Yesterday, I had my intern present his first month’s internship report to the entire team in the office. One of his intention for his attachment with my company is to improve his presentation skills.

So I had him do monthly presentations to the entire team. After the feedback session, I showed him an example of a presentation for him to use as a reference for his next presentation.

It was mine. I did that presentation before going into my current role with the Sales & Marketing team. And my intern asked me, “Sir, how do you expand the market share?”

Rocket Singh: Salesman of The Year

Why Do People Buy?

To elaborate his question for better understanding, he wanted to know, “how do we (the company) plan to win market share from our competitors who are in the market?” I answered him, by identifying the customer’s key buying decision. He looked a bit blur, lost.

Then I saw his handphone (and mine) on the table, and I redirected him to his handphone. The following conversation ensued.

Ken: What handphone are you using right now?
Intern: iPhone 3GS.
K: What were you using before you had an iPhone?
I: Nokia 6710.
K: So, why did you buy an iPhone? Why did you switch from Nokia to Apple?

Good question yes?

He went from this:

A Nokia 6710 to…..

An iPhone 3GS.

I: Because it’s a smartphone and I get to surf the web.
K: Okay. Why iPhone? Do Nokia not have a phone that allows you to surf the web?
I: (thought for a while) because of touch screen.
K: Okay. Do Nokia not have a touch screen model?
I: Yes. But it’s faster to surf the internet with an iPhone.
K: What about Android phones? It’s developed by Google. The web experience should be comparable. facebook-ing, youtube-ing and surfing. Google developed Chrome, so surfing with an Android would be faster yes? Don’t they also have touch screen models? Nokia does too right? I remember the XpressMusic range.

Before we continue, I’m sure some of you might be thinking that I’m being a bit mean.

I was.

And it’s because…, you haven’t read the entire conversation

So go ahead and scroll down.

 

I: (thought for a longer while) because my friends say it’s a good phone.
K: Bingo! That’s why.
I: (blur look).
K: You see, everybody has a different key buying decision. For example, your key buying decision for an iPhone 3GS is what is termed as ‘social proof.’ (you can go ahead and Google it). That’s why you bought the iPhone 3GS. How much did you pay for the phone?
I: I took the package, so I paid RM1800.
K: RM1800. That’s more than I paid for my phone. You see for all the functions you said iPhone offers, you can get the same functions at a cheaper price, say for a Garmin Asus A10.
I: (small laugh).

 

In short, EVERYBODY buys EVERYTHING because of something. As a salesperson, it is our responsibility to find out the WHY. We don’t get to sell until we figure that out.

Not everyone’s key buying decision is the same. For some it’s social proof. Others’ could be strictly dollar and cents (cost and bottomline).

What about you? What kind of handphone do you use and WHY did you buy that particular phone model? Let us know by leaving a comment

-Ken-