How buyers think

We unpack how B2B buyers make choices under risk and why pressure raises resistance just when they need safety. We show how to slow the process, surface hidden fears, and move decisions forward with relief, confidence, and control.

• buying framed as personal risk, not information
• early decisions signalled by procedural questions and silence
• objections as self‑protection and bids for reassurance
• reducing perceived risk by slowing down and deepening discovery
• emotional drivers: relief, confidence, control
• contextual urgency that buyers can defend internally
• better questions that reveal core concerns
• letting buyers verbalise decisions to increase safety and trust

Please remember to like and subscribe
Please also remember to take a look at my online course that's called Consultative Selling

Welcome to the podcast!

Chapters

• 0:00 From Seller Psychology To Buyer Psychology
• 0:40 Like, Subscribe, And Course Mention
• 0:56 Debunking B2B Rationality Myths
• 2:20 Buying As Risk, Not Information
• 3:42 Slow Down And Reduce Perceived Risk
• 5:10 Early Decisions And Subtle Signals
• 6:53 Objections As Self‑Protection
• 9:24 Emotional Drivers: Relief, Confidence, Control
• 12:34 Contextual Urgency Without Pressure
• 15:54 Apply Psychology: Better Questions, Safety, Trust
• 18:28 Key Takeaways And Closing CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Hello again and welcome to another podcast. My name is Graham Elliott from Salescraft Training. Now, last Monday, last Monday's podcast, we looked at the psychology of top salespeople and how they approach clients, the whole approach to making a sale and why it's so much more effective than what most people do. And in this podcast, I'm going to flip that around and look at it from the buyer's perspective. So please stay with me and hopefully I'll give you something you can use. Before I dive into it, please remember to like and subscribe. Please also remember to take a look at my online course that's called Consultative Selling, and that goes into this kind of stuff in a lot more detail and gives you a lot more tools to use. Okay, so um let's look at some misconceptions first of all. So, and this is particularly looking at business to business. So I think in business to consumer, for a large part, we tend to assume, if we even think about it, but we tend to assume there's an emotional element to the decision-making process. But once we go to business to business, we often feel that that emotional side is either not there or not particularly relevant. In fact, it can be, but it's there for different reasons. So what happens is that often buyers will make a decision emotionally and then spend the rest of the process, the sales process, justifying it. So buyers aren't confused, they're protecting themselves. And the problem is that most sellers unknowingly trigger that defense because what they do, they start to apply pressure, they start to really get a decision as soon as possible because we all like to get the decision and then we kind of feel good about it. Um, but that can backfire on us. So we're gonna look at when buyers actually make their decision, we're gonna look at why objection sharp after that decision has been made, and the single biggest mistake that um sellers tend to make, and particularly they make them early on. So the first thing to remember here is that for a buyer, buying is a risk decision, so this is not an information problem, it's actually a risk they're taking in making a decision and going with a particular supplier. So, what are the drivers for them? Well, the fact is, from a buyer's perspective, the emotional side for them is a fear of being wrong, there's fear of internal judgment with colleagues and peers, and there's also fear of change. So, depending on what it is you sell, for someone to go with your solution may well involve changes in a particular area of area of the business or maybe even other areas. So all of that has a risk associated with it. So the fundamental question that buyers are asking is it it isn't is this good, is this a good solution? They're actually asking, is this safe for me to choose? And that's their biggest fear. So as a salesperson, how do we what are the things we're doing that are wrong? Well, the first thing is we tend to over-explain, we'll over-demonstrate, or we'll feature dump. So you'll remember that what I've spoken about last time, last Monday, and in previous podcasts is this idea about really understanding and having a deep conversation with the um client and the buyer about what they want and not talking about yourself all the time, which is where this these feature dumps come in. So, again, as a top former, what do you do? First of all, you slow the conversation down. What you're aiming to do here when you're discussing with the buyer is just reduce that perceived risk. And that's really important because you need to for the buyer to feel that perhaps their initial fears were wrong, that there's not as big a risk associated with this uh decision as they at first thought. Um, and you only get to that point by having a conversation with them, and you do that by slowing everything down and definitely not feature dumping on them. And then finally, you normalize hesitation. So if they are clearly in a in a situation where they're not sure, there's some hesitation, maybe some doubt, agree that that's perfectly normal, and then again work in that consultative way side by side with them to understand what the cause of the hesitation is and then resolve those issues. So, when do buyers actually decide to buy or maybe not buy? So the fact is that buyers usually decide pretty early on, often it's before the proposal is being made. So, what are the signals that they give you as a salesperson that the decision has already been made? So the first one is their questions, they shift from how is this going to help them to what happens next. So the it becomes more about procedure. So they're no longer talking, they're no longer finding out