2 Ways to create buying urgency and increase sales

Are you currently feeling tired of receiving some of the most common buying objections that most salespeople get from their customers from time to time?
a) I need to think about it
b) This isn't the right time
c) I would need to discuss this with someone else You see. If there's a skill that every sales professional needs to master to overcome buying objections and to close any deal faster and more easily, it is to learn the skill of creating and increasing buying urgency.

What is buying urgency?

First though, we need to understand what exactly is buying urgency. What is the difference between buying urgency and buying pressure? After all, one of the most common errors that many salespeople tend to make is to confuse buying pressure with buying urgency. And when they end up building buying pressure and not buying urgency, they tend to put their customers off instead of leading them closer towards the sale.

Thus here I shall highlight 2 key differences between buying urgency and buying pressure, as well as proven ways to build buying urgency more effectively:

1) Buying pressure is usually built externally while buying urgency is built internally

While most customers perceive buying pressure as coming from the outside (e.g. the salesperson), buying urgency is more often built successfully from the inside. As a sales professional, you would need to learn how to plant that buying urgency in the mind of your customer through careful pacing and leading. Moreover this must be done subtly and at the unconscious level.

For example, whenever you include stories into your sales presentations, you are more likely able to engage your customers' emotions and sell them more effectively at the unconscious level. In fact many studies have reflected the profound impact that stories have on our brain. Stories can help you to build rapport and trust more effectively with your customers and even inspire action. Indeed, B2B buyers are nearly 50% more likely to purchase when they see personal value in a product through the use of stories.

2) Buying pressure often comes from the fear of feeling something while buying urgency usually comes with the fear of losing something

Paraphrasing what my business mentor once said to me, "95% of buying decisions are driven primarily by the unconscious need of our customers to avoid pain and only 5% the conscious desire to gain pleasure." In other words, pain is often a more powerful factor compared to pleasure when it comes to effective selling. Yet the way in which you build pain through the building of buying urgency in selling is entirely different from the one produced through the creation of buying pressure. Have you ever received an invitation to try out a service/product for free but declined it, because you fear the potential pressure you have to overcome when the salesperson attempts to sell you a product/service subsequently? As the saying goes, there is no free lunch in this world. On the other hand, have you ended up buying something (even though you may not even need it) just because you feel that's an opportunity you cannot afford to miss?

You see. If you want to build buying urgency effectively in your customers, you need to learn how to leverage on the fear factor appropriately and increase the intrinsic motivation in them to purchase your products/services. Learn to communicate to your customers in ways which amplify their fear of losing something while minimizing their fear of feeling the pressure. For instance, this was exactly what happened many years ago when British Airways announced it was closing the London to New York Concorde service soon. All of a sudden, sales just went through the roof even though nothing had changed about the service or the cost. Nonetheless the fear of losing this once-a-life opportunity to fly on this jet was so intense that it motivated many people to take action.