From a modern marketing perspective of selling, the key to success is understanding your customer, then tailoring product and process accordingly.  Historically, the interface between buying behavior and selling has been referred to as the psychology of selling.  Understanding our customer and how he/she makes decisions helps us understand what our job is.

1. Overview of Customer Decision Process

     A. What kinds of questions to ask?

     B. Where they are in the process?

     C. How motivated are they?

      Involvement:    Involvement means how relavent/ important the current decision is to the customer.  The higher the invovlement, the more motivated the customer         will be.  Some factors that influence invovlement include:

       1. Personal-personality, interests
       2. Product-price, purchase frequency
       3. Situation-Task, Time

      Perceived Risk:    Perceived risk is another factor that influences motivation.  Perceived risk is a function of the probablity of a negative outcome and the                     perceived severity of the outcome.

       1. Functional Risk.  Will it work?
       2. Physical Risk. Is it safe?
       3. Economic Risk. Will I lose money?
       4. Psycho/Social Risk. What will others think?

       What are some strategies that salespeople might use to help reduce a customer's perceived risk?

2. Diagnosing the Decision Process

     A. Need Recognition-discrepancy b/ current and desired state

         1. What needs are satisfied (Benefits)?
         2. Are needs dormant or perceived?
         3. How involved?

     B. Search-internal and external-

      1. What does the customer already know?
      2. How motivated?
      3. What sources? Where/from whom do they get info.
      4. What features are focused?

      C. Alternative Evaluation-how does the consumer compare alternative, what will they use to decide?

      1. To what extent does the customer evaluate
           and compare?
      2. What are the criteria?
      3. What is the decision rule?
 

     D. Purchase-decision, commitment, purchase act

      1. will the customer expend energy to shop
      2. what is the preferred mode of purchase
 

     E. Post-purchase

      1. will there be dissonance
      2. what are the customer's expectations
      3. what are future intentions
      4. what services will keep the customer
 

3. Factors that influence the Process

  A. External/Environmental Factors -What external factors will influence the decision?

      1. Group-family, individual
      2. Cultural
 

  B. Situational-what is the context in which the decision is made or the product will be used?

      1. Task
      2. Time
      3. Social Context
      4. Physical State
 

 C. Internal/Individual

      1. Customer Resources

           Time, Money, and Cognitive

      2. Knowledge-how much, how confident?

      3. Motivation

           Internal versus External

      4. Attitudes-predisposition toward an object

           Multi-attribute Model

           1. Increase/reinforce beliefs
           2. Increase the importance of attributes
          3. Change beliefs about attributes
           4. Add new attributes

      5. Personality

             Adaptive Selling- tailor your selling style and presentation to the needs of the customer (their preferred style).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Organizational Buyer Behavior

Personal selling is the dominant form of promotion in business to business marketing.  Many of the issues discussed in consumer behavior are also applicable to business to business because, at least at the contact level, you might be dealing with a business buyer as an individual.  However, there are a number of key disntinctions to business to business marketing that may be different that consumer marketing and in some cases make business to business selling more challenging.

Generalizations

1. # of People Involved (Buying Center)

     a. Organizational goals and objective
     b. Individual goals and objectives

2. Complexity

3. Rational Knowledgeable Buyers

4. Long-term Relationships

5. Unique needs, customized products

6. Less emphasis on price, more on quality & service

7. More Formalized Buying Process-