This formula is certainly not new and I know many of you will have seen and heard of it before, however, if there is one thing I have learnt over the years it’s that a refresher never hurt anyone…it’s one of those ‘ah ha’ moments we have all had during a sales training workshop – something we knew but had not been using recently.
R – Research, A – Attention, I – Interest, D – Desire, A – Action, R – Result
In simple terms, when people purchase something they buy according to the AIDA Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
So, accordingly when we sell something we must sell through the AIDA process. In order to do so we must first have an understanding of who our buyer is and what they might want, therefore Research is critical as is understanding what Result we are looking for in terms of the approach to this prospect.
If something grabs our Attention and it’s relevant to us then it is more likely to be Interest and we will be willing to learn more about it. If a product or service appears to meet our needs, resources, and/or objectives (particularly if it is specialised, exclusive, or has limited availability) we begin to Desire it. If we are tempted or motivated to overcome our natural cautious disposition then we may become inclined to take action and to then make a purchase.
Here is some more detail on each of the steps in RAIDAR:
Research: We are lucky today as we live in an age where there is information at hand from many sources. We can Google the prospect or look them up on LinkedIn or even on Facebook if we want to know more about them personally – their likes and dislikes. Almost every business will have a website and there is a plethora of information available allowing us to build a reasonable picture of who our prospect is and therefore how we might first get their Attention. Is the prospect likely to fit your perfect customer profile?
Attention: Getting the their attention sets the scene: first impressions count, so stand up straight and smile – even on the phone because people can hear it in your voice – be happy, be yourself and most important be honest and professional. In todays fast paced world getting a prospects attention is more difficult than it used to be, because everyone is less accessible, have less available time, and there are many ‘noises’ competing for their attention.
Interest: Research indicates that we have 3-10 seconds in which to generate some interest which is why our phone pitch opener must be short and deliver a results orientated message. Things start to seem interesting if they are relevant and have the potential to be advantageous. Your prospect must have a potential need for your product or service. We have all heard the ‘selling ice to eskimos analogy’, well unless you are one of those legendary sales people I suggest we do our Research and sell to those who need what we are selling. Creating your perfect customer profile is a good way to increase the likelihood of better results.
Desire: All sales are achieved based on an emotional need of the buyer. The skill of the sales person is to identify these emotion needs both on a personal and business level. The needs will create Desire within the prospect to consider change. We need to identify Pain, ‘no pain no change’. We need to discover the pain using orienteering questions backed with what’s called an empathy cushion. We want the prospect to feel pain but we also need them not to become embarrassed so we must be empathetic to their situational pain. In doing so we will build rapport and trust, and a preparedness in the prospect’s mind to do business.
Creating desire is part behaviour and personality style and part skills and sales methodology. In modern selling and business, like, trust, respect which create relationship (the ‘salesperson’ X factor) are increasingly significant, as commoditisation of most industries reduces the opportunity for clear product differentiation from the buyers perspective.
Action Simply the switch from potential to actual to achieve movement closer to whatever is the end point is, or the next step in the process.
Natural caution can often dictate that clear benefit based opportunities are not acted upon by the buyer. There can be many reasons why, mostly because the AID element of the sales engagement has not been achieved or not to the depth required to move the buyer to action the next stage.
The better these three steps have been conducted, then the less ‘closing’ is required for the action stage.
Result This is the final step of the sales process, the result might not be an actual purchase but could be the acceptance to move to the next stage. It is critical that the sales person very clearly understand what the stepped results are. By this I mean what we need each ‘result’ to be. Perhaps a demonstration, a scoping engagement or even simply a ‘yes’ to talking in more depth or providing data that enables a deeper understanding of the buyer and their organisational needs.
When followed this formula will help you navigate the process, it will not make you a high achiever that requires attitude and aptitude but when combined with those it is a great sales process mapping tool
I hope you find this useful and please and feedback and comments would be appreciated.
