7 Reasons Why Customers Don’t Buy
There are so many customer excuses for not buying that you may not want to speculate and just find out from them. But how to ask customers why they are not buying is the challenge. And how do you know they will be honest with their answer?
So let’s run through the common reasons why consumers don’t buy some products. Perhaps something may click with you when you read them. Or you could just cover all bases and address as many of these sales blockers as possible.
1 Customers are looking for the best possible price
Sadly customers don’t always think of what is a fair price before buying. Many simply want the lowest price they can get. So the reason your customers may not be buying is simply that your competitors are cheaper without necessarily offering the best value.
Corporate buyers have always had the upper hand, but now it’s more challenging to control. With the economic downturn, there’s been a greater focus on cost and price.
This has led to many people in charge of purchasing looking for ways to save money, for example by buying in bulk, learning how to avoid retail traps, or cutting unnecessary expenses altogether.
To get around this problem, you may need to use coupons and discounts to attract new customers and hope that once they experience the value your product offers, they will stick with it.
2A genuine lack of value
This is possibly the most ‘rational’ reason why consumers don’t buy certain products. It is the feeling that the value they get for the price they are paying is simply not enough.
You will struggle to overcome this sales blocker without improving your product or lowering its price to meet the customer’s perception of value. It’s crucial to look at your pricing model and ensure your solution isn’t unnecessarily expensive.
You could also try to find ways of customizing the product to individual clients’ needs, but this will depend on the nature of your product.
3 The value is not clear
Where the value is not clear to the customer, they may also not buy. Make an effort to learn the customer’s needs and make sure your product meets those needs. Then go and explain those benefits to the customer in clear language they can understand.
4 You are targeting the wrong buyer
This is a fatal marketing failure that you shouldn’t expect to happen at your business. Still, we see this a lot with tech companies. Many come up with a product that does things that seem like they could help people, but they don’t know specifically who these people are.
In the end, they target the wrong prospects, with predictable results. Because they deal in soft products, they can easily pivot, tweak their products, and target another user group until they find the right market. You can’t do this and survive if you are manufacturing products and maintaining an inventory.
5 Too many decision-makers to get through
The collaborative nature of work means that the people in charge of decision-making can quickly grow to be many more than just one person. Depending on the nature of your product, there could simply be too many people reviewing content at different stages of the buying process for an organization to make a decision quickly.
6 A lack of urgency in your offer
Other times what comes across as too many decision makers slowing down the sale is simply a lack of urgency in your offer or in the customer’s perception of their problem.
If the problem is not urgent enough and you have not shown them why they must BUY NOW, the customer will take their precious time completing the purchase or may never do.
Have you highlighted the benefits of your solution and how the customer’s life will improve with it? Go and revise your product pages, CTAs, and marketing material and ensure the copywriting is persuasive enough that clients feel compelled to buy now.
7 Too many solutions are available
Another reason why your customers are not buying could be that they can’t make a quick decision on which is the best solution for them. As a result, a sale hangs in limbo so long that you eventually move on to other leads.
There are too many services that can easily be compared in an evaluation. For example, there are over 15,000 SaaS companies in the world. As a result, new options and solutions keep emerging as new technologies come out.
Cloud computing and development tools have also made it possible for service providers to start their own companies, especially those who want to serve a global market.
Now that you know the reasons why your products aren’t flying off the shelves, let’s answer the next question you have; how do you get customers to buy your product?
How to Get Customers to Buy Your Product
There are a few things that B2B sales leaders can do to create a friendly and more transparent image of their company. This will ultimately help convince customers to buy:
1 Admit that your most significant competitors exist.
Some vendors are trying to create or use landing pages that pit them against a competitor. These usually have “Vendor vs. Competitor 1” and “Vendor vs. Competitor 2.”
In the past, this was not considered fair practice. Now it is because of how quickly buyers are evaluating suppliers.
You don’t have to be one of those pushy salespeople who does nothing but badmouth the competition. A fair comparison between your product and competitors will accompany prospective buyers.
Work on this
- We are selecting at most three competitors.
- Compare your solution to the competitors and choose ten better features than theirs.
- Work with marketing to create a landing page that lists all the features in chart form, and have these options be checkmarks or radio buttons. These should be published.
- Send these links in an email to your prospects or add them to the signature of all emails you send.
- If you are worried about your competitors finding the landing pages on the internet, make PDF versions and send them to prospects by mail.
Use this strategy if you notice comparison shopping behavior in your customers. Do the work for them by comparing your product with the competition, only you paying particular attention to areas where your product is better.
2 Involve as many decision-makers as possible from the client’s side.
As the number of evaluators and purchasing influencers grows, so does the length of time required for sale. Instead of getting surprised by new players during negotiations, try to include as many people at prospective companies in your talks.
