SONCAS sales technique
SONCAS is the best-known method for categorizing customer motivations. Salespeople know that you don’t sell features, you sell profits, and there are millions of products and services to sell, and therefore millions of possible profits. The advantage of the SONCAS method is that it categorizes every purchase into just 6 motivations that are easy to […]
SONCAS is the best-known method for categorizing customer motivations.
Salespeople know that you don’t sell features, you sell profits, and there are millions of products and services to sell, and therefore millions of possible profits.
The advantage of the SONCAS method is that it categorizes every purchase into just 6 motivations that are easy to identify.
SONCAS and SONCASE description
Here are the reasons why.
- Safety: desire to protect oneself, not to make mistakes, to have a safe car. It’s a motivation that runs deep within each and every one of us.
- Pride: the desire to look good, to have the best, to be better than others.
- New: latest version of technology, latest fashion collection, change of product or service
- Convenience, comfort: having something that is pleasant, practical, easy to use or understand.
- Money: desire to save, choose the cheapest item, desire to earn a lot, proposed financial income.
- Sympathy for the product, the service, the seller, the agent. Purchasing is done intuitively on the basis of what appeals.
- Ecology: the new letter, buy a green product that contributes to the planet’s future
Application of the sales technique
Each individual possesses these different motivations, but at different levels, which can evolve over the course of a lifetime as a function of experience and age.
The salesperson’s job is to identify this main motivation and tailor the benefits to what the customer is looking for. There are three ways to do this:
- Déterminer en fonction de l’âge ou du poste de l’interlocuteur
- For a twenty-something, it’s often pride.
- Jeune mère de famille : commodité
- Personne âgée : sécurité
- Directeur des achats : sécurité d’acheter un produit que les employés vont apprécier
- General manager: ego to have the best company
As these are generalities, you can make mistakes, so it’s best to listen to what the customer tells you. What’s more, motivation can differ depending on the type of purchase.
- Listen to what the customer tells you: I want a car that’s easy to drive, or one that performs well.
- If the customer doesn’t give you a clue, then ask the question that every salesperson should ask at least once in a sale: what’s important to you about this product? He’ll tell you what you want to know.
Examples
I would like a car with,
- ABS brakes, side airbags: safety and security
- a V6 engine, a powerful electric motor: pride of place
- the latest version: new
- comfortable suspension, possibility of fitting all children: comfort, convenience
- Economical, low consumption: silver
- Pleasant to drive, which I find beautiful: sympathy
- With a low carbon footprint: ecology
I’d like to,
- A skin protection cream: safety
- A product that enhances my eyes: pride
- The latest collection: new
- A product that’s quick and easy to apply in the morning: convenience
- An economical cream: silver
- A pleasant cream to use: sympathy
Conclusion
A salesperson should never move on to the argumentation part of the sale before having completed his or her psychological discovery and determined the motivation of the other person. SONCAS can be combined with CAP, CAB and SOS sales techniques – in fact, it’s a prerequisite.
If you haven’t succeeded in determining the main motivation, then end your argument with three benefits corresponding to the three probable motivations, normally this should work.
Jean-Pierre Mercier