Whether customers take impulsive or thoughtful decisions, it is highly dependent on the perceived value. When they make a decision about any product or service, they're thinking about solving a need. Customers look for trustworthy, knowledgeable individuals to educate them on a solution which is highly personalized and solves their problems.
Today’s customers are well informed and savvy, they need sales professionals to help them diagnose their needs and identify solutions. Every banking customer’s need is different and requires customized solutioning. Customers need to be involved in the decision making process.
The consultative pitch equips sales professionals with the skills to understand customer needs better & faster. The consultative approach to solutioning adds lot of value to the customer and it builds credibility and trust which creates loyalty and lifetime customer value.
The factors which influence customer decision making is illustrated below :-
Customer Psychology is a science as well as an art. It uses both, theories borrowed from social sciences to understand customer behaviour, and quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques to predict customer behaviour.
Steps in understanding customer psychology and influencing decision making process
Building trust & rapport
Creating a conducive environment by setting the right context and building trust through a consulting and problem solving approach
Understanding different personality types
There are different personality types having specific characteristics which drive and motivate customers. Comprehending the right type and channelizing the discussions accordingly is very important to generate interest and getting buy-in
Empathize
Imagining and thinking from the customer point of view and act according to those beliefs opens up the customer. This comfort level motivates the customer to discuss about the feelings and issues faced by them.
Effective probing for uncovering needs
Once the customer is comfortable and willing to discuss about feelings and issues it is very important to probe deeper to understand the latent needs. The crux lies in the skillful probing technique to ask the right questions at the right time to extract the real issues.
Demonstration of capability of product or service
Nothing is more convincing than the demo of product and service in any form or method. It has been experienced and researched that most of the customers objections and queries are taken care by facilitating a good demo.
Focus on perceived benefits
Customers are not interested in all the features of the product or service but the ones which suit their customized needs. Every feature which suits the need adds to the perceived value and personalization which drives the propensity to decide in favor.
Decision making
It has been seen that customers tend to postpone or forgo their decisions if they have doubts about the product or service. To take the entire process to a logical conclusion it is very critical to eliminate the remaining doubts and help the customer to arrive at a decision.
At AITD we have a pool of experts in psychology in conjunction with industry experts and consultants who are continuously involved in research projects involving customer decision making and the buying behaviours. The researchers have developed several data analytics tools to understand consumer behaviour in the backdrop of evolving lifestyle changes, consumer preferences owing to digital transformation. The cutting edge sales training programs are based on research, experience and design thinking which are contemporary as well as futuristic.
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By: Ashish Sahu