One key way to sell more is to understand the buying mode of the decision maker and then catalog it in an iPad app such as FatStax. This app integrates with Salesforce, to provide the right information on that call.

Here are the three main buying modes:

1. Status Quo: The buyer is happy with what they currently use and sees no reason to change. The odds of this prospect becoming your customer in the next few months is pretty much zero.

2. Searching for Alternatives: This person is unhappy with what they have, is already talking to multiple suppliers, and probably already has a favorite. Research conducted by Aberdeen shows that when you reach decision makers during this buying mode, your average close ratio will be 16%. I’ve heard of research conducted by Xerox in 1967 that showed the exact same win rate. My take away from this is that this win rate has not changed in almost 50 years.

3. Window of Dissatisfaction™: Between the two commonly known buying modes lies the most important one. Here the buyer knows the Status Quo is no longer sufficient, BUT they have not had the time to do anything about it yet. Research released by Forrester earlier this year showed that when you reach decision makers in this buying mode and help set their buying vision your odds of winning the sale are 74% - jump to the 7:00 mark to get straight to the research results.

You are 5x more likely to win the business by reaching decision makers who are in the Window of Dissatisfaction before your competition.

Those in the Window of Dissatisfaction are the best opportunities because they have not yet started talking to any of your competitors. This means that you get to define the problem, design the solution, and start developing a relationship before the competition even knows there is an opportunity.

This is especially important if you have a complex sale or longer sales cycles because as McKinsey says you need to be part of the initial consideration set.

While decision makers might have lots of information available to them through the Internet, they are often too busy to do anything about it until some event triggers them into action. This trigger event can be a visit by a salesperson.

It is critical to provide the information right away not once you get back to your office or your hotel. Your call puts this issue on a decision makers' to-do list and turns on their selective perception.

By providing the right information you turn off selective perception so buyers stop noticing all the other ways to solve the problem.

So, the next time you visit a prospect who says “I’m thinking of doing something about that, lets’ talk again in three or four months,” recognize that they are in the Window of Dissatisfaction and now is the best time to get out your iPad and to show and email them all the relevant information (demo videos, case studies, white papers, testimonials, etc.) in a single email.

What is the most relevant information to share during each of the buying modes discussed above?

Note: This is the first in a series of blog posts on the top seven ways to harness the power of mobile technologies to sell more. I’ll be doing this David Letterman style - starting with #7 and then working my way up to #1.

Each post will be published the first Friday of every month at 5:00 PM Eastern – so my next blog post will be published at 5:00 PM on Friday October 4th.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling and the chief catalyst @ Shift Selling, Inc. He writes about sales for salesfoce.com, insidessales.com, Canada’s national newspaper the Globe and Mail and has 12,000+ subscribers to his blog.

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