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The emotional component of decision making has increased dramatically in the post2000 business environment, said Dan Kreutzer, ’85, told the Sales Leaders' Roundtable on March 9 at Gleacher Center. Kreutzer, partner at Samurai Business Group, asserted that the major driver of today’s decision process is building relationships. Since the traumatic economic events that took place in 20002001, there is a higher perceived risk to major buying decisions, and the only way to overcome it is through trust, he said. People have to believe that you are going to deliver, to produce results. We need to get that ‘human touch' back into the game.
Citing research conducted at several leading universities, he said that the process people follow in making decisions is the same everywhere, cutting across culture and ethnicity. But when expanded into a buying decision model, specifically applicable to complex buying decisions, he noted that this process becomes iterative and bounces around, unlike the traditional sales process, which is completely linear. This disconnect leads to misconceptions, unfulfilled expectations, mutual mystifications, growing hostility, and a general lack of trust between buyer and seller, said Kreutzer.
People buy for their own reasons usually based on self-interest, he said. It’s important that sales people understand what the buyer’s decision process is, and then help them with it. Kreutzer summed it up, Adapt your sales process to align with the buying decision modelconcentrate on where they are and stay with them. Doing so will build that much-needed trust.
Donna Eckert