Business English para Dummies by Varios autores

decision to buy. Recognise those conflicts and guide your customers through them .
    It takes a certain amount of psychological strain before customers are ready to deal with a product. “The customer has to recognise that he has a problem and long for a solution,” explains a sales representative from the plastics industry.
    Sales trainers speak in this context of buying conflicts. Hans A. Hey, a sales trainer from Heilbronn, explains that a customer experiences several types of conflict until the final closing. “These conflicts cause him tension .” As a rule, customers experience three or sometimes four types of conflict:
    • The requirement conflict.
    • The offer conflict.
    • The closing conflict.
    • The responsibility conflict.
    The requirement conflict
    The requirement conflict is the prerequisite for the customer to consider in the first place whether he needs a product or a solution. The essential question, therefore, is: “Do I need the product/the solution or not?” According to Hey, you’re also talking about a requirement conflict if the customer is dissatisfied with his present supplier or has problems with the product he’s currently using. In this case, the customer perceives his situation as being unsatisfactory but doesn’t know yet how to resolve it.
    Such a situation is ideal for Mark S., a sales representative for an IT service provider, “A potential customer’s dissatisfaction is the best prerequisite for him to be ready to make a change. The psychological strain just has to be big enough.” In this situation, Mark S. likes to steer things in the right direction, “I can explain to the customer what will happen if he keeps operating with outdated systems. Then it’s all the more effective when I show him possibilities for bringing his technology back to being state-of-the-art , which will allow him to work much more efficiently and largely without risk.”
    The offer conflict
    Mark S. knows, of course, that not every customer buys immediately. “You always have to assume that the customer obtains offers from competitors.” In Hans A. Hey’s opinion, this constitutes a typical offer conflict. The customer is asking himself whether the sales representative’s offer really represents the optimal solution or if there are other, better suppliers out there. “Basically, a customer, who has decided to obtain a new solution, finds himself in the offer conflict phase,” says Hey.
    For this situation, the trainer gives the following advice: The sales representative should explain to the customer why his offer meets his requirements especially well or exceeds the competitor’s offer and how it is tailored to his individual needs. The more precisely the sales representative has determined the customer’s requirement, the more concretely he can use it in his sales argumentation.
    The closing conflict
    The critical phase towards the end of the sales process can ruin all the work you put into it beforehand.
    According to the experience of Hans A. Hey, a customer may suffer a closing conflict even if he was convinced of the sales representative’s solution before. In order to get the customer through the closing, the sales representative has to give him a good reason why he should buy now. As a rule, concrete facts, such as a lower-priced introductory offer or the urgency of the decision because the customer may suffer negative consequences if he keeps working with outdated technology, are suitable for this situation.
    The responsibility conflict
    Some decision makers are afraid of making a mistake and being called to account for it . Or they have to vindicate themselves to their company for the high costs. This may trigger great fear.
    The higher the investment, the more likely a responsibility conflict emerges . In this situation, Hey recommends taking the customers’ concerns very seriously or even address them in advance and explain how risks can be kept at a minimum.
    Conclusion: