Key concepts contained in the book "World Class Selling" by the late Roy Chitwood, formerly of Max Sacks International training. Supplemental information contained as examples and blog posts on sales, sales management and leadership.

1. Five Buying Decisions
And
Six Possible Buying Motives
In the Sales Process
By
Steve Fawthrop
Summarized From “World Class Selling” by Roy Chitwood
As sales professional we often focus on the stage of the selling process in order
to track progress toward a commitment. Different labels are put on selling steps
but are generally categorized as: approach, qualification/needs analysis,
agreement on needs, solution explanation, objections and response, negotiation,
commitment and follow up.
What can be forgotten--and should not be--is that a prospect is also going
through a buying process in step with your efforts to sell.
As a consultative salesperson you want to demonstrate how the investment in
your product or service is of enough value to the needs of the business of the
client, rather than just a purchase option from the lowest-cost provider.

2. The more you understand the dimensions of buying decisions, and the possible
motives behind them, the more value you will be able to demonstrate to the
prospect.
Let me first address the buying decisions made by the client. Later I highlight six
possible buying motives.
What Your Prospects Don’t Tell You
We buy numerous things that are not sold to us. We buy on our own initiative to
satisfy our need and we buy almost without thinking.
However, when something is being sold to us, we do think, and our prospects do
the same noted the late sales consultant and trainer Roy Chitwood of Max
Sacks International, and author of “World Class Selling.”
We have to first approach the prospect with the understanding that we are an
unknown quantity and, therefore, there are going to be questions and natural
doubts about the value of conducting business with us.
There are five buying decisions every buyer makes when we are selling to
them. These decisions always come into play even if the prospect is not fully
conscious of them. Also, even if the buyer understands what elements are parts
of a decision, they are not always openly expressed.
By understanding the decisions they will make when dealing with you, the better
positioned you are to get them to answer positively to each of the questions.
Roy also stressed that the buying decisions always occur when you are
selling, and they occur in a precise, psychological order.
1) About you, the salesperson
2) About your company

3. 3) About your product or service
4) About the price/value of your offering
5) About the time to buy
The first buying decision: About you, the salesperson
The prospect’s first impression is not of the product or service you sell, but you.
The unspoken concerns revolve around:
1) Your integrity
2) Your judgment
When talking about your integrity they are judging if they feel you are really
interested in their success. Do you understand the needs of their business? Can
you truly help them?
Judgment is whether you understand and can show how what you offer matches
to the perceived needs and desires of the client.
The more you understand your company, the markets you serve, the market
segment of the prospect and their potential customers, and reflect that
knowledge with credibility and confidence, the stronger position you are in to
satisfy questions in the mind of the prospect.
The second buying decision: About your company
In addition to liking and trusting you, the client has to believe in the credibility of
your company.
Much of this is established first by you. Still, the prospect needs to view the
company as credible and trustworthy.
Their expectation may range from the level of assumed reliability (handle my
order right) to trusted advisor as an integrated consultant that is a key part of
their operations.
The third buying decision: About the product or service
The prospect is not simply deciding if they want to buy from you.
They want to decide, both emotionally and logically, “Does this product or service
really meet my needs?”

4. I address buying motives below but the prospect is making a choice for you over
two other options:
1) No action at all
2) Other alternatives
Other alternatives are not simply other companies that you would define as direct
competition. The buyer may be comparing the investment in your product or
service to whether they want to spend a like amount of money on an additional
staff member or a different capital purchase. Any new commitment also
represents a new commitment of their time individually and as an organization.
When a purchase is made by a larger organization then the purchase is likely
influenced by multiple people with different agendas and priorities beyond your
main contact or the person you perceive as the "decision maker."
Whether selling to a company small or large, you have to provide a sufficient
value to the customer’s business to be seen as a higher payoff than other
choices or inaction.
The fourth buying decision: About the price/value
Now the client is ready to consider price, but he or she looks at “affordability” as
the relative value that will be returned for the investment among all options.
The more credibility you have established on the first three buying motives, the
more the sale will be about value vs. lowest price. That is why it is imperative to
avoid the “So what does it cost?” question until you have built as strong a
foundation of value as possible.
The fifth buying decision: The time to buy
This is more client-controlled but if you have a legitimate reason for commitment
sooner, then the prospect deserves to hear it from you.
There may be time sensitive aspects to your offer that necessitate a decision by
the prospect. Examples: the end of an available tax credit that makes the
purchase more cost effective; the end of an existing product line or a pending
non-negotiable price increase.

