Attend to Negatives When High Time Pressure

If a customer’s racing against time to choose which item to purchase from among alternatives, the customer’s likely to attend to the gloomy grays—the negative features of each alternative—over the positives. This truth of shopper psychology allows you to guide the customer toward selecting what will both best satisfy the customer’s needs and best augment your profitability.
     When under high time pressure, people often end up backing away from purchases they’d wanted to complete. Researchers at University of Southern California, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Indiana University find that one reason is the shopper gets bogged down focusing on the negatives and so decides not to choose anything.
     Here’s a selling sequence based on what research says is most likely to work:

• First, assess how much time pressure a shopper appears to be experiencing. Do they look rushed or say they’re in a rush? Are they shopping for items associated with being in a rush, such as over-the-counter medicine for a child? Are they shopping at times associated with making quick purchases, such as flowers at 5 PM on Valentine’s Day? If you conclude that the shopper is under high time pressure, move briskly to complete the sale.
• With the customer who’s under high time pressure, next assess if they are in a positive or negative mood. The parent shopping for children’s medicine is probably feeling bad. The Valentine’s Day bouquet bon vivant is likely to be in a positive mood. When a shopper is in a positive mood, their decision making is more flexible than when they’re in a negative mood, and they’re more likely to persevere in the shopping process. Decide on your recommended purchase alternative and talk about how the positives outweigh the negatives. But when the shopper is in a negative mood, quickly decide on your recommended purchase and then talk about how it is the least bad alternative. Be ready to answer questions about the negatives of each alternative.
• If the shopper seems to be backing off from the purchase, ease the stress, while not letting the customer leave altogether, by saying, “I suggest I help you find some of the other items you’re shopping for here today, and then we can come back to considering this decision.”
• Once the customer makes the selection, talk about positives, but with reassurance, not technical specifications.

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

Click below for more:
Selectively Keep Information From Customers
Know the Reasons for Customer Attitudes
Sell Ease of Use to Last-Minute Shoppers
Profit from Shoppers’ Positive Moods