How to stop missing the 3 types of buying signs

Many salespeople miss crucial buying signals, continuing to pitch after customers are ready to buy and potentially talking themselves out of a sale.

• Three types of buying signals to recognize: verbal, non-verbal, and psychological
• Verbal buying signs include asking about specifics, pricing questions, inquiring about next steps, and using ownership language
• Non-verbal signs include nodding, leaning in, holding the product, reviewing paperwork, and asking questions
• Psychological buying cues include shifting from skepticism to curiosity, repeating key benefits, and asking for reassurance
• When you notice buying signals, stop selling and start closing
• Use simple closing techniques like "This sounds like a good fit, should we get started today?"
• Try trial closes that offer choices rather than yes/no decisions
• If there's hesitation, directly ask what's holding them back

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Chapters

• 0:24 Introduction to Buying Signals
• 1:02 Verbal Buying Signs Explained
• 4:57 Non-Verbal Buying Signals to Watch
• 8:18 Psychological Buying Cues
• 11:30 Responding to Buying Signals
• 14:27 Recap and Key Takeaways

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello and welcome to another podcast Now.

Speaker 1: 0:15

In this podcast I'm going to take you through very briefly the three types of buying signals that you're likely to come across. And the truth is that many sales people don't know what they're looking for and they will go right past really strong buying signs and get to the point where they'll actually turn the customer back off again and blow the sale. So before we get into that, I just want to ask you to like and subscribe. It just helps me to get the channel going wider and I do appreciate that it doesn't cost you anything. Okay, so what I'm going to cover first of all are verbal buying signs. So I've spoken in other podcasts and in fact in the training course we go into it in a bit of detail about the kind of conversation you need to have with clients, and that is definitely important. And one of the reasons for using the kind of conversation that I talk about, that I've described in other podcasts and that is to be asking open questions primarily, is that it gives you clues about what's important to the client, but also if you let them talk and I know there's a lot of salespeople who seem to have an aversion to letting their client talk and in fact I can understand it. There's a fear of loss of control of the meeting. You don't know what the client's going to say. They might ask you something. You don't know the answer to all that kind of stuff. But you really have to get over that and just have a conversation with them. So here are some verbal buying signs. So there's four types here that you need to be listing out for basically. So the first one is asking about specifics. So that would be something like so how soon could we get this set up? Or what kind of delivery do you offer? Or those kind of questions that are very specific about whatever it is you are trying to sell to them. So once they start asking specific questions, you need to start diving into that and start guiding them towards a close. So the important thing about this is, once you get any of these buying signs, it's to stop selling and start closing the deal. So that's the first one of the verbal buying signals, that's asking about specifics. Secondly, they'll ask about pricing or financing questions. So they might be asking if there's a discount for cash or a single payment. Is there a payment plan option? Can they pay monthly? Can they pay yearly, whatever it might be. But if they start asking you about pricing or anything to do with the finance, in their head they're trying to work out how they can pay for what it is you're offering. And obviously that's what you want, because once they go to that stage emotionally they're kind of there. You've already sold them. It's now a case of just closing them down.

Speaker 1: 3:25

The third verbal buying sign is asking about the next steps. So it may be that you've got an evaluation or you've just completed an evaluation and they ask what happens next, or what happens when they sign up, that kind of thing. But they're inquiring about what happens next and clearly that's moving on to the next stage of the process, whatever that might be. And then the final one and honestly, if you're missing this one, you really need to do my course. That's basically ownership languages where they start making comments about they could see themselves using that every day or anything. Where they basically put themselves in the picture with what you're selling or I can see how that would benefit me, or anything like that. When they start talking about themselves in combination with whatever it is you're offering, that's a really strong buying sign. So any of those verbal signals, any of those verbal signs you really need to at that point, stop making the sale. You've made it and now you start going into the clothes.

