The SEC method is a method for the psychological discovery of a customer, derived from a simplification of the SONCAS method, which some salespeople find hard to apply. Instead of choosing among six motivations, you choose among only 3, which cover all 6. Another advantage: if you are not sure you have identified the right motivation, it is easy to end your argument by summarizing the 3 benefits and close the sale. To learn more, you can take our online sales course.
The SEC method
A reminder of the SONCAS and SONCASE methods
- Safety
- Pride
- New
- Silver
- Sympathy
- Ecology
Here are the three SEC motivations, which also cover the 7 SONCASE motivations
- Safety
- Desire for protection
- Low prices for secure spending: that’s Soncas’ silver motivation
- Ego
- Desire to appear
- Buy an expensive product to show off your wealth: motivation Argent du Soncas
- Ecological products to save the planet: motivation Écologie du Soncase
- Comfort and convenience
- Furniture or car comfort, for example
- Convenience of using a product or service
- Sympathy for the object, service or salesperson: Soncas’ sympathetic motivation.
How to apply it
- Assessing a customer by age or position:
- An elderly person often prefers security
- Young: Ego
- Manager : Ego
- A buyer: the certainty that users will not complain about his product afterwards
- Listening to the customer and his comments is even better, because you’re basing your decision on what he says, not what he looks like. Here are the customer’s questions and what they mean.
- “Do you have a safe car?
- “What is the best of your products?” = ego
- “Which is easiest to use?” = convenience
- Asking a general question that will allow the customer to reveal his motivation is what every salesperson should ask during a sale:
- “what is important to you for this purchase?”
- “What’s important to your project?”
Application examples
Sale of financial products
- “I want an investment with little chance of losing even if I earn less” = Security
- “I want you to take care of everything, I don’t have time, I have other things to do” = Convenience
- “I want the investment that pays the most” = Ego
Furniture sales
- “I want something that takes up as little space as possible in our living room”: Convenience
- “The last piece of furniture didn’t last long, I want something strong” = Safety
- “We have a beautiful house, I want something in harmony with what we have” = Ego
Conclusion
You mustn’t start arguing before you’ve completed your psychological discovery of the customer and identified his or her main motivation in order to present the advantages and benefits aligned with his or her expectations.
The SEC method complements the SOS sales technique and helps visualize the O for Objective. It also helps limit the number of objections.
If you are not sure you have detected the right motivation, finish with 3 benefits matching the three motivations. It is a winning move: you are sure to hit one and close your sale!
Jean-Pierre Mercier