Do you know how may sales you lose from customers who almost buy from you? Losing “almost customers” is a major source of lost income for most businesses. But few are aware of the problem and even fewer employ a strategy to prevent this unnecessary loss of income.

Here are the 3 major buying obstacles that cause paying customers to become “almost customers,” and how you can easily overcome each obstacle.

Procrastination

Many prospective customers procrastinate after they decide to buy from you. The benefit they gain from using your product or service fades in their memory as time passes. Other things distract them and they soon forget about you. Procrastination converts your paying customer into another “almost customer,” causing you to lose the sale.

You can avoid losing these sales by rewarding customers for taking immediate action and penalizing them if they do not. For example, create the most irresistible offer you can afford. Include a specific expiration date. Give your prospects the option of accepting your offer now or forfeiting it. This will motivate many procrastinators to buy now so they don’t miss your special offer.

Low priority

Some prospective customers don’t buy from you because they place a higher priority on spending their money for something else. You can save many of these “almost customers” by motivating them to make your product or service their first priority.

One way to boost the priority level of your product or service in your prospective customer’s mind is to dramatize the good feeling they will enjoy when they use it. For example, a financial planner can describe what it feels like to enjoy an affluent lifestyle without debt. Or a network marketing recruiter can describe what it feels like to work at home without a boss.

The irresistible offer I described above for overcoming procrastination also helps overcome the “low priority” obstacle. It motivates many “almost customers” to move your product or service ahead of other purchases so they can take advantage of your special offer before it expires.

Distrust

Many prospects are “almost customers” because they are skeptical of your promises. They bought things in the past that did not produce the promised results. They don’t want to risk repeating that experience. Some ways you can overcome the obstacle of distrust include:

•  Eliminate their risk of loss. Offer an unconditional money back guarantee if your customer does not get the results he or she expects.
• Prove your record of delivering what you promise. Provide testimonials from satisfied customers as evidence you lived up to your promises in the past.
• Provide your customers with direct access to you in person or by phone if they have a problem. Prospective customers feel secure and are more likely to buy when they know they can talk with a real person.

Tip: Direct access to a real person is especially effective for overcoming distrust when marketing on the Internet where entire transactions can occur without any personal contact. Many online sales are lost to distrust because a web site does not provide the name of any real person or a phone number to reach a real person at the business.

You probably lose more income than you realize from customers who almost buy from you. The 3 major buying obstacles of procrastination, low priority and distrust cause you to lose these sales. Apply the tactics revealed in this article to overcome these 3 obstacles and convert your “almost customers” into profitable paying customers.