Except for the confirmed bargain hunter, no buyer will buy anything, at any price, unless she believes that it will add to her satisfactions. On the other hand, few persons will buy anything, however satisfactory, unless they believe it to be worth the price. It follows, as a fundamental rule of salesmanship that price is almost never the first consideration in the mind of the buyer, but that it is almost always the second consideration. For this reason, few sales can be completed without a demonstration of value.
YOUR OWN BUYING HABITS
Study your own buying habits, and you will see that you seldom make a purchase on the basis of price alone. Always you consider value. Consciously or otherwise, you compare the satisfaction you hope to gain against the price you are asked to pay. You like a bargain, but you recognize that low price, by itself, does not constitute a bargain.
TWO STAGES IN SELLING
The buying habits of the great majority of your customers are no different than your own. People generally will not buy a piece of furniture at any price unless they first believe, of their own initiative or as the result of your efforts, that it will afford them satisfaction, for their own use. Having found such a piece, they still will refuse to buy it until they also become convinced that its value measured in terms of their own satisfactions, equals or exceeds the price.
Thus the average sale consists of two stages:
First, helping the customer find the merchandise that meets her needs and satisfies her tastes, at the price she can afford to pay (not, necessarily, the price she desires, expects, or has expressed a willingness, to pay).
Second, convincing her that the article is a good value for the price.
A prevalent fault among even experienced furniture salespersons is the failure to deal adequately with the first stage—that of finding out what the customer wants. With interior decorators and many drapery salespersons the second stage—demonstration of value—is more often neglected. Moreover, much business is lost by men who reverse the logical process, and begin their demonstration of the value of an article before their customer has tentatively accepted it as adapted to her own needs and tastes.