The American marketing strategy and research firm Decitica published a study ‘Marketing to the Post-Recession Consumers’. In this study they looked at how the recession has changed customers behavior.
The study shows that an average of 39% of the people interviewed have indicated that ‘This recession has changed what and how I buy forever.’ Almost 67% of these people have already changed the way they spend their money.
The changes of behaviour will undoubtedly mean it is more difficult in future to sell to these people.
Your customers
Decitica’s study is a consumer study and not about B2B. However, the B2B people you are dealing with are consumers too. So there is a big chance that the people you try to sell your products to, have also changed.
That could mean your selling prices are under pressure because people start looking for less expensive solutions. One solution is to lower your prices. But that is not the right way to go. Because it will be extremely difficult to raise prices again in future. And because customers looking for low prices only are the most difficult customers to keep. As soon as your competitor gives them a better price, they are gone.
As an alternative you can keep your prices as they are, but give selected customers an extra discount. The good thing about this is that your prices do not change. The bad thing is that you may have problems (again) with changing the discount back to the original level later on.
The benefits of your products
The best way to keep all these price-critical customers, or even win a few more, is to forget about the specifications of your products . Stop talking about your products all together. Instead start talking about the benefits that your products offer to the users.
Why should people buy your product. Make a list of the benefits of using your product. This list could be:
- time is saved using our products
- energy is saved using our products
- our products improve proces efficiency
- our products are easier to install
- and more …
All these benefits represent a value. Real value: money. It may even be that your products pay themselves back in one or two years or so. Meaning that after a while your products start making money for your customer.
As soon as you are able to get this message across to your customer, you are able to turn the recession into an advantage for your sales.
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