What has motivation got to do with buying business travel services?

The short answer is everything. Many travel companies, sales and business managers, reservation staff, think they know what people want.

This leads many to waste their time and money on false beliefs. Many businesses never find the answer and end up struggling. Don’t let this happen to you. Take time to understand what really motivates someone to buy.

When you understand peoples decision making, their motivation to take action, you’ll have much greater success at getting sales and growing a profitable travel business.

So what is the meaning of motivation and what’s involved in getting people motivated to buy from you. Motivation means someone’s readiness for change. The more motivated a person is, the more ready they are to change. Conversely, the less motivated someone is, the less likely they are to change.

In the context of a buying business travel services, motivation means change from not having your product/service to them having it. And remember this is all about your prospects motivation, not your motivation.

What matters most in a selling situation is what your prospect wants, not what you want.

Businesses anxiously chasing sales often forget this. If you don’t satisfy what your prospect wants, you won’t make the sale. This is the first thing I look at when I’m helping business travel companies.

Someone becomes motivated to buy when they attach high levels of Importance, Knowledge and Confidence to the product/service you offer.

Importance

Whatever the product/service you sell, it must have a high level of importance to your prospect. This is a highly personalised situation. In other words you cannot sell to everyone, you cannot motivate every person to buy from you.

Get your sales  people to focus your efforts on people who recognise the importance of your product or service and are more likely to be motivated to buy from you. Ask yourself two questions;

1.Who are the people that view your product or service as important?
2.Why is it important to them?

If you cannot answer these questions easily, you are going to struggle to attract clients.

I recommend that you focus on people that have a problem or issue who you know you can help.

Importance is magnified for people who have a problem or issue that needs solving especially business travel.

In a previous life I was a sales Director for a Travel Management Company. Although there are thousands of companies who travel on business, I don’t recall ever selling our services to companies who didn't’t have a problem or issue.

The problem/issue was also dramatically illustrated with the first account I ever won as a junior sales person. To my astonishment, having just arrived at a prospects office, the manager I was meeting listened to what I said and then asked me when they could start! The account was worth £120,000 a major account to me at the time.

It seemed so easy to close the sale that I suspected a catch. Surely selling couldn’t be this easy. Little did I know that it wasn’t my superior sales skills at work, it was the problem/importance factor.

From the time I’d first made the appointment to the time of my meeting, my prospect had experienced several more horrendous servicing problems with their incumbent supplier. The problems had escalated, the importance factor was high. I was her saviour!

On other occasions when I contacted managers with responsibility for their company’s travel, I was told they didn’t need our services. If you rated the importance factor of travel on a scale of 10, it would probably be a low 1 or 2 to them.

Then suddenly I would receive a call saying the situation had changed. Travel was now a priority and of high importance. It had now moved up the scale to 8 or 9 out of 10. They wanted to discuss our service. They never mentioned it on the phone but the reason for the sudden escalation was always the same. They had a problem.

To answer the questions I posed earlier. I was targeting the person responsible for travel purchasing. It was normally the purchasing, HR, or facilities manager.

Their problem was important to them because it was Senior Directors who normally did the travelling. When the Directors experienced service problems or overcharging by the supplier, it was the manager’s responsibility. Their reputation, their job, was on the line if they didn’t solve the problem. It was of major importance.

Notice that time pressure has a huge factor on the level of importance to an individual.

You can witness this time factor in many selling situations. That is why plumbers are in such high demand. You may also remember the Y2K factor in the IT industry and how important it was for companies to solve this problem. Many IT professionals prospered significantly from this time pressured, important issue.

What are the time urgency problems affecting your target decision maker? Make a list of these problems and understand the implications for your decision maker. I’ll explain shortly how you can use this information to get more sales.

Knowledge

Continuing with my travel example, our managers were absolutely clear in the knowledge that unless they found a new supplier, they would suffer all manner of problems.

Knowledge becomes the second ingredient of having people motivated to buy your product or service. Knowledge for a prospect involves 4 ingredients.

1.They must know what their problem/issue is
2.They must know their problem/issue is important
3.They must know their problem/issue can be solved
4.They must know where the solution can be found

In my travel example, my prospect met all four of the above. If we were to rate the knowledge factor out of 10, you would score them 9 out of 10 for all four. They were motivated to buy and made a purchase.

Travel companies often struggle to get sales because they are not connecting with their prospects knowledge. They are once again working to their own agenda instead of their prospect. It’s as if they were both speaking a different language.

One client I was working with told me his prospects didn’t understand him. Didn’t understand what he offered. It was all his prospects fault. If only his prospects would think more laterally!

