Refunds and charge backs can be a real source of frustration for salespeople.
Not only do they have to deal with the inconvenience of having to process the refund or charge back, but also with the possibility of having to give up commission on the sale.
Buyers’ remorse can be the bane of a salesperson’s life.
I want to talk with you now about how to increase customer satisfaction, avoid buyer’s remorse and thus reduce or even eliminate refunds and charge backs.
Buyer’s remorse is that feeling of regret after making a purchase. It’s common after spending money on a big purchase, like a car or a house. But it can happen after any purchase, even something small, like a book or toy.
There are ways to avoid buyer’s remorse, though. And if you can avoid it, you’ll also avoid the refunds and charge backs that come with it when potential customers back out.
Getting the Initial Commitment to Buy
The first step to this is to get a commitment to buy from your potential customer, or existing customers.
Now, before you’re asking for a commitment, I assume by now you should already have their values.
You know that it’s critically important to get their values.
Okay. So, by getting to know their values, you can then tailor your presentation in a way that will resonate with them and ultimately get a commitment from them in the process to spend money. ‘I’m going to go ahead and buy this. I really like it and it’s just what I need. Thanks for your help! Yeah. I’m going to go ahead and do it.’
Now, you pretty much want to do three things.
You might want to first suggest to someone that a friend might ridicule them for making this decision and spending money on your product or service. You could ask them what they would say to their friend if that happened. So in other words, they have committed to doing it. They have said that they are going to do it and they are going to follow through with their word. Let me give you some languaging that I’ve used a lot to make this happen and avoid buyer’s remorse.
Three Questions to Lock Them In
‘Fantastic. Well let’s go ahead and get you started then. Great. Here’s the application. Please go ahead and take a few minutes to fill that out. I’ll start filling this other thing out while you’re doing it.’
So they’re going along. Okay?
And now you get them to sign the contract and they’re all happy that the sale is done and they’ve made the purchase.
And you say, ‘Great. Congratulations.’
And they go, ‘Well, thank you.’
So now you want to lock that commitment firmly in place so that they’re going to remain committed to their decision and won’t have any second thoughts that would lead them to experience buyer’s remorse and impact your sales.
And you go, ‘Look, let me just ask you a couple of quick questions.
You: ‘You’re happy about this decision, right? You have what you want and everything just feels good?’
Them: ‘Oh, yeah.’
I have already secured a commitment from them now, and if I desired, I could further reinforce it by appealing to their values.
You: ‘You’re happy about your decision, right?’
Them: ‘Absolutely.’
You: ‘Well, obviously, it makes sense because what you said is you wanted to have more security and you wanted to have more of Y and Z – whatever the product or service may be – so it makes sense.’
Them: ‘Absolutely.’
You: ‘All right. So let’s say that you’re telling a friend of yours about this decision you’ve made here today. And let’s say that they begin to ridicule you for spending your money on this. They make fun of you, maybe, and call you names. Now, what would you say to them if that happened, that would cause you to really feel good about, and to continue to feel good about, the decision we’ve made here?’
And then shut up and let them answer in their own words.
And they’re going to go something along the lines of, ‘What I do is my own business and it’s none of their concern. I don’t need to explain myself to them or get their approval. I mean, after all, . . .’
So your buyer is now starting to lock in their own answers to objections so they won’t feel buyer’s remorse.
So the first one I start with is like a friend, a bit removed. Okay?
You’re going to see how I zero it right in as we continue on.
But I want to make the first one real easy for them to be able to do.
Them: ‘Well, my friend doesn’t have anything to say about whether I buy life insurance or how I protect my assets. I’ll just tell them the truth, that this is my decision and it’s a good one. I think they ought to talk to you too so you can help them understand why this may also be the right choice for them.’
You: ‘Absolutely. That’s just fantastic. Well, let me ask you this. What would you do if your spouse or partner didn’t understand or agree with your decision? Let’s say that happened. What would you do then? What would you say to them if they found out and were upset with your decision? How would you explain in a way that you would be able to remain committed to your decision?’
Again, you’re leading your customer to provide their own reasons to not experience buyer’s remorse.
And just wait for them to answer. Then…
You: ‘So what would you say to your spouse or partner that would get them to understand that you would be absolutely rock solid, would continue to be committed with this decision, you would feel really good about it?’
And let them go through it in their mind…
Now you may need to help them a little bit by providing some guidance or assistance here. If you do, that is perfectly fine, but try to let them come up with the solution on their own as much as you possibly can.
Usually they’ll say something like, ‘Well, no, they trust me on this. This is after all, how it works. I make these kinds of decisions all the time, and if I didn’t feel good about it, I certainly wouldn’t do it. I mean. . .and they know that and that’s the way it is.’
Or something of that nature. Okay?
If they say, ‘Well, gee, I don’t know what I’d do,’ just nudge them a little…
You: ‘Well, give it some thought. Consider it for a minute. What do you think? When you’re thinking about what they might say, try to anticipate their objections and have a plan for how you would handle that. Try to think of the most likely objections they could bring up, and then have a solid response ready.’
And just literally give them the time to think about it and to make it happen. That’s just really important.
Your customer is answering for themselves all the possible reasons for buyer’s remorse, and people always listen to themselves.
Now, when you get that one done, then you next say something like this…
You: ‘You know, even though I don’t think it would be something that a person like you would have any difficulty with, sometimes a person can begin to doubt their own decision. Over the time frame of a day or two, as they second guess themselves, their confidence in the original decision to make a purchase can erode. So if that began to happen for you, just prior to that doubt surfacing, what would cause you to remember the reasons that you decided to do this so that you would stay committed with your decision? Why did we do this tonight? Just prior to doubting, what would immediately surface that would cause you to remember?’
Them: ‘Well, you know, I think just knowing that I did the right thing would do it. It just feels good.’ And you say, ‘Absolutely. That’s correct. Perfect.’
No More Cancellations
Now let me tell you something.
If you do those three things exactly as I just told you, you will almost never find someone changing their mind after the fact.
In fact, you’ll probably only come across a handful of people who do that in your lifetime. I
f you do it exactly as I taught you to, it will lock them, quite literally, into their decision.
Now, I’ve often thought about not explaining this quite so blatantly because it’s so powerful.
This way of doing things has inordinate power.
When you use those three things that I went through with you…
- What would happen if a friend ridicules you;
- What would happen if a spouse or parent tries to talk you out of it;
- What would happen if you began to doubt your own decisio
You do it with those three things and I’m telling you, you will lock people in so hard and so powerful, you can hardly believe it.
You might say to me, ‘But if I take that course of action, and if they were intending to cancel, perhaps that will make them cancel right now instead.’
For example, if they go, ‘I don’t know, if my spouse doesn’t like it, I guess I just wouldn’t do it.’
Well, guess what?
In that case you haven’t really sold them at all, have you?
Wouldn’t you rather know about that right away than count your eggs before they hatch and think that you’ve got a sale when you don’t and it turns right around and cancels on you?
That’s what I thought.
So it’s always better to hear the truth right away instead of thinking you accomplished something when you didn’t. That way, you can avoid any further disappointment and move forward..
The first step is to get a commitment from them.
Once you have their commitment, reinforce that decision with their values.
This will help to ensure that they follow through on their commitment, and then use these three steps to lock that commitment firmly in place and prevent buyer’s remorse from getting so much as a look in.
