Fourteen Lectures on Consumer Psychology

Chapter 20 The Ultimate Goal of Sales: Satisfying the Customer

Why can some salesmen continue to start the next transaction after one transaction is completed?Because he followed the ancient golden rule of never being selfish, and realized that the value of sales lies in service, and the ultimate goal of sales is to satisfy consumers.He never ends a sale until the customer is satisfied.Only by satisfying consumers can we achieve a win-win situation.

Effects of Satisfaction on Mental Activities

Short-sighted observers and those who understand sales narrowly tend to think that a sale is complete when money is transferred from the customer to the salesman.But for those who can see sales with a broader perspective, a sale isn't over until the customer is satisfied.To analyze the psychological problems of consumers, we must resort to psychological explanations.

After a consumer buys a product, he does not stop thinking about the transaction process.In his mind, he recalled many scenes that happened just now, such as the initial impression of this product, the attitude of the salesman, and the limited-time express service of the product.If he didn't replay these scenes repeatedly in his mind in time after the purchase, then he must have temporarily placed the purchase experience on the fringes of the mental creek.However, when he encounters similar products next time, he will pick up this past experience again.If this past experience satisfies him, he will not hesitate to make the same purchase decision.

When a consumer uses a product, the good or bad evaluation of the product will be repeated in his mind.If the product is of good quality and can meet all his requirements and satisfy him, then he will buy it again without hesitation next time he comes across the same product.

The kind of satisfaction discussed here has to be satisfaction in the true sense.In other words, commodities must be able to meet the urgent needs of individuals in seeking survival and development, rather than impulse purchases instigated by some unscrupulous salesmen.

In recent years, many people have demonstrated from various angles that the ultimate goal of sales is to make customers happy.In the past few decades, there have been a large number of revisions in sales methods, such as changes in public sales methods, changes in sales methods approaching customers, the emergence of terminal sales strategies, and changes in sales thinking—that is, the most fundamental trading philosophy.

To map all these changes is not to analyze how suddenly they appeared.In fact, these methods have their own evolution process, and many methods are not perfect, still in the process of continuous evolution.Therefore, describing the development trend here is to point out the direction of future development.Statistically, the changes in sales that will be mentioned are much more common than those above.

Many changes will promote moral progress, and these changes and progress are exactly what society wants to see.Of course, these advances can also be the result of economic changes.The addition of economic factors creates uncertainty about the source of progress and adds a lot of interest.The consequences of changes in the external environment cannot be listed one by one, but in any case, the emphasis on satisfaction can be seen as a change in sales thinking and sales methods.After a certain sales behavior and idea has been popular for many years, many other different methods will pick up the baton and become popular again.

A New Meaning of Value: Sales is a Win-Win Process

The first change in value is the change in the salesman's attitude toward value.In the past, it seemed commonplace to give as little profit as possible to consumers, but now, this concept has changed to give as much profit as possible to consumers.The reason for this change may be the protests and demonstrations of consumers against the speculative profit-making behavior of manufacturers in the early years.After that, giving profits to consumers has become a rare benevolent act of manufacturers.If we don’t regard the short-term anger of changing the high cost of living as the cause of progress, we can also look for the answer to change from the continuous development and progress of society as a whole.

Opponents of this book might take issue with the above statements, arguing that they imply that consumers and salesmen should call off or stop haggling?No, there is a growing tendency for salesmen to sell consumers' interests as if they were their own.Salesmen gradually feel that if they benefit consumers, they can also benefit from sales.This change in thinking has indeed reduced (not completely eradicated) the antagonism between consumers and promoters for the time being.The reason for this change can also be explored from another angle. Merchandise salesmen face increasingly severe sales competition, so they adopt the method of reducing prices to defend themselves.In addition, by reducing costs and logistics expenses, salesmen conditionally implement the price reduction strategy and the above-mentioned sales ideas.

However much one tries to analyze the reasons for this progress solely in economic terms, it must be acknowledged that it is a general fact that salesmen are giving up more profits than ever before.Here's a recent sign from an Indianapolis department store that may prove the big change is happening:

"The Ayer merchandising program prohibits any store participating in the program from raising prices. It is not allowed to replace the discounted new product with the old product in stock on the shelves, no matter how similar the two products look. This is also The reason why customers find the same product marked with different prices."

