4 Different Buyer Types and How to Respond

The essential lesson in selling is to know who and what kind of buyer and what motivates them to make a purchase decision.

There is a lot of researches done and attempted to define the types of buyers across the industry. From Myers and Briggs Type indicator to Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? All these researches have attempted to identify the prospects and for the internal decision-making needs.

However, all these researches are based on a research paper, Personal Styles and Effective Performance by David Merill and Roger Reid in the early 1980s. This research paper showcased four types of decision-makers or buyers, which we will see in detail below.

Let’s see who are these four buyers, how to identify them, and how to tackle them to sell your products.

I am going to ask you guys who are reading this blog post, what do these types of buyer sound?

The Price Buyer or a Referral Buyer:

When the price buyer comes to you, what does he say? What does she say? The price buyers are the people who want to buy at the lowest possible price. They are the bargain shoppers or coupon hunters or discount hunters.

Here are the everyday things that these type of buyers ask the Sales Rep in a shop or online:

1. Is there a discount?
2. Is that on sale?
3. You could do better, Right?
4. That is not your final price, Right?
5. I could go to Joe down the street and get it for cheaper, etc..

How to Tackle this kind of buyer:

The easiest or fastest way to sell the product to them is by offering them a Cheap Discount or selling the products on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Increase the product’s price and give them an offer and sell the product at the original price. It is that simple.

For example, I sell Link Building Services, and my price is $120 per DA 40 Link. If I want to sell my product to a price buyer, I put on a huge sale offer on Black Friday or Cyber Monday by giving them big discounts like Buy 1 DA 40 link and get 3 DA 40 Link Free! But actually, I am selling for a price of 4 DA 40 links to that buyer. The other simple method to sell a product to the price buyer is to refer them to somebody else.

Now a lot of you guys hate Fiverr. But what I would do is say, hey, it looks to me that you need to find the best possible price, and I do not blame you for that. You should go to Upwork and Fiverr, and if it works out, you save yourself a ton of money.

I refer this price buyer to Fiver or Upwork because I sell DA 40+ links for $5,000 and not for 500 bucks, which this price buyer will not simply buy, and instead of losing this price buyer, I refer to somebody else and gain a referral fee.

And some people feel funny about that to say that you should give it away for nothing. But remember, we hire sales reps to sell our services or products, and we pay them a monthly stipend or a small percentage of commission to help the business.

And if the poor buyer or cheap buyer or wealthy buyer visits your shop or business and your job is to sell it to them.

So when you meet up against a price buyer who only will decide based on the lowest price, the lowest price wins, refer them to somebody else. Identify them quickly and refer them out.

Indecisive Buyer: An Analysis Buyer:

The biggest challenge that the Sales Reps face is selling the product to a buyer who is not ready to buy it.

These are the kind of buyers who do research. They may consider a competitor’s price or offer in mind while shopping for a product. Or maybe the lack of showcasing the features of a product to them.

Whatever you say to them to buy the product, they will take time to purchase the product.

How to identify the indecisive buyer:

Here are the few clues that you may be dealing with Indecisive Buyer:

The indecisive buyer it is like;

1. I am not sure.
2. Let me think about it.
3. I have to compare it.
4. Let me look into it more.
5. I have to make more calls.
6. I still have a little bit of lead time on this.
7. I am not ready to buy it. Etc.,

The indecisive buyer needs context.

They do not know good from bad; they do not know low from high, and that is okay because it is human nature.

When you go out and get an estimate for something like roof repair, you are going to get the first estimate. You have no idea that is going to be too much or too little, and so you go and get three more competitive bid to get to know which is better, so you get three bids typically.

So that you can find out the high, the medium, and the low since this buyer is not the price buyer, they still might buy the mid or high price, but they just need to know which is better or best.

So here is the way you respond to Indecisive Buyer, you say to them, “I am sure you need to compare, and that makes sense to me. You talk to a bunch of people and call me last, and if you do not find what you need, then call me otherwise god bless you, you found what you needed. I am good.

Because there’s a good chance that I’m going to be the highest bid, but I don’t want to get into that right now since you need to compare anyways. But know that’ll be the highest bid.”

For the indecisive buyer, don’t waste your time by saying call me last and instead tell them that this will be the highest bid and give them some information to help them make an informed decision.

Know – It – All Buyer:

Dealing with this buyer kind is often difficult. These buyers often show off how much they know about that product, and they like treating them as an expert. A salesman who knows this trick wins his or her Sales Point.

Here are the clues to identify this kind of buyer:

1. Are you using SEMrush and Ahrefs for keyword research?
2. I know this strategy; this is not practical.
3. How much traffic will you give me in three months?
4. Can you give me one million organic traffic in three months?

And more often, the Sales Reps are like, why don’t I slap on his or her face and say, if you know it, why don’t you buy the product.

The problem with this kind of buyer is that this buyer thinks they know it all; maybe they’re enthusiasts; perhaps frustrated signers at another life who wish they were doing the same what you do.

So, they like to play the role of your boss. They want to tell you how to do it; how it gets done and what good it looks. They pretend to be an expert, that is what I think. They are just too informed.

How to tackle this buyer:

Okay, so what we are going to do with the know-it-all buyer, believe it or not, and this will sound super scary to you, and we will embrace them. We are just going to agree with everything they say.

So they say this is not difficult. I know you could take my computer and do it. And I am pretty sure someone can take your strategy and make it for you for a lot less money than what I charge you.

I do not know, but it should be really simple, it is simple, and I am not telling you it is not simple, but if you want me to do, it is going to be 5,000 bucks. And this is how you end it.

The Value Buyer:

The last one, the holy grail of buyers, is the value buyer. The value buyer doesn’t care about price at all, they want results, and they base their decision and their purchasing decision on emotion and not logic.

They buy emotionally, and they use logic to justify their purchase.

Here are the clues to identify the Value Buyer:

1. I don’t care what it’s going to take, just get it done.
2. Don’t bother me with the details.
3. I trust you, just send me the report in the end.

How to tackle this buyer:

It sounds like there’s a lot of urgencies. It’s the opposite of the indecisive buyer. They know they have a problem; they know the value of their time; they know what it costs to screw up, and they want to get it done right for the first time, and they want the best of everything.

So if you’re so lucky to have found yourself a value buyer, don’t treat them like a price buyer.

The difference between want versus the need is that a value buyer has a want. It’s usually emotionally connected like I want to feel successful; I want to feel like I am buying the best versus a need.

So when you go into the need that’s talking about features. When a guy walks in or a girl walks into a Porsche dealership; they’ve already made the decision, they want that Porsche.

Do not tell them how many horsepowers or the traction or rack and pinion steering or ABS brakes or whatever it is because you’re messing around with them. They want to buy it. There’s an emotional connection that they’re making with the car, and they want to buy.

And this is where you must be very careful not to go past the sale.

Here is a quick tip:

1. Do not sell the products to price buyers, even though they cover the majority of the market because it is time waste.
2. If you want to increase the chance of making a sale, you need to decide to work with the kind of buyers who appreciate your products and services. And choose the type of buyers who see a value in what you are selling to them.

How to sell to these four types of Buyers:

To sell the product to the buyers who fall in these four buyers categories, you need to understand one thing which motivates them to buy the products. This understanding will help you identify what kind of buyer you are dealing with your business.

Next time you’re on a call, identify what buyer type that is and let us know how you respond to them and what reaction you get in the comments below; I am happy to read those comments.

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