Ask Shoppers for Reasons to Buy

“What are good reasons for you to buy this product?” “Why are people shopping with us instead of somewhere else?”
     Those questions in ads and personal selling help make the sale.

• According to research at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, asking questions like these is useful for changing brand, item, and store preferences the consumer has been following without any real thought. Reason-to-buy questions make the shopper stop to consider, therefore increasing your opportunities to influence them. Most people rise to the challenge when asked a question. They might not answer aloud, but at least they’ll start thinking.
• Asking these questions personalizes the selling arguments. People make each purchase decision for all sorts of reasons, and each of us has a distinctive consumer personality. For instance, some shoppers primarily want to play it safe while others primarily want to acquire new advantages. The shopper can take your reason-to-buy questions in whatever direction fits them best.
• When a group of family or friends comes together to your store, being asked these questions can kick off a brainstorming session in which answers given by each person become a selling point for the others who are listening in.

     It is not a matter of the more reasons, the better, though. Research findings from Universität Heidelberg and Universität Mannheim indicate that if you ask the consumer to generate loads of reasons to buy the particular product or to shop at your store, the task becomes more difficult for the customer, and this actually makes your preferred alternative less attractive.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers