Money: Good, Bad, and Ugly

Money… something that no one likes to bring up at the dinner table, something that college students tend to be lacking in, and something that Grandparents can seem to have in abundance. Every single person feels slightly different about it though and this can lead to problems when it comes to sales. As discussed in class today, during a sale, how a person thinks about money needs to be a major concern for a sales person.

If I am a careful spender and think heavily about big purchases, before buying something expensive I am going to need the sales person to tell me about the future benefits of the product or service and I might even need time to think about it before actually making the buy. If the seller doesn’t understand this, they are probably going to lose my business. In the opposite way, if the seller doesn’t understand his customer does not think heavily about spending a lot of money, especially when it comes to his business or family, they may present the sale to the customer in the wrong way. That customer may become frustrated with the in-depth information being presented to them and not make the sale simply because they are so frustrated and walk out.  Once again, the sales person did not understand the customer and his needs and personalities and did not give him or her what they truly wanted presented in the way they wanted.

Personal money habits are yet another example of how the sales person needs to truly understand their customer and their pain and do their research before hand. No longer can the sales person simply go in blind and hope to feel their way to the end goal, the sale. Customers are learning to expect more from sales people and speaking to how your customers deal with money is no different. Speak to them in their language and it is amazing what can happen. Money… it’s so basic but also so complicated.