Speaker 1: 4:41

The second group of buying signs are the non-verbals. So this is where you just need to be aware of body language. And this isn't a major thing about body language, it's really simple stuff. So the first thing if they nod and if they're leaning in, so if they're nodding repeatedly and leaning in towards you, that means that they're engaged with you, they're very connected with you, they're in agreement with you, and that is a very good sign, obviously, that you're both on the same page and they are pretty much sold on whatever it. Another giveaway is if they start holding the product. So I'm assuming these are all person-to-person meetings. Obviously, some of them, the verbal ones, would also apply to a telephone call, something like that. But if you're face-to-face, if they're holding the product and they're not putting it down, that is a really good indication that they are imagining what it's like to own that product. So again, if they are engaging with the product, let's say in a positive way, then that's a very good sign.

Speaker 1: 5:56

The next thing is just reviewing the paperwork or the details. If they're starting to just start looking through the paperwork, maybe looking through the contract or starting to look at the details of the contract. There again, what they're saying is okay, I'm very interested in this, I want to go ahead. I'm just really looking to make sure there are no showstoppers for me. This is where you again pick them up, start guiding them through that process and then finally, if they are taking notes or if they're asking a lot of questions, then that again is a really good sign that they are visualizing the whole process in their head and they're just trying to work out again if there is anything in there that should stop them going ahead. But if they're asking a lot of questions, that's always a good sign. Equally, if they make an objection and I've said this before it doesn't necessarily mean no, it means that it could just be the way they're asking a question.

Speaker 1: 7:00

So I've spoken about the DISC type of person and the high D person, the person who just wants to get things done, pretty much the leadership sort of person. They will often act as the devil's advocate, so they'll start asking you questions which can sound like objections, but what they're actually doing is trying to work out the worst case scenario and what the level of risk is to them if they go ahead. And the reason that they do that is quite often they're in a leadership role. So basically, if they screw up, it can have a very negative impact on their business, on their staff, on their company, all that kind of thing. So they'll often play devil's advocate, and the mistake that you don't want to make is to mistake those questions as objections, because generally what people in that situation are doing? If they're spending the time with you to ask questions, then they are very interested, even if those questions might not quite be the questions you were expecting. Put it that way, okay.

Speaker 1: 8:06

And then, thirdly, we've got psychological buying cues. So this is where it gets a little bit more subtle, and you're just looking for either changes in patterns or certain patterns popping up. So the first one would be shifting from skepticism to curiosity. So initially they might have appeared very negative and very much doubting what you're telling them, or not very interested at all. But if you notice a change, then clearly something has happened. You have said something or they've seen something that is making them re-evaluate that approach, if that's really where they were. And they have now changed and they're now exploring how your offer can be of benefit to them. So they're starting to dive into this offer in a lot more detail and if they're curious about it, then that will tend to be a genuine curiosity. And they're curious because they want to see how it can genuinely benefit them, and that's obviously why we're there. So look for a shift in somebody who's been quite skeptical perhaps initially, and then suddenly they're asking genuinely curious questions about what you're offering. That's a really good sign.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Repeating key benefits is another good one, particularly if they keep mentioning something specific, and I would jump on that, to be honest. I would ask questions like how do you see that benefiting you that kind of thing? If it's, I don't know, you've got a remote access and if they're repeating that, then you know inquire how do you see that being of use to you? Is that a real benefit for you? Again, open-close questions. I've spoken about them before. Just practice how you use them. But closed questions definitely have their place, because if you start getting yeses, then that's where you want to go, because that's part of the closing process Another good psychological change.

Speaker 1: 10:19

So the third one I'm going to talk about, the last one in this little part is asking for reassurance. So it could be. Do you think this is the right fit for me, or do you think this color suits me? You know this kind of thing and I'm sure there are other examples in the sort of things that you sell. But if they are asking you questions, basically in their mind they are definitely leaning towards making the sale, but they just want that little bit of reassurance. So it's just that it's almost an emotional support to go ahead and make the sale or for them to go ahead and make the purchase. So, again, if you're asking for reassurance, that's really good. So just to recap on the psychological buying cues it's shifting from skepticism to curiosity, repeating key benefits and asking for reassurance.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Okay, so what do you do when you see any of those buying signs? So you've got them. What do you do with them? So the first thing, as I've already said, is to just stop selling. Okay, you've made the sale. So at this point, once you've made the sale, the only place to go is to lose it again, and then you don't want to do that. So just start closing the sale.