It is not the prospects problem. Remember, you are dealing with your prospects motivation, not yours.

If you want your prospect to become a customer, adapt your product to suit your prospects level of knowledge.

Prospects buy when the importance ingredient is high; they have the knowledge of the factors explained above, and are confident the solution can be achieved. Confidence is the last ingredient in the motivation to buy recipe.

Confidence

Unless your prospect is confident in the knowledge that your solution will solve their important problem/issue, their confidence rating will be low and they will not be motivated to buy from you.

What makes someone confident with your service? A number of factors. They must trust what you say. You must have integrity, be reliable and dependable. You must also lessen the risk for your prospect of doing business with you. The risk of making the wrong decision and suffering the consequences.

Earlier I explained the importance of clearly identifying who your prospect is. The problems they are facing and the affect it’s having on them. You can use this information to talk intimately to your prospect about their problem. By doing so, you demonstrate your knowledge, experience, expertise and enhance your credibility. This is how you do it.

First, when you communicate what you do, state who you do it for. Next, talk about the problem your prospect is facing and what you do to solve their problem. Finish, by talking about the results and benefits your prospect gets as a result of using your product or service.

This formula is a powerful marketing message that can be used in verbal communications. You can also use it in written materials like brochures, web sites, direct mail, etc.

When you follow this formula you immediately raise your credibility and your credentials. Your prospect will immediately connect with you as you understand and can relate to them. They will have a high level of confidence in you.

Your prospects confidence can also be raised through affirmation from other customers. That is why endorsements and referrals are such a powerful marketing tactic and must be used in all of your marketing materials, If you're not already doing this make it your priority to do so.

If someone endorses your service, they are reducing the risk for your prospect of trying something untested.

Reducing your prospects risk is of major importance in a buying situation, particularly if you are selling in a corporate environment.

Your prospect wants to feel confident with their decision. They want to take the risk out of making a wrong decision.

Writing articles and giving speeches at trade shows and exhibitions is another example. By doing so, you are perceived as an expert in business travel. It enhances your reputation and builds confidence in the minds of your prospects.

The confidence factor also applies to the usage of your service. An example of this are petrol forecourts. Many of the well known brands of fuel stations have bright lighting, clear and visible signage, wide forecourts and are staffed by uniformed operators. The entire buying process is designed to take the risk out of the buying experience and stimulate confidence.

In a competitive market place that offers numerous choices to the consumer, the buyer will choose you if you can supply them with a high level of confidence.

Everything you do, everything you communicate must be in support of building confidence.

Summary

Sales people in travel companies are often guilty of focusing on what they want, instead of what their prospects want. To get your prospects to make a purchase, they must be motivated to buy from you. Not everyone will be motivated to buy from you, you cannot sell to everyone.

Motivation is to change from not having your product or service, to having it. Your prospects are motivated when the 3 ingredients of importance, knowledge and confidence reach high levels.

When reflecting on importance, you must adapt and position your efforts to the people that do place a high level of importance on what you offer. You will find it easier to sell if you focus on people who have an issue or problem that your product or service can solve. The more time pressured the problem or issue the higher the level of importance.

The second ingredient of motivating buyers is knowledge. Your prospect must know they have a problem or issue, how important the problem or issue is to them, know their problem or issue can be solved and know where to find the solution.

Finally, having scored highly in importance and knowledge, your prospect must have a high level of confidence. Confidence, that your service can solve their problem or issue. Being confident they can obtain the solution. Being confident of knowing how to use your service.

When all 3 of the motivation ingredients rate highly, your prospect will be motivated and ready to buy from you.

Now that you've read about what motivates people to buy, you've got to turn what you've learned into some positive action. For example, I discussed earlier your prospects importance. Did you know there is a way for you to get your prospect to focus deeply on what it means to them personally? You can do this by asking some very deep and powerful questions.

The results of these questions can be used to aide your marketing efforts. When someone hears you talking about a problem they've got, guess who they will gravitate towards?

Having read this article I hope you’ll have a better understanding of what’s involved in the buying process. However, now you know, it may still not be any easier for you to pin point why people are not buying from you.

Sometimes you can be just too close to what is happening. It can be a frustrating experience trying to figure out what’s wrong. Sometimes you just cannot see the problem. What better way to find out than by getting a fresh perspective and viewpoint on what you are offering.

When you know where you are going wrong, you can change it for the better.

If this is the position you are in, then I invite you to take up a FREE 40 minute consultation with me.

You’ll get a fresh and honest view on what’s going wrong with your sales process in the motivation formula.

Telephone 01258-489112 to arrange for your free 40 minute consultation.