Just answer this question:

Is your prospective customer taking more than ONE day to make a decision on whether to buy the product/service you are trying to sell?

If the answer is YES, then you definitely need a lead management CRM!

We know that the consumer takes time to make a decision, but how much time do they take? There cannot be one answer to this question. But, if we dig a little deeper to understand the psyche of consumer, we realize that there are many factors of varying magnitude including social, emotional, financial etc that affect the consumer's decision making.

Understanding these factors is very essential. Of course it varies from business to business and consumer to consumer. A better understanding of these factors will shorten your sales cycles.

What could be delaying the decision making?

In this section let us explore the various factors which influence a consumer’s decision making. Let us call them "Decision making factors". Let us look at your product/service from the "Consumer" point of view.

Social factors

1. Is your product an "Absolute necessity" or just a "Good to have" product?

2. Is it going to help your consumer in "Social elevation"?

3. Do you see "herd mentality" in consumers in your product segment?

4. Are your prospective customers experiencing "peer pressure?

5. Is this product going to give him a sense of self satisfaction or a sense of security?

Personal factors

1. Is the consumer too quality conscious?

2. Can they afford to buy your product?

3. Is he brand conscious?

4. Was he referred by an existing customer?

5. Is the consumer a risk taker in terms of being one of the first people to buy/use your product?

Product/service related factors

1. Is your product new in market? Do you have to educate your prospects on your product/service?

2. Proper usage of your product/service is not known to the consumer?

3. Is your product less known in the market?

4. Do you expect recurring purchase by your consumers

5. Is there a competing product in the market? How many? Do you have an edge over your competitor's products?

Financial factors

1. Has your prospective consumer already "Budgeted" for this purchase?

2. Is your product perceived to be more/less expensive by the consumer?

3. Is the consumer waiting for the prices to go down?

We have a list of factors which affect decision making. More often it's a combination of these factors that affect decision making. Our job is to understand and resolve the problems that the consumer is facing in his decision making, so that we sell more.

Why we have listed these factors here is because, we are going to take one industry/business at a time and find out which of these decision making factors affect these industries/businesses.

That is when you will know whether you need a pre-sales lead management CRM for your business or not. If the answer is YES, then you will also know how to use the CRM to close more deals than ever, because you already know the factors that affect the decision making of your prospective consumers and you will be in a better position to solve their problems much faster!

Let's discuss decision making factors (which are specific to business domains) in the forthcoming blogs.