Creating Urgency

Sales managers are always talking about it like you're suppose to be able to wave a magic wand and get people to buy on command. I remember a situation early in my sales career when we were having a particularly slow month. The manager came along gave us a rah-rah speech and told us we needed to "create urgency with our buyers" and "get them to buy now!" I remember thinking to myself that if I had the ability to make people buy on command we wouldn't be in the sales slump we were in!

You obviously can't make anyone buy on command. In fairness, sales managers that talk about creating urgency can also do us as sales people a favor by reminding us that there are things we can do to help move the sales process along. Without those reminders we are sometimes guilty of simply waiting for people to buy whenever they get around to it.

So, what is urgency and how do you create it?

What is urgency?

Usually we feel a sense of urgency when we think we will miss out on something. It's important to differentiate that this fear of loss can be associated with the product we are considering and it can also be relative to things external to the product. For example:

Specific to Product
-         I may experience a fear of loss if I think I might miss out on a great price.
-         I may experience a fear of loss if I think I might miss out on something that is rare and limited in quantity.

External to Product
-         I can also experience a fear of loss relating to my time. How many times have you got tired of shopping and just decided to buy because you wanted to get it over with? In this case, the fear of loss was the time you were wasting shopping compared to whatever else you could have been doing.
-         The fear of loss can be associated with lost opportunity. If I were considering the purchase of a boat because I want to go water skiing this summer I will experience a greater sense of urgency as the weather gets nicer. The longer I wait to make a decision the less time I have this summer to enjoy the boat.

Creating Urgency in Financial Services

In most cases the ability to create urgency specific to product is out of the hands of the average individual. Companies can create an urgency to buy by having rate specials or choosing to create special products that are only offered for a limited amount of time.

What can you do to create urgency in your clients to buy? Here are some ideas:

-         Know what problem you are solving for your client before you try to create urgency around a specific product. When you just pitch a product or the "flavor of the month" without understanding specifically how it can help the person you are speaking with it is very difficult to get them to "buy now". You can ask yourself "why would they buy now?" but you will not come up with an answer that will help you because you don't know enough about them. Start by knowing your client.
-         Shopping for financial services is not a lot of fun. It's not something people look forward to like they would if they were to go out looking for a new big screen TV or new clothes. Chances are they have better things to be doing. Ask them when you first find out what they are looking for how long they have been shopping or looking around. Ask them a little about the process they have been through already. Not only will you possibly uncover some useful information about the competition and what the client has been considering, but you will also get them to verbalize how long they have been at it. You can even suggest if they have been shopping for awhile that "they must be anxious to get this all decided?" This question reminds them that there is more to life then shopping financial services and that sooner or later they need to get on with a decision. If you follow this up by doing a good job of leading them through the sales process and asking for a decision your odds of selling them today go up substantially.
-         Once you have established what their end goal is for a product or service (for example to make money) you can focus on the loss of opportunity they will experience by waiting. People are always trying to predict if rates are going up or down and trying to time it perfectly. Remind them that as they wait for the "perfect moment" they are losing money. In fact, do not be shy about getting the calculator out and showing them how much they will lose by waiting compared to what they will gain even if the rate did go up.

Bottom Line

The fear of loss is a powerful motivator if the potential loss is real to the person you are speaking with. If it's not, it becomes a cheap sales tactic that will do more harm then good. Create urgency wisely. Know the person you are speaking with. Know what they are after, why they are considering the product you are talking to them about, how it will benefit them, what they will be missing out on by not using the product, how long they have been looking, and what they could be doing instead of shopping financial services. When you have done the work of selling you can earn the right to create some urgency.

"There's only one direction you can coast."
– Brian Tracy

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