Objectivity in sales practices

While in the past the act of selling was considered a subjective activity, it is now considered an objective one.The reason for this can be seen from the following discussion:
1. In the past, the determinant of price was the bargaining power of consumers, so prices usually fluctuated greatly.The best proof of this is that in the past, in order to gain the favor of the public, merchants often hung billboards on the door saying "no bargaining" and "John's house, all clothes at one price".Haggling over prices was once considered a good habit and a respectable business practice.But today, prices are largely fixed, and haggling is obsolete.The new order took the form of a price tag stamped on each pair of shoes, and the standard prices for items such as hats and tires were well known.Some regulations even require that all goods must be tagged with a fixed price before reaching the retail market.

2. There is another reason to conclude that selling is a subjective activity.In the past, salesmen needed entertainment or monetary subsidies to entice consumers to buy goods.The items he attracts consumers are mainly a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of wine, a meal or an opera ticket.In modern sales, these behavioral customs have gradually been abolished.One of the hallmarks of the new age of selling is the emergence of professional buying agents.These sourcing agents have enough expertise to keep them sane in the hustle and bustle of the modern marketplace.Only when a product does have an obvious price or quality advantage, will they rationally make a purchase.

3. Other evidence of this changing trend are two advertisements.From the following two advertisements, we can see two different sales methods.The first ad appeared in Curlier's Weekly (the name of the ad has been changed):
"Mr. Aroy Hughes B. Strongman, would like to teach you by correspondence how to become a strong man through his own scientific fitness method, with a [-]% success rate. It is a healthy, simple, fast way to gain a healthy body and flexibility The method of skill. In addition, this method is very effective in treating indigestion, insomnia, exhaustion, and learning it will refresh your body."

A later ad with the same content read:

"Strong male target fitness system training, bring you different health, different energy and different vitality. For details, please consult: Mr. Aloy Hughes B. Strongman, New York City"

How to tell the authenticity of an advertisement

Advertisers say their ads are becoming more believable.Assuming that everything that exists can be measured numerically, if the credibility of advertising is indeed increasing, this phenomenon should also be expressed mathematically.The authors devised a computational method to accomplish this task.

First, define what is real.In fact, there are countless definitions of truth.But in the design of this method, it is necessary to abandon those various definitions and choose the superlative adjectives that often appear in advertisements as the research object. These words include "best", "out of print", "perfect" and "irrepressible perfection". Generally untrue in describing the use value of the commodity.For if every brand of breakfast food, every indigestion remedy, every car tire and every bag of flour were to use superlative adjectives and say they were as perfect as ever, there could only be one conclusion, that either one of them was in Tell the truth, or all lies.Because there is only one superlative of an adjective, that is, there is only one best thing in the world.If two objects say they are "best", neither is "best".Therefore, any advertisement using superlative adjectives must be untrue.

If superlative adjectives are regarded as the criterion for judging the authenticity of advertisements, the inspection task will be greatly simplified.It is only necessary to compare the number of ads containing superlative adjectives with the total number of ads for the year to get a number related to authenticity.I once took some advertisements at random from three different newspapers and magazines: "Indian Bona News", "Metropolis" and "Home Beautiful" for comparative analysis.The final conclusion is that the problem of advertising authenticity due to the misuse of superlative adjectives is decreasing year by year.

This conclusion does not mean that the use of superlative adjectives necessarily means that the ad is inauthentic.In fact, the use of superlative adjectives can only be used as an indicator to determine whether an advertisement is true, and there are many other methods that can also be used to judge the authenticity of an advertisement.However, the conclusion drawn by using the superlative adjective method to judge whether an advertisement is true or not has caused us to think about what kind of relationship should be maintained between authenticity and advertisements in order to protect both the interests of consumers and the creativity of advertisements.In addition, this method can also be used to judge the authenticity of different media.

