Ease Fears with Detail-Oriented Shoppers

A long line of consumer psychology studies indicates that almost every customer walking into your store is either prevention-focused or promotion-focused. Prevention-focused shoppers put top priority on products and services which help them avoid losing what they have now. Promotion-focused shoppers put top priority on products and services which help them gain more than they have now.
     Knowing which one a customer is allows you to customize your messages to produce more sales. It’s not just in the product benefits the salesperson will talk about, but also the general style the salesperson takes on.

• Promotion-focused shoppers operate from ambition. They like salespersons to serve as coaches: Cheering the customer on when things are going well and reassuring the customer when challenges arise. Staying available until the customer’s objectives are achieved and encouraging the shopper to purchase whatever is necessary.
• Prevention-focused consumers prefer the salesperson to be like a superhero who will help prevent them from making the wrong decisions and, in fact, takes some of the responsibility away from the customer for making decisions. The superhero salesperson goes above and beyond what the customer expects other types of salespeople to do.

     How can you and your staff tell when you’re dealing with a promotion-focused shopper and when you’re dealing with a prevention-focused one? Research findings from Columbia University and Singapore Management University suggest that one diagnostic indicator is the amount of time the shopper pays attending to details. Prevention-focused shoppers tend to drill down, while promotion-focused shoppers tend to worry less about the details.
     The researchers illustrate their point with what happened when study participants were asked to select dinner items from a menu. The promotion-focused consumers started out by spending time considering the overall categories (soups, appetizers, entrees, deserts, and so on). On the other hand, the prevention-focused consumers immediately dove into looking at the specific descriptions of the individual offerings.
     When you and your staff find yourselves dealing with a prevention-focused customer, realize these customers are operating from fear more than from ambition. Give them some detailed information and get ready to be asked for further details.
     The Columbia/Singapore researchers point out that when prevention-focused consumers were given detail-oriented formats, they became willing to pay about 17% more on their purchases than when presented less detail-oriented formats.
     That’s an opportunity to boost profits!

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Sell Either Protection or Promotion
Analyze the Role the Customer Expects