Before you talk to the potential employer, be open and ask who else should communicate with them. If your company is willing to work with everyone in their organization, they’ll appreciate it.
Work on this
- Besides asking for the name of other team members on the prospect’s side, use LinkedIn to find out who they are and what their role is. You can then try to establish a relationship with them before making your first call.
- Reach out to these employees and explain that you want them involved in the buying process early. Be cautious, as they may be new to this.
Use this strategy when there are too many decision-makers on the client side, whose involvement is slowing the sale. Involving them early in the buying process can speed up the buying decision.
3 Focus on the features of your product.
Usually, prospects aren’t interested in your product’s features. They are only concerned with how your product will help them with their problem. But sometimes with complex products they don’t which feature does what and will fail to see where the value is for them.
Tell them everything you can about your product and what features or services are currently available. Tell them which ones will be coming out soon too.
Often, the perfect solution to a problem is lacking one or two things that are necessary for it to work out. On the other hand, too many features can deter potential buyers because they do not want to pay for something that will never get used. Still, you will want to know this information.
The sooner you find out what features are missing and which ones aren’t necessary, the easier it will be for prospects to buy from you.
Work on this:
- To get feedback on what features or services the prospect needs and doesn’t, you should send a survey to all team members involved in making decisions about your product. The questions will be straightforward, with radio buttons for each service.
- Once you get feedback, work internally to determine if prices or delivery should be changed based on the preferences. Then create a customized proposal that indicates this.
With product features that don’t anything to improve the customer’s situation, you can decide to remove them and lower the price, improving the value proposition in the process.
4 Transparency is the key.
Often buyers know the price before reviewing proposals. They found out about it on social media or community sites. They are already some way into their buying journey by the time they show interest in your solution.
They not only expect a number from vendors but by the time proposals are made, that number has probably already been discussed because it must be within budget.
When it comes to price, there is a narrow line to walk. According to sales leaders, you should add and eliminate services until you discover the ideal match. Overcharging may result in alienation while underpricing wastes money.
Improve upon this:
- Hire a data analyst, either from within your sales team or outside, to determine how much firms have spent on items comparable to yours.
- Alternatively, you can do a customer survey about price sensitivity. It could be anonymous with past prospects and clients so that the leaders of your company understand which features are most important to customers.
Perhaps people aren’t buying because they have not heard from enough people they can trust that the product works:
5 Work on your social proof.
The point about social proof is that consumers trust the opinion of other consumers who have bought and used your product than the claims you make in your marketing materials.
So vendors can no longer afford to be blind to the role of review sites. They’ve become more vital than ever, with their listings commanding first place on Google. These sites make it easier for buyers to compare providers on their different features and benefits.
The only downside to these sites is paying vendors to get a premium position in site searches. Still, buyers will be more comfortable if you have an easy-to-navigate vendor page with up-to-date screenshots and descriptions.
Another option is to accept customer reviews on your product pages. It is a trust signal to potential customers that portrays your business as transparent since you aren’t afraid to let customers express their true feelings about your service and product quality.
Work on this
- Work with marketing to ensure that your company’s social media pages are as informative and accurate as possible.
- Ask your best customers to leave reviews on these sites. They might be more likely to participate if you offer them an incentive, like a gift card or charitable donation.
- Consider spending some money on sponsored posts for these sites to see if it will bring in more leads.
- Ask willing, satisfied customers to record video testimonials and post them on your homepage, product pages, and social media pages.
Recommendations
When you need to find new customers, reach out to your network. Try to get referrals from your existing customers.
Work on this:
- You could also use a third-party vendor to find suitable candidates, manage them and keep track of their progress.
- Integrate your CRM with other software.
- When introducing yourself to a prospect, make it as personal and genuine as possible. It’s easy for them to spot something that seems canned.
As the saying goes, Nobody is an island. This means that companies of all sizes need to rely on outside vendors and service providers to get things done.
TL;DR – How to Get Customers to Buy More
If you cannot get enough customers to buy your products, your business is going to fail. To improve your sales or to even make that first sale, ask yourself why customers buy products. They buy products that solve a problem they are facing. This is why customers will buy your product.
So in short you need to give customers reasons to buy your product. And it’s not enough that your product solves their problem. It must do so at the fairest price – value, otherwise, they don’t buy.
Just as important, buyers need to know that your product exists and that it is better than what’s available. Still, you will need to convince them that they should BUY NOW. So the next time you ask why customers are not buying, consider all those sales blockers.
In conclusion, if you want to sell more, try empathizing with your prospects. Know why customers can’t buy in general and specifically why yours aren’t buying. You will almost always find the solution to your sales woes.