen table selling you a funeral plan or an insurance policy and later decided that not only do you not need the product, you do not intend to part with your hard-earned-money.

This is how buyers remorse feels to your clients. Unfortunately, this is exactly what cancellation of your sale consists of and really hurts at payday.

Call your client after a cancellation of your sale. You sold it, now it is your responsibility to try and work it through. It helps to verbalize to your client that you do understand how they are feeling, as you attempt to save your sale. It also helps to know that once in awhile, nothing that you say or do will save your sale. At that point, let them cancel and do refund monies immediately.

If they paid you by check, write them a refund check from your business account.
When they pay by credit card, refund a credit through your merchant credit card account promptly. Do not make the client wait for any refunds due to them.

Your promptness and understanding, may very well bring your client back to you, after they are ready. Let it simmer for a month or so, then give your client a follow-up phone call. The client will appreciate that you did this and did not pressure them and perhaps in the future, go forward after all, with you and your company.

When a client is price shopping, sometimes you closed the deal and then their afterthought is with the lower priced item for sale by a competing company. Match the price, if you can and if you are authorized to do so. If you own the company, you do do have wiggle room when it comes to price points.

There are laws to protect consumers and merchants must abide by those laws. Relationship selling is a must. Please the customer and ask for referrals. Especially, when you know that you have a great product and your company is golden. Be that a Cancellation or a Sale, ask for referrals. Remember, they purchased from you first. They must have liked you and your product, even if they did cancel as an end result.

We cannot always control situations. Every family is different. Every potential sale started with a single thought that your buyer had at the time they engaged you in conversation.