Retail Sales Training - How People Shop

Not surprisingly, men and women approach the buying process from two completely different perspectives. During the last several years I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and I recently came across an article that offered another perspective. The article was written by Dr. Karen Wade and here is a brief overview of her thoughts.

Generally speaking, men approach the buying process with three objectives:

1/ Research
2/ Hunting
3/ Purchasing

Men will do some research on the product they intent to buy and usually does not the opinions of very many people. He will create some criteria for his ideal purchase and during his "hunt" he settles for a solution that meets most of his criteria.

Women, on the other hand, differ in their approach. They still have 3 objective but they are different:

1/ Research
2/ Discovery
3/ Purchasing

Women tend to do much more research and talk to many more people than men, especially for high-ticket items. Their "discovery" process pertains to the many emotional apsects of the purchase: defining and expressing a personal and/or family style, trade offs between what she really likes and what will work financially and practically in her life.

You can increase your sales substantially by adapting your sales appraoch to each gender. Generally, men will make a buying decision MUCH more quickly than a women. However, when you focus your attention on helping your female customers make an educated buying decision, you will earn her trust and gain a more loyal customer.

Cheers!
Kelley