- It is difficult for insiders to appreciate the leap of faith needed to adopt a new technology like 3D laser scanning.
- There are 5 key steps in the process of selling a new product/service concept.
- A buyer must make a repeat purchase before you can count them as a customer.
I wanted to follow up on my last post with a few thoughts on how to go about selling the concept of using 3D laser scanning, especially to someone not familiar with the technology. I really think that for those of us inside the business it is difficult to appreciate how big a leap it is to buy into this technology. Once again, particularly for building project owners who are often not that technically savvy.
Somewhere in my past I read an article which described what the author considered the 5 key steps to making a sale, or more correctly obtaining a customer. I did the obligatory search and found a lot of references to 5 steps, none that matched the 5 from the article, but for some reason 5 seems to be the magic number when it comes to selling. Since this is the one thing that all successful businesses have in common – customers that is, I want to pass this along as it has been really valuable to me over the years to understand where the potential customer is in the sales process.
That’s really important to keep in mind. Selling this technology is a process, that can be managed and that needs to be taken step by step, in the proper order. The steps are:
- Get the person’s attention. If they are not in the “receive” mode, you can “send” all you want, it won’t matter.
- Get the person to dream, to internalize, to imagine themselves using the product/service.
- Get the person to try the product/service.
- Get them to buy.
- Get them to make a repeat purchase.
You must complete all 5 steps before you can claim that you have a customer – one purchase does not a customer make. Working through this process takes time, but in the end you can end up with the ultimate prize – a loyal customer.
