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Smart Buying Techniques By Dan Goldberg Get what you want the way you want it!

One of the reasons they’re so good at it is that many of them have been trained!

That’s right, they take courses in how to get you to buy. I know because I’m one of those dastardly folks who teach them! However, I also work with buyers as well. I guess you could say I work with the plaintiff AND the defense. It’s an interesting mix. I get to see the world from both sides and prepare each to be successful at the “Joust”.

A good buyer who studies the rules of the game and plays them with precision can save his or her company a boat load of money, time and other resources while running an efficient business or department.

In order to have insight into how sellers sell it’s a good idea to look at the their techniques and be ready to flip them to your advantage. This means forming your rules by understanding theirs.

Here are the six areas you should concentrate on when entering the world of the seller and the buyer from both perspectives.

• Understanding Who You Are (Same for Both)
• Understanding Others (Same for Both)
• Making Agreements (Same for Both)
• Getting Prospects (Seller) = Being A Prospect (Buyer, Including Asking for Proposals)
• Adding Value (Seller) = Getting Value (Buyer, Including the Difference Between Cost and Price)
• Closing The Sale = Closing The Buy

Viewing these areas as a buyer, you should first take an open and honest look at yourself.

Are you assertive enough to get your ideas across while still having the ability to listen to the salesperson or are you so aggressive that you push yourself onto others while not using the time or energy to stop, ask questions and listen to the salesperson’s response?

Aggressiveness masks insecurity, a well-trained salesperson knows that and may use it to their advantage.

Taking a realistic inventory of why and how you do things will prepare you for the purchasing scenario. Know what primarily moves you into action. Is it learning the intricacies of a product or service, understanding what its highest and best return is, sizing up how it looks, figuring out who it will help, realizing how it will advance your career or determining if it fits into the rules and regulations of the company?

While we’re a combination of all of the above there usually will be one or two of the above facets that are consistently our primary motivators. Once you realize what they are be open enough to also understand that these are the things that may color your decision. Be aware that a smart salesperson can pick up your preferences by your verbal and physical responses. Look around your office, is everything just right, picture perfect and color coordinated? Well if I’m selling you something, I’m bringing you the best looking presentation that I can get my hands on! What’s in it may be secondary. And I’ve got a leg up. I think you understand! Perhaps you should meet in the conference room?

Of course the reverse is true. Look at and listen to the salesperson. Ask the right questions and you’ll find out an encyclopedia of information. Play into they’re motivators. Maybe they’re the type of person who’s looking to have your sale be a part of their advancement strategy. I’d make sure that I’d point out the significance of my order being important to their career, even if they had to sell it to me at a lower price and a substantial cost savings to me.

Trained salespeople will also watch to see if you’re a dominant person, outgoing socializing sort, calming and steady type or someone who likes to have the details spelled out for them. This will let them know how to relate to you. And get you to feel comfortable in order to make that sale. You, as the buyer, want to flip the scene. Start by listening to their approach and watching their body language. Then start to mimic their behavior in a not at all obvious way. They probably wouldn’t notice it if you were obvious since it’s so subconscious but best to be subtle. Get the salesperson to feel comfortable with you. Let them like you. Remember the old adage, “people buy from people they like”? Well, you’re selling what you want the salesperson to buy, giving you the best possible deal you can get! Of course most people like people who are like themselves. We’re suckers for our reflections. So the more you reflect them the easier it will be to get a better deal.

Before the salesperson steps foot in your office, make sure that you have some agreements in order.

• How long you expect the meeting to be
• What you both expect to cover
• What problems you both could foresee
• Any other appropriate ground rule

Note: When you’re out and about doing your networking, work the room for salespeople that can satisfy your needs. Do what they do. Search for what you want and get good at it. Learn how to be a prospect!

When you have become an official prospect make sure the salesperson realizes that you understand that. And prospects only become customers or clients by getting what takes care of their needs. This of course is made easier by the fact that you will be bringing relief to the sales executive (unbeknownst to them) by playing into their needs. It’s a chess game that’s made quite a bit easier by responding to the clues that you’ve help facilitate.

Time to get value. Let the salesperson know that you’re both a price conscious and cost conscious buyer. Otherwise they may set you into the trap of, “Are you more concerned with price?” the little tag that has the dollar sign on it followed by all those numbers, “Or cost?” what the product or service fees really are after such things as maintenance, repair, storage, lost time, etc. Getting value is more than procuring a $50.00 item for $49.50.

Once you are comfortable that you’ve used your skills to their utmost and positioned yourself to get the most for your time and money, while making the salesperson feel that you’ve done great things for them and they truly believe you have, then you’re ready to wrap it up and close it.

Buying is more than “Show me what you have and tell me how much it is”, it’s let me show you how and why you’re going to want to sell me what you have and how good you’re going to feel once you’ve sold it to me for what I want to pay for it.

Now go out there and buy…right!