25 Reasons why people don’t buy from you or hire you

It’s a massive source of frustration. You’re trying to sell your service or product to a prospect, but they just don’t get it. Here are 25 common reasons why people don’t buy from you or hire you. By learning what’s stopping them, you’ll find it easier to turn things around.

Here they are in no particular order.

1. You’re connecting to them using the wrong medium. You’re using email instead of sending a letter. A letter instead of a phone call. A phone call instead of Zoom. A Zoom instead of in-person.
2. They make decisions slowly. You move quickly. They’re still trying to process things.
3. They make decisions quickly. You move slowly. They’ve lost interest.
4. You’re assuming too much about what they know or what they need, etc.
5. They’re short term focused and you’re selling a medium to long-term benefit. Or vice versa.
6. You’re dealing with the wrong person.
7. You have a closing problem. Read this.
8. They’re under a great deal of stress. Which is really common right now.
9. You’re using too many words to describe your proposition. This is extremely common.
10. You’re using too few words to describe it. This almost never happens.
11. There are too many steps in your sales process. You’re losing them. They get half way through whatever you’re communicating, and they’re already forgetting the start.
12. You’re using incompatible marketing ideas, approaches or strategies from a different industry. This is a huge, HUGE problem for service providers. I wrote about how to avoid the problem, here.
13. They can see the value, they do want it, but are lying to you because they’re broke and embarrassed.
14. Your product or service, if purchased, would force them to admit they failed in some way.
15. You’re attracting poorly targeted leads, so they lack the need, the finances or both.
16. You haven’t given them a deadline to make their decision. Deadlines sharpen the mind.
17. They don’t trust you enough yet, to lower their guard and let your message land.
18. You’re confusing them, because there’s a disconnect between what you say and what they see. This is very common. The vendor says they’re professional and reliable, the vendor IS professional and reliable, BUT their marketing gives the opposite impression.
19. They’re very visual and your marketing or sales presentation isn’t.
20. You’re not enthusiastic enough, about your product or service, so they’re not enthusiastic enough to hire you.
21. You haven’t demonstrated the full value of your product or service to them. So, they wrongly believe it’s too expensive.
22. You haven’t explained the core benefits of what you’re offering, so they don’t even know they need it.
23. They’re apprehensive about making the purchase or hiring you and your level of reassurance isn’t cutting it.
24. They’re expecting the approach or marketing from someone in your industry, to look or sound different.
25. You haven’t made it easy enough for them to switch to you from their current provider.

I hope you find these examples useful.

Photo: Shutterstock.