As pointed earlier, knowledge of buying motive is extremely important for successful selling. Therefore, sellers always attempt to have thorough understanding of the buyer decisions which are based on buying motives.
The most common sources of discovering the buying motives are:
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1. Listen and Observe:
If the sales force, more particularly the salesman, keeps his eyes and ears open, he can easily trace out certain buying motives. In other words, if the prospect is allowed to speak out his mind, and given a patient hearing many of his wants and needs can be easily known. Therefore, by listening patiently and hearing carefully, the salesman can easily trace out the real motives which drive the prospects to make purchases.
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2. Past Records and Experiences:
It is well known that experience makes a man perfect. The past experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, act as a guiding force for the salesman in improving upon the future performances. Most often, a salesman keep notes of the views and reactions of the prospects.
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After dealing with several customers for a reasonable period of time, the salesman can set generalisation about the buying motives or the specific reasons for which consumers buy products or services.
3. Company Advertising:
Advertising forms a rich source of knowing the buying motives of the prospects. Usually, advertisements are drafted on scientific lines, keeping in view the current trends of consumer taste and liking and unique selling propositions of the products or service. The advertisers spend a lot of time, effort and money in finding out as to why people buy.
Therefore, a careful analysis of the advertisements that the company is making can provide the salesman a list of important appeals which influence most of the consumers. Those appeals form a part of the buying motives of the consumers.
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4. Direct Talk with the Prospects:
Another important source of knowing the buying motives is face-to-face discussion with the prospects. The salesman can discuss threadbare the specific needs of the prospects and find out their buying motives.
Though all the motives cannot be known in such talks with the customers, yet useful clues and points can be discovered by the salesman. Those clues and points prove to be quite important in ascertaining the buying motives of the prospects.
5. Colleagues:
Intelligent and experienced salesmen constitute another important source of identifying the buying motives of the prospects. For the salesman, who wants to learn and improve, colleagues form the primary source of gathering such information about prospective customers. Each salesman has his own way of tackling customers. Much can be learnt about buying motives from salesmen with successful track records.