Many salespeople have charisma and know how to communicate competently and politely with customers. However, their personal qualities do not guarantee a sale. Pet product manufacturer Michael Shoff believes that the most valuable asset in a company-consumer relationship today is trust. It is thanks to him that the brand is able to level out the fears of customers. According to the entrepreneur, there are 9 common concerns that buyers have. Each of them can be dealt with by following certain rules.
Customers are afraid that their desires will not be satisfied
Customers feel uneasy when they see that a company is only focused on profits and not on meeting their needs. They fear that the brand will take money and not provide what they want. For this reason, Schoff recommends that companies move away from aggressive, pushy sales tactics and embrace the role of expert consultant. The client should feel that the seller really wants to help him and not take money out of his pocket. Put the consumer's desires first, and he is more likely to turn into a buyer.
Customers don't want to regret their purchase
One of the concerns of consumers is related to possible disappointment from the purchase. For this reason, they are scrupulous in their choice and sometimes hesitate to make a decision. To relieve them of fear, Shoff advises brands to analyze all aspects of the product and identify those that may make customers wary. This knowledge will help you deal with wary clients. In addition, their determination can be influenced by a money-back guarantee: the person will know that in any case he will not waste his money.
Fears! War has been declared!
Fear
- an internal state caused by a threatening real or perceived disaster.
Fear is a very useful feeling, because... The instinct of self-preservation is based on it. Fear helps us avoid dangers that threaten our lives and makes us more careful and circumspect. Thanks to the signals of fear, we do not run across the road at a red light, do not walk on the eaves of high-rise buildings, do not play with poisonous snakes, etc...
“Complete fearlessness is meaningless from an evolutionary point of view. A man who is not afraid of anything will not live long
» Gleb Shumyatski
In general, it is good to be afraid, but in moderation. If you were scared, accepted what happened as a lesson and returned to normal, this is the norm. Let's call this fear “natural” . If regression has not occurred, and you continue to experience this feeling, this is a pathology, i.e. deviation from the normal state and process. Let's call this fear “pathological” .
Pathological fear disrupts our inner peace, devastates us from the inside, limits our desires and abilities, destroys interest in ourselves and life...
Such fear manifests itself at the following levels:
1. Physiological. Unpleasant bodily sensations arise: the breath is taken away, the whole body stiffens, cold sweat appears, the heartbeat quickens.
2.
Psychological. The whole world seems to be directed against us. Absolutely neutral actions are perceived as threatening. Feeling hopeless.
3. Behavioral. As a rule, this is an escape. We want to run away, hide, close ourselves so that no one can see us. The search begins for actions that will at least temporarily free you from the feeling of fear. The feeling of fear can bring a person to such a state that all his actions will be aimed solely at saving himself from this fear.
The basis of a person’s personal qualities is laid from birth until the age of 8, so we form most fears and reactions to fear at this age.
Let's look at ways to purchase insurance:
1. Fears transmitted by parents. Parents instill in their children their own fears: “Beware the dog!”, “Beware the car!” Limiting a child’s knowledge of the world through trial and error, excessive care, provokes the emergence of fears. Children grow up overly cautious and fearful.
2. Indifference and inattention of parents give rise to no less children's fears than excessive guardianship. He begins to be afraid of everything, because he lives in some kind of virtual world that he has imagined for himself. In this case, fear of the unknown and fear of death are formed.
3. Incorrect upbringing. When a child is punished for no apparent reason. When a punished child does not understand his guilt. Too harsh upbringing, punishment, corners, create a fear of losing freedom. Criticism, comparisons with other children, ridicule, give rise to the fear of being yourself, of failing , the fear of disappointing someone, the fear of being ridiculed. 4. The only child in the family has the most fears. Such a child is most susceptible to a variety of fears, primarily the fear of loneliness. In addition, a child who experienced loneliness in childhood often develops an inferiority complex, because Basically, the child is surrounded by adults, and in comparison with them he really doesn’t know anything.
5. Unfavorable family situation. This is an unfavorable financial situation that creates a fear of poverty. These are conflicts between relatives in front of children, divorce of parents, which give rise to many fears in relationships with the opposite sex in the future.
6. Scary bedtime stories create imaginary fear. 7. Personal, traumatic experiences lead to increased anxiety and contribute to the emergence of fear of pain, heights, certain things or animals.
There is one such ancient Eastern parable about fear:
“One wise man met the Plague on his way and asked: “Where are you going?”
She replies: “To the big city. I need to kill five thousand people there.”
A few days later, the same sage met Plague again. “You said that you would kill five thousand people, but you killed all fifty,” he reproached her.
“No,” she objected, “I only killed five thousand, the rest died of fear”...
You already understand that you were not born with your fear, you were taught it, or this fear arose at the moment when you needed it. If you could learn or create it, then you can stop it!
I propose to declare a 7-day war on fears!
Day 1:
First of all, acknowledge your fear. Often we ignore our fears and pretend they don't exist, so acknowledging them is a really big step. Write down your fear on paper. When fear is in your head, it may not be entirely clear. If you write it down, it will take on a material form, and it will be easier for you to fight it. Sometimes, simply by writing down your fear on paper, a person can understand that his fear is absurd or not so scary.
Day 2 : Learn about your fear, better! If your fear is a person, an animal, a natural phenomenon, an object, read about it, learn as much as possible about it! The fact is that most fears are based not on facts, but on feelings. Sometimes our fear is more our fantasies than what actually exists.
“There is more evil in fear than in the thing that is feared.”
Cicero.
