Buyer's Remorse is Not Inevitable

People will tell you that buyer’s remorse is a perfectly normal reaction on the part of your customers.

If you buy that then I promise you'll experience some remorse yourself.

Buyer’s remorse isn't necessary. And it’s certainly not inevitable.

According to one definition: ‘Buyer's remorse is an emotional response on the part of a buyer in a sales transaction, which may involve feelings of regret, fear, depression or anxiety.’

Regret. Fear. Depression. Anxiety.

Are these the emotions want to associate with a successful buying experience?

Imagine the upbeat testimonial you would get from a customer who experienced these feelings about buying from you:

“I was filled with self-loathing about my decision to buy from Tom and XYZ, Inc. Despite my doubts and anxieties about their product’s abilities to meet our requirements it hasn’t been as bad as I'd feared.”

Buyer’s remorse is a signal from your buyers that their decision to purchase from you was not an affirmative choice to buy the absolute best option.

Instead, it points to your buyers feeling like they settled for less than what they wanted; choosing what they perceived to be the least bad, or least risky, of their alternatives.

You couldn’t create a compelling case for the value of your solution. Your buyer doesn’t fully trust you. As a result they’re nervous.

In short, you didn’t make yourself the clear and obvious choice.

Risk is a trigger for fear, regret and anxiety.

When a customer chooses to buy from you, the person making the decision may have a lot at stake personally.

A buyer could fear that if your product or service doesn’t perform as promised it could negatively affect their career.

How can you squash buyer’s remorse before it takes flight?

Here are 4 remorse-reducing steps:

Make your motivations completely transparent to the buyer.

• Are you there to serve the buyer? Or close an order? Confused about the difference? Your buyers aren’t.

Make certain your actions align with your words (i.e. integrity.)

• Let’s say that you tell the buyer your sole motivation is to help them make a good decision to achieve their goals. How good will they feel about your integrity if you offer them a discount to accelerate their decision timeframe in order to accommodate your desire to close the deal this month?

Demonstrate competence.

• Create opportunities within your sales process to demonstrate your competence. Demos, trials, proofs of concept, presentations. Clearly define success criteria for the buyer for each event.

Live up to your commitments.

• Do what you said you’re going to do. Promise an answer to a question by a certain date and time? Make it happen. Doing a trial? Are your meeting or exceeding their defined success criteria.

Buyer’s remorse foreshadows a problematic post-sale relationship. Take these simple steps to ensure that doesn’t happen to you.

- Andy Paul