The success of this research makes us continue to carry out the following research with great hope, and the conclusions we draw can also help us to establish a set of ethical standards for the advertising industry as soon as possible.

Sales is a continuous process

Selling a business used to be considered an activity only relevant to the here and now.Consumers and salesmen are like two boats passing by in the dark, so a transaction between them can easily devolve into an ammunition-filled haggling, knowing that neither will see the other after the deal is complete.In contrast, modern sales are viewed as a continuous process.The ideal state of this process is that after one transaction is completed, the next transaction continues.A piano salesman would never consider a sale to be complete until the instrument has been placed in the customer's home.Because he knows that he can continue to sell another piano to the customer's son, daughter or brother-in-law.So, he works hard to make sure that consumers are always in a buying state.To see how he does it, you need to skip to another section.At this time, the research is on the sixth stage of the change of consumers' psychology - the stage of satisfaction.At this stage, the satisfaction generated by the consumer's purchase behavior will make him directly enter the stage of paying attention to the target and arousing interest when he next buys this product.

The value of sales lies in service

To practice headline thinking, the salesman makes sure his merchandise is always in top condition.For example, a salesman needs to develop methods for maintaining batteries, sewing machines, and calculators.Perhaps he also needs to contact the consumer directly with information on how to maintain and maintain the machine.Even, he needs to open a permanent maintenance and repair station to maintain the machines he sold.

From the examples, we can find that what modern salesmen sell is not purely material goods, but services.The concept of service was proposed by Henry Ford.Ford not only sells cars, but also trucks, so while he doesn't sell car tires, he sells truck miles.The Rotary Club has made "service" their motto, and from their practice, too, the most concise and complete definition of this new commodity can be found.It is precisely because of the value of "service" that the Rotary Club has developed rapidly around the world.The value of service is also reflected in the following slogans: "Don't let people pay attention to our product names, but let them pay attention to our services." "Thousands of people continue to benefit from the world travel services we provide."

Double changes have taken place in the current sales practice and thinking.Undoubtedly, the changes mentioned above are not all changes, but they are the only ones that show that the emphasis on people in sales behavior is increasing year by year.Moreover, although changes in thought and practice have no comparative value, the two changes do not exist completely independently of each other.For example, when realizing that real sales must bring satisfaction to consumers, salesmen also began to continue selling behavior.The salesman acknowledges that services can be sold, and implicitly acknowledges that there is more than one form of sales.

In practice, avoid applying the above-mentioned points to all situations, because it is easy to make absolute mistakes in doing so.However, the foregoing points to major trends in sales thinking and behavior today.

summary
The main point of this lecture is that the sale is not over until the customer is satisfied.More and more salesmen have noticed this and are committed to improving consumer satisfaction in sales.

In addition, this lecture also talked about the progress of sales thinking and ethics in recent years.It is not difficult to find that the morality of salesmen has improved in recent years.It is precisely because of this progress that the advertising industry has changed.Although the moral level of salesmen has been greatly improved in recent years, the reason for this improvement cannot be completely attributed to the social reform mentioned in the article.

In addition, the reason why these high moral standards and behaviors can be widely accepted has a lot to do with economic development.Economic development pays salesmen for taking consumers' welfare into account.Salespeople may also experience such moral improvement because they know how to scientifically measure the success of various sales strategies.Those who call for the improvement of social morality may get inspiration from this, that is, to improve business ethics, you can start by teaching salesmen how to use scientific methods to measure "good" sales methods and "bad" sales methods.

If an action is morally sound and economically sound, it must be psychologically sound, and this is the point that this book strives to convey to the reader.If the reader fully understands the message of the book, you can put it down.Because customer satisfaction is very important, it is the cornerstone to support the sales building.A salesman can study psychology very hard, learn all the laws of memory, reasoning, and suggestion, and use these laws to arouse the interest, desire, and trust of consumers, but if he forgets to put the principle of protecting consumers Benefits are also included in one's own sales goals, so the best sales words are all empty words.Using this psychological expertise, he will achieve success in sales, but if he understands the following truth, he can go further on the road to success.This truth comes from the old golden rule of never being selfish.

(End of this chapter)