Day 3 : Determine the cause of fear. Delve into yourself, in your memories, ask your relatives. Remember who taught you to be afraid. Forgive him.
If you understand that your fear was unintentionally imposed on you by a person, use the “Empty Chair” technique: You will need 2 chairs and some object (for example, a soft toy) that will play the role of the person who imposed the fear on you, or thanks to whom you received it .
1. Sit on a chair, put a second chair opposite and place a toy on it that reminds you of the person with whom you will talk. Speak as if this person is actually sitting opposite you!!! Tell this person that now you understand that his words or actions imposed fear on you (tell me which one), which until today has bothered you, but now you understand that this is the reality of that person and has nothing to do with you. Then tell that person that you forgive them.
2. Sit on this person's chair and take the toy into your arms. Now you will speak on behalf of this person to yourself. Start by telling the person that they are sorry that their words or actions affected you in this way. Ask for your forgiveness on his behalf!
3. Tell him that from today you are not afraid of anything! What now do you understand that each person has their own reality and these fears are not yours!!
If you were scared intentionally, with the goal of bringing you pain and suffering, write this person a letter of forgiveness: write what exactly scared you, get rid of the negativity, everything that has accumulated, then write “I forgive you for what you..., I forgive and let you go"
If you are the cause of your fear, do the self-forgiveness technique: “Take a comfortable position. Close your eyes and relax. Imagine that you are in a beautiful blooming garden. There are beautiful blooming trees and flowers around you. You hear birds singing. You can breathe easily and freely. You slowly move along the path. A person is walking towards you. And the closer he gets to you, the more you begin to understand that it is you, but only in childhood, you are about 5 years old. You come up to your little self, take your hands and say: “Hello……….. Thank you for everything . I forgive you for what you …………………… I forgive you for everything.” You begin to notice how the child turns into a baby. You look at this baby, and you want to take him in your arms, hug him gently and say: “I love you.” I love you very much". You place it with tenderness and love in your heart, in your soul. Where he will feel comfortable and calm. Now your inner child is with you. You love him and accept him as he is. You are walking along the road again. You can breathe easily and freely. Your soul is at peace. And now everything in your life will be different, because you are different. You are filled with self-love. Take a deep breath in and out and open your eyes.”
Day 4. Methods for dealing with fear
suggested by Dale Carnegie:
1
.
Imagine that what you were afraid of has already happened. Determine for yourself what you feel and try to come to terms with it if you cannot cope.
2. Relax, relieve yourself of tension.
In a calm state, devote time and energy to trying to improve the worst situation you have imagined.
Day 5. Draw a ladder of 10 steps, the first step of which is your fear. On the second step, write down what is higher, bigger and more important than your fear. On the third, what is higher is greater and more important than what is on step 2. And so on until the 10th step.
Look how many things are more important than your fear!
Day 6. Draw your fear as it looks now, after 5 days. Give your fear a funny nickname or name. So that if he suddenly appears again, you could tell him: “Hey Vasya, go for a walk, I don’t need you.” Have a mock funeral for your fear. Here you can show your imagination as you wish. In fact, you need to burn the paper with the image of your fear.
Day 7. To finally overcome fear, just do what you were afraid of. You don’t need to think about it for long, you need to act. Start with other, smaller fears. Keep a notebook where you note all the small victories, and eventually get to the most important thing.
“I stopped being afraid after my first venture failed without the sky falling.”
Allen Neuharth
The biggest misconception that a person has is the idea that courage is the absence of fear. Sometimes our greatest fears are based in reality. For example, we will all die someday. And that's a fact. Life is complex and we cannot control everything or influence the circumstances we face. We need to accept these facts and focus on what we can do.
“As long as I live in this world, I will continue to develop my capabilities, take risks to achieve my dreams, and all the while I will experience fear.”
Susan Jeffers
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Author of the article: Olive
Clients are wary of anything new
It is difficult to sell a product to a client who has never heard of it or is only guessing about its purpose. According to Shoff, companies with innovative products need to rely on information content. For example, the main page of the site should describe the strengths of the product and the benefits that the buyer will receive. You can support the text with an interesting video review that will answer the main questions of users. Extended information will allow the client to make a purchasing decision.
Fear in psychology
From a psychological point of view, fear is an emotional process. In the theory of differential emotions by K. Izard, fear is classified as a basic emotion
, that is, it is an innate emotional process, with a genetically specified physiological component, a strictly defined facial expression and a specific subjective experience [3]. Fear is caused by real or imagined danger. Fear mobilizes the body to implement avoidant behavior, running away[4].
Fear in communication psychology
Fear as a basic human emotion, signaling a state of danger, depends on many external and internal, congenital or acquired reasons. Cognitively constructed causes of fear: feelings of loneliness, rejection, depression, threats to self-esteem, a feeling of imminent failure, a sense of personal inadequacy. Consequences of fear: emotional states of uncertainty, strong nervous tension, prompting the individual to escape, seek protection, and salvation. The main functions of fear and accompanying emotional states: signaling, protective, adaptive, search[5].
Phobias
Main article: Phobia
Mental disorders in which certain situations or objects that are not considered dangerous cause anxiety and fear are called “phobias”[6].
Customers are stopped by negative reviews
Negative reviews can affect the determination of potential buyers. In such a situation, the company must explain to consumers that not every opinion expressed is a fact. The same product is not able to satisfy the needs of all people, so it is subject to different evaluations. According to Shoff, brands need to intelligently deal with negative comments and give a detailed response to each one. Clients must see that the company does not shirk responsibility and is ready for dialogue.