Speaker 1: 11:34

And again, I've spoken about closing in the course. I talk about different closing techniques you can use that are very easy. And again, a lot of salespeople are really concerned about closing. They are afraid of rejection, they're afraid of somebody saying no and, as I've said in other podcasts, unfortunately a lot of salespeople never even ask for the sale, so they're very reluctant to close. So get over that and start closing.

Speaker 1: 12:00

So the kind of thing you can say to just shift from the discussion stroke selling part of the conversation to the closing is something like this sounds like it could be a great fit for you. Should we get this set up for you today? Should we get the paperwork started? Should we just get this going? That kind of thing. So you've kind of reaffirmed and agreed with them that it's a good fit for them and now it's a question of moving on to the next step. The other thing is a trial close. So this is where you can give them a choice. So would you prefer that in red or blue? Would you prefer standard packaging or premium? Would you prefer to pay monthly or annually? All of that kind of stuff. These are trial closes. So obviously you want them to give you an answer, one of the options you've given them, and then that's essentially an agreement to go ahead with the sale. But if they don't, you can still come back from that.

Speaker 1: 13:06

And that really brings me on to the next part of it, which is just to how to handle any hesitation. So if there is a reluctance to move ahead, if they maybe have some final concerns, then the simplest thing to do is simply ask them what is it that's holding them back, or what's the one thing that's just holding you back from going ahead with it today? That kind of thing. So explore, don't be afraid of it, just ask them what are they concerned about? Is there something that's getting in the way of them going ahead today? Do they have a concern? So all of these things are really important to know and especially if you may have recognized some of these things have gone on in meetings you've had and you didn't recognize them for what they were at the time and you just kind of pressed on with your sales presentation or whatever it is, and maybe that sale didn't go so well in the end. So it is really important that you do recognize buying signs and that when you do see them happening, then you go to the close, okay, because basically you're there, you're where you want to go. So I'm just going to quickly repeat what the three groups were and what the signs were that I covered in each one.

Speaker 1: 14:29

So the first one was verbal buying signs. So the first one was asking about specifics. Second one, asking about pricing or financial questions. Third one was asking about how to move forward, what the next steps were. And the fourth verbal sign was just ownership language, where they talk about seeing themselves with your product, your solution.

Speaker 1: 14:51

The next one is nonverbal buying signs. So you probably want to be face to face with them to pick up on these, because these can be really difficult. If you're not, it might be. If you can see, it might work. In video, not so sure. Definitely better face-to-face. So that's definitely my recommendation to you.

Speaker 1: 15:08

So the non-verbal buying signals are, first of all, nodding and leaning in. Secondly, holding the product. Thirdly, starting to look at paperwork and the details, starting to really dive into it. So they're going into the finer details, they're looking at the logistics of, perhaps, of what you're offering. And then the fourth one was taking notes or asking a lot of questions. So these are really good nonverbal buying signals, psychological buying cues those were the last ones that I went through. So that shift from skepticism to curiosity, repeating key benefits and asking for reassurance.

Speaker 1: 15:51

So that is pretty much it for this podcast. Hopefully there are some signs in there that you have seen before and look if you miss them. It's something to learn from, and the truth is that we all make mistakes. We all blow sales one way or another from time to time. The important thing is to learn from them and just keep working on ourselves and how we operate so that we lose fewer sales, and that's really the thing to aim for. Okay, so that's it. Thank you for your attention, as I hope you found that useful, and I will speak to you in the next podcast and please like and subscribe. Bye for now.