5. Six potential buying motives
It can never be ignored that people buy for their own reasons, not ours.
Their reasons may not necessarily be sensible, intelligent or even rational from
our perspective, but they are their reasons.
People have six motives for buying a product or service:
1) Desire for financial gain
2) Fear of financial loss
3) Comfort and convenience
4) Security and protection
5) Pride of ownership
6) Satisfaction of emotion
The five buying decisions came in a sequential, building order. The six buying
motives, on the other hand, do not come in a particular order although most
prospects, especially if you are in business-to-business sales, are clearly looking
for spending to be an investment in new business and a financial gain. Certainly
in advertising, where my career is rooted, that is the case at the fundamental
level.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the six buying motives are all
founded in emotional decisions. Often more than one motive exists, and at
different levels of importance. Let me detail the six buying motives.

6. Desire for gain
Most of our prospects are going to have this as their primary motive whether they
measure the financial gain directly or indirectly.
If investing in advertising, as noted, then the expectation is to generate more
prospects, accelerate the buying process and, ultimately, gain profitable new
customers.
If buying a new delivery truck a motive for gain may be the increased fuel
efficiency of the truck to reduce operating costs, lower maintenance costs or
improved hauling capacity that allows for greater productivity in use.
On a personal level an investment in real estate, mutual funds or other forms of
direct payback for personal gain or business profit can be a dominant reason as
a buying motive.
Fear of loss
While buying insurance is an obvious example of spending to avoid a loss, there
are other examples.
In business, a prospect who feels they are losing market share or losing out on
new opportunities may be motivated by a fear of loss. This can lead to spending
to better compete. For example, a company may open a new distribution center
or increase training for customer service or sales staff to defend market share or
reduce customer churn.
Comfort and convenience
A few examples of personal comfort and convenience in business would be
having a comfortable office chair or a reserved parking space by the front door of
the office.
At an organizational level, the convenience of dealing with your company can be
seen as having you being a responsive representative. As the prospect works
with your company, though, the view can expand to include dealing with other
parts of your company with whom the client interacts: delivery, billing, product or
tech support, your assistant, your manager or any employee of the company.

7. Security and protection
Smoke alarms or a security fence are simple examples of purchasing for
security.
In business, keep in mind security in choosing the source of a purchase is
important. There is an old noted saying in the technology field that no purchasing
agent ever got fired for choosing to buy from IBM. Times, of course, have
changed but you must be aware of competitive brand preference as a form of
perceived security by a prospect.
Because of previous experience, recommendation by others or brand reputation,
your product or service needs to, ideally, be established as the superior overall
value in a purchase.
At the least, as sales guru Brian Tracy notes in his training, you need to be
viewed as the safest and best choice or the least-risk decision. Using the
Microsoft office suite might be viewed by some in this way. It represents the
best overall choice of use and support vs. one particular competitive application
that is uniquely better but does not offer as much total value.
Fear of criticism by others for choosing your product or service can be seen as
an unsafe choice. In the early years of USA Today, where I worked for eight
years, the company had to battle the “McPaper” tag, a criticism of editorial
quality, which kept prospective clients from spending their advertising budgets
with us.
We had to battle the perception that the content was not credible enough and,
thus, not creating a quality readership. Even though research validated the
demographic quality of readers, there was still an issue that greater editorial
credibility was needed before certain clients would work with us or give us a
greater share of their budgets. “Editorial quality” was a subjective, emotional
evaluation.