more about the um the solution itself. They're looking at how they move things forward. You know, what what do they need to expect? What impact do they need to prepare for if that involves changes or involves other departments or whatever it might be? The objections become more procedural, and you're likely to find that silence increases as well. So they're and that isn't about resistance, it's just their processing. So don't pressure people, that's really not a good idea, but give them time to think things out. Give them the space to ask questions so that they're clear, but don't apply pressure at that point. So one of the important things to do as a salesperson is to recognize when to apply pressure and when not to, and this is definitely one of those uh situations where it's best not to apply pressure. So the bottom line here is that if you're still trying to convince somebody once you've got to the proposal stage, you've probably already lost that deal. Because when you get to the proposal stage, it should be more about how do we go about implementing this, how do we deal with the finer points of completing this sale, not about convincing them to go with you. So the next thing I'm going to talk about is just objections. So this is something that I've spoken about before in other podcasts, but it's I think something that a lot of salespeople miss miss, I can't even say that. So whether you've listened to these other podcasts before, this might be your first um time listening. What a the mistake that a lot of salespeople make is that they see objections as resistance. Often, objections are more about uncertainty and self-protection. So, in other words, the buyer is trying to get reassurance. They maybe are not clear about something, or they're evaluating a risk to themselves. It may be a risk to the business, but in um uh once I'd say actually in most organizations, to one degree or another, it's also about self-protection. How do they look within their organization if they make this this decision to go with you? And obviously, what nobody wants is to make a decision to invest in something, and then it it's a complete disaster. So the hidden fears behind objections can be summarised really as the buyer fearing that they'll look stupid if this fails, or will it create more work for them? Or it might be that they don't trust themselves to implement it. So all of these things come back to clarification, they come back to reassurance. They come back, it's about digging below what's being said and getting to the real core reason, the real core fear that's holding everything back. So the aspect here that a lot of people or that it's very easy to miss is that buyers object to protect their identity, it's not to reject your offer. So, in other words, they're protecting their standing within the business. So if it's a senior person, they can look pretty stupid, as if a leader they make a really bad decision, you know, that's not good. And equally at the other end of the scale, if they're much more junior, they could fear their whole, you know, their whole future with that organization, if it is that sort of situation, that could be a risk. So this is how these decisions become emotional, and it's it's really important to bear this in mind when we're dealing with these people. Okay, so what are the emotional triggers that drive buying decisions? So this is about or this this part of uh, I guess this podcast is just about looking at what actually moves buyers. So at the core, emotionally, you've got relief. And remember, I've said this a lot, I say this pretty much every podcast, I think, but salespeople are problem solvers. This is what we do. It's not about selling product, it's about solving problems for clients. Because once you do that, everything else drops into place. So if they are feeling relief as you're talking through your solution and how it will help them, that's a major um emotional driver for them because it means that problem that they've raised with you that's reached a point where they're having to take action to resolve it, can now finally go away and they can get on with other things, possibly even do their job. Um, another aspect is confidence. They've now got enough information and they are happy enough that the solution meets the need that they can defend the decision if it's challenged internally. So that's another important one. So if they're feeling a bit vulnerable, they need to feel that they have the ammunition, if you like, to defend the decision that they've made. And also control. Remember, one of the real skills about selling is to make the buyer feel that they're in control of the situation, where in fact you are controlling it but in a very subtle way. And and some something I've seen with poor salespeople is that they try and overtly control the situation, and all it does it puts people's backs up. And as I often say, if you're not sure, put yourself in the buyer's position and think about how they how you would respond to somebody if they were using a tactic that you've used that hasn't worked. Just put yourself in their shoes and look at how that feels to be on the receiving end, and often I think you'll find that it's actually quite annoying, and you as a buyer quickly get to the point where you think, I'm actually not the buy from this person, I don't really care how good this is. Um, it's very hard to change from that point. So buyers like to feel in control, so being subtle about it is to kind of guide them so that they seem to come up with the ideas. Um, I remember years ago, a guy I worked for, one of my first managers, um, and I used to deal with a fairly senior person in the division of the company I was in. Um, he said to me it's been known as an ideas man. And what he meant by that was that when I was with the senior person, um that senior person always seemed to have really good ideas. They came up with them, um, but the strange thing was I was always in the room when that happened. So I don't hopefully that's made a little bit of sense to you. But the whole point is that you're subtly suggesting things, and maybe even they feel they've come up with a solution. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. It's about getting the sale, it's about having a happy customer who will recommend you, come back to you, all of that kind of stuff. So the ego really needs to be pretty much dialed down in those situations. So those emotional drivers I've just mentioned are relief, confidence, and control. What will kill it as a salesperson is to apply pressure, it's to apply urgency without a context. So I'm a big believer in applying some level of urgency because we want people to make a decision, and that's quite hard. Um, I I mean I see this all the time, not just in a buying situation, but just in other things in life. It's easy to talk about doing something. It could be a holiday, it could be going and visiting somewhere, and it's all great while it's theoretical, but the moment you need to get pinned down and make a date and start partnering with money, then some resistance can kick in, and you may well have experienced this. And this, of course, is exactly the same with a buyer that there comes a point where they've got to say yes or no, they've got to fix it. So applying a little bit of urgency, I think, is important because it just gives them enough push to make the decision, but you need to provide it in a context that provides justification, and again, it comes back to their fears. They can then defend making that decision at that time because it might be that you got have to have some in stock, they're disappearing fast. But if they order now or tomorrow, whatever it might be, they can they can get one. It might be there's going to be a price rise, whatever else. You know, I don't know what you sell, but if you think about it, apply it to your own situation, what are the contextual urgencies that you can apply to a sale? And then the buyer will be comfortable, will be a lot more comfortable with that. And then the other thing that kills it is for the salesperson to talk past their real concern. And this is really fundamental, and this is why it's so important to have proper conversations with people. And I go again in the course, I go through this in a lot of detail, and why there are specific times on a call where you do not try to close ever, because it will highly likely that you will actually blow the deal completely, and there and there are right times to close. And um, part of this whole process is to dig down deeper and deeper until you understand what the real concerns are. And the idea of doing these podcasts with looking at psychology a little bit is that hopefully it gives you another level, another level of depth that uh can perhaps flag where there's actually a hidden concern that your buyer maybe hasn't spoken about, maybe they don't want to speak about it, you can pick up on it and maybe address that. So, what pressure does, if it isn't applied correctly, rather than applying or creating a sense of urgency, it actually increases resistance and makes it much more difficult to close. So it is really important that when you apply pressure, you you understand what you're doing. Okay, so that's last week on Monday, we looked at how the top or the psychology of top sellers, how do we line that with the um psychology of buyers? So this is where we shift from basically the theory of this to the application. So coming back to looking at it from the seller's point of view, so the top salesperson, what do you do? Ask fewer questions but better questions. Um Bandler, I think it's Richard Bandler, who invented uh NLP, said the quality of your life is based on the quality of your questions or something like that. And um, I think it's a really good phrase, actually. It's something to remember that if you're asking high-quality questions with your client and let those be driven by what they're saying, uh, then you're likely to get to the real core issues much, much faster. And that's where you're going to make the sale. Um, let buyers verbalize the decision, uh, let them go right through. It's also really important to um listen to objections. So mirror uncertainty, don't fight it, but make it a point of discussion. So you could use phrases like, um, it sounds like this makes sense, but something still doesn't feel settled. Is that fair? So, this if you're picking up on resistance, again, don't try and get around it, don't try and avoid it, just deal with it. Use a phrase like that, or something again, along the lines of well, it seems like we could have a good fit, but is is there I still feel something isn't quite uh or there might be something missing for you. Something like that. Just invite them to open up about whatever reservations they've got. Um, the reason to do this, first of all, the buyer feels that they've been seen and heard, and as people, we want people to see us, we want people to hear us. Maybe not all the time, and maybe not in big groups, but it's really important that people feel heard, particularly if they are in a situation where they feel vulnerable. And as a buyer, they could well be putting their career on the line by making a decision here, so that you can't trivialize the concerns, the emotional issues that could be going on here. It also increases safety by having these kind of conversations, and it also increases trust. So hopefully you've got more of an insight into what's driving buyers, the psychology of buyers. And when you understand how buyers think, selling stops feeling like persuasion, which it isn't, it starts to feel like aligning. So, this is consultative selling. This is the heart of it. So I hope you found that useful. I hope you've got some things you know you can apply from that. Uh, remember to like and subscribe. Please remember to take a look at the online course, and I'll be back on Monday to build further on this theme that this podcast and the last one, uh, the previous one has been uh covering. Okay, that's it from me. Have a great day. Bye for now.