Perfectionists versus pragmatists
22nd September 2017 | Roger Brooksbank
Most learning models that encourage salespeople to adapt their selling styles to meet the needs of different buyer “types” don’t easily translate across to B2B selling scenarios. The author proposes a new model based on personal experience.
The new model being proposed here provides a more practical learning tool, at least for those salespeople for whom it has been designed
In business-to-business selling, the vast majority of organizational buyers that salespeople are likely to encounter will fall into one of two broad categories: purchase maximizers or people I refer to as purchase satisficers.
A purchase maximizer is the kind of buyer who is always aiming to get as near as is humanly possible to making a “perfect” purchase. As such, these types of buyers will typically hold a full-time buying position with a job title that reflects this area of specialist responsibility, such as that of a “chief buyer”, “purchasing officer” or “procurement manager”. They are trained professionals, usually working for large companies and organizations.
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