8. It may not have seemed fair (or logical) from our perspective, but it was a reality
to prospects, and their advertising agencies, and had to be addressed and
overcome. Over time USA Today became a well-established brand as a news
and information source, and has been for many years.
Pride of ownership
Why does someone purchase a nicer version of anything?
The pride factor may be overt or subtle. I had a former boss who was compelled
to tell everyone about his Mercedes, Corvette and boat. He was a bit extreme,
and definitely overt, but he got personal satisfaction in talking about his
possessions.
For others pride may be very internal through a sense of accomplishment or self-
mastery.
Satisfaction of emotion
This can be in many ways.
Using the example of advertising again, you may not naturally associate
advertising with satisfaction of emotion but buyers identify with the products and
services they purchase, especially as consumers.
Many businesses see themselves as up-and-comers (Hyundai and Kia Motors),
market leaders (Boeing), prestigious (Rolex watches) or innovators (Apple).
Advertising reinforces the market position to buyers as a motivation for
identification or affiliation by a prospect as a reason for purchase. Remember all
the people lined up to be the first buyers of new iPhones?
Companies pay a premium to be a sponsor of the Olympics or World Cup. The
total value of association cannot be measured in just dollars and cents whether it
is via the global stage or sponsoring a trade show or panel discussion through a
business trade group.
Advertising is also used to support the morale of staff by validating the quality of
their employer in community. This may be through promotion of good corporate
citizenship for the environment, support of a particular cause like cancer research
or sponsorship of a Little League baseball team for a local business.
Remember, people buy emotionally not logically. In order to sell effectively,
you must fix in your mind that everyone buys emotionally then rationalizes
the purchase with logical reasons for their action.

9. An example of different buying motives
Suppose you are a contractor talking to a couple considering a kitchen remodel.
Let’s look at how the different buying motives can influence a purchase.
One motive for the couple may be the value added to the home (desire for gain)
or the potential loss of value for keeping an outdated kitchen when it comes time
to sell (fear of loss).
A remodel may make the kitchen more functional (comfort and convenience).
Updated wiring reduces fire risk or new plumbing will prevent potential water
leaks (security and protection).
The homeowners can show off the new kitchen to friends (pride of ownership)
and can appreciate the beauty, style, increased functionality or amenities of the
kitchen after the remodel (satisfaction of emotion).
Depending on individual preferences, owners may get more satisfaction from
using recycled or renewable materials in the remodel.
Any one or any combination of the Six Buying Motives can come into play in this
example. Ultimately you want to get to emotional motives, a rationalization of the
purchase and then the positive emotion of goodwill after the sale to have a
satisfied customer and, hopefully, strong references to other prospects.
Being more attuned to buyers decisions and motives for buying will lead to
greater sales success.

10. Additional Resources
I have written a number of blog posts on LinkedIn related to sales, management,
leadership, personal development and other topics.
Some related to sales and management:
Commentary on some key points in the book “Fanatical Prospecting”:
http://bit.ly/2joWaPI
6 biases that may be holding back your success in closing more sales, from "The
Challenger Sale": http://bit.ly/1MnjyrC
Creating success as a new sales manager: http://bit.ly/2yWs53M
Trust and the Leadership Gap: http://linkd.in/1zxvI60
Know the difference between management and leadership. Observations from
Dr. John Kotter of Harvard: http://bit.ly/2yTxNDk
Ego vs. Healthy Debate. Keep the focus productive: http://bit.ly/2fDnY26
For personal and professional development:
Career check-in time. Ask yourself these 12 questions: http://bit.ly/2e62eZQ
Your job may change, but your talents and strengths endure. A look at Gallup’s
Clifton Strengths (formerly known as Strengthsfinder): http://bit.ly/1VKEMUN
Recommend “The Icarus Deception” by Seth Godin to help with perspective on
your career: http://bit.ly/1MBO2nQ
Seven spiritual laws of success from Deepak Chopra: http://bit.ly/29mwtNl
The “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” revisited: http://bit.ly/2f1HvtH
Three key reasons to network, courtesy Hank Blank: http://linkd.in/1GHBc3C

11. About me (November 2018)
I have been a sales professional in advertising, marketing and media as a career.
This has included managing my own territories, selling with others and managing
sales teams.
I was born and raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of
Washington with a B.A. in Communications, in Advertising, and a minor
emphasis in business and economics.
My professional sales career started in Seattle with the Puget Sound Business
Journal, but a significant portion of my professional time was spent in California
—19 years split between Los Angeles and Orange County. I returned to Seattle
late 2012.
Since my return I have worked in a series of contract positions under my sales
consultancy, Linked4Biz, for new client development. Some selective client work
is noted on my LinkedIn profile.
My most recent work, since March 2017, has been on behalf of LeadScorz, a
lead scoring and predictive analytics start-up based in Seattle:
www.leadscoz.com
You can reach me personally via InMail on LinkedIn or:
stevefawthrop@outlook.com
714-876-7062, cell
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefawthrop