Sophisticated vs Unsophisticated Buyers

Why we need to understand this concept: 

We’ve been living in a world where we sell to all buyers the same. Same frame, same discovery, same pitch, same everything. 

However, we live in a world where all buyers aren’t the same. 

Buyers can be classified into two types predictably. Unsophisticated Buyers and Sophisticated Buyers. 

In order to have the highest enrollment percentage with each type, we need to sell to each of them differently. 

Each buyer has various levels of impulse control. What works for people that have no money, will not work for people that have money. 

Frame, Discovery, Challenging, Pitch, can and most of the time, will, be different. 

Definitions & Breakdowns of Each Buyer Type

Unsophisticated Buyer: 

• Typically someone of a lower economic class that has yet to make it successfully or financially. 
• They tend to buy a lot of programs with little successful ROI due to their own lack of commitment. As a result they tend to have lower funds than the latter buyer type. 
• Because of buying programs before and being unsuccessful, this buyer can be a little more hesitant due to lack of belief/confidence in their decision making. 
• An Unsophisticated Buyers is an unclear person. Their lack of sophistication is part in parcel with their lack of clarity. Because they are unclear, they haven’t had a lot of success, and because they haven’t had a lot of success, they don’t have enough exposure to be clear. It’s a cyclical problem they have. 
• For a Unsophisticated Buyer person, their basic needs are not met.
• The unsophisticated person doesn’t have clarity in their goals, don’t know why they want their goals, and don’t have actual plans to hit it.. Maybe they have a target, but they don’t have a real reason why and don’t have a plan. Or maybe they do have a plan and a target but haven’t been clearly following consistently through. 
• Doesn’t have greater trust in themselves because they don’t have the ability to map out and execute it. They don’t have the same level of execution and follow through
• Unsophisticated buyers get more emotional and are more likely to back out at the end of the call because they can’t handle their emotions and make a big leap of faith. They can, but they need some help. 
• Low impulse control. 

Sophisticated Buyer: 

• Typically someone with a higher economic class. This buyer has been successful in business avenues before and is usually more stable financially. 
• They tend to buy fewer programs as they are more calculated in their decision making, they buy less but when they do buy it’s a great purchase. Usually, they have been able to get a ROI from said programs. 
• Because of buying programs before and being successful, they have more confidence and belief in their decision making. 
• For a sophisticated person, their basic needs are met.
• Sophisticated buyers have clarity in their goals. They know why they want their goals. And they have actual plans to do it. 
• Has greater trust in themselves because they have the ability to map out and execute it. 
• Sophisticated buyers aren’t as emotional. Just need it to make sense.
• High impulse control. 

Indicators of Buyer Sophistication

First off, the offer you are selling will have a lot of telling to do regarding the type of buyer you will get. 

For example, my first high ticket coaching program was an offer to help Agencies Scale and fire themselves from the day in and day out to begin with. A common motto was, ‘Help you scale from 6 to 7 Figures while firing yourself in the process.’ 

For obvious reasons, this offer attracted a more sophisticated market. 

Someone who is already at 6 Figures mapped out a plan and successfully executed it. They are successfully running a business that is doing fairly well and have basic needs met as far as revenue. Now they are more focused on higher level thinking, firing themselves from day in to day out, becoming a business owner instead of a glorified freelancer. 

Now let’s look at the reverse. If you were to sell an offer that helps Agencies Start, you’d be attracting someone who is not financially successful, probably at their 9-5, not happy with life, and needing a drastic change. AKA a more unsophisticated buyer. 

Each buyer will be on the spectrum regarding their buyer sophistication. 

How to Sell to Each Differently

Unsophisticated Buyer:

The key takeaway with an unsophisticated  buyer is to sell more on emotion than logic. 

The thing with them, is we need to understand the massive pain they are experiencing to lead them into the promised land. 

For Unsophisticated Buyers, they are normally not meeting their own needs. There is something where their needs aren’t being met, whether it’s their bills are stacking up, in debt, can’t help their wife quit her job, have a baby and can’t afford it, living with parents, sick parents, anything where needs aren’t being met.

More challenging their identity and model of the world tied with leadership will be required with these buyers. They NEED TO BE HAND HELD AND LED. 

They clearly haven’t been able to lead themselves and will need you to lead them. 

A lot of time, Unsophisticated Buyers come down to motivation. Find the why. Since these buyers have hopped on a lot of calls before, they can be more hesitant to opening up, and you will need to dig.  

Example:

“Okay you want to get to 25k a month. What’s stopping you from doing that on your own?”

I don’t know what I need to be doing to get there, which is why I’m on the call with you. 

“You don’t know what you need to be doing?”

Yeah I don’t know what’s really stopping me from getting to that 25k per month. 

“Okay, you don’t know what you don’t know is what it sounds like.”

Yeah

“Well, so I guess one question, because I need to understand mentally as sometimes it’s your own mind that can be getting in the way, so I just want to understand the 25k per month number. What’s the motivation to get to the 25k a month number?”

Yeah I can just do whatever I want, travel, live in a nice place, just do whatever I want.

“Yeah, and you never have to worry about money again, are you worrying about money right now?”

            Yeah, I’m not in the most lucrative spot where I can scream from the top of the mountain how well I’m doing. 

            “Not in the most lucrative spot, what does that mean?”

It means I’m not where I want to be financially. 

“Is there something specific that you can’t do that you wish you could do?”

Sophisticated Buyer:

The key takeaway with a sophisticated buyer is to sell more on logic than emotion. 

If you go into deep level of emotional pains of where they are, you will usually lose rapport as they know their why and don’t need you to pull it out of them. It will come off salesy to them. 

These buyers have a high sales IQ, and trying to use more common sales tactics will spin a huge red flag with them.  

The pains of sophisticated buyers aren't usually based on where they are, it is to increase the gap or timeline of their goals. 

Or Increase the vision of self. 

Example:

“Dude you are trying to get to 100k a month and you have a 200k business here and don’t even know it.” 

Tip: To increase the gap, you can double the revenue or cut the timeline in half. The key is to make sure it’s believable for them. 

IMPORTANT: Emotion will be tied to both buys. But there will need to be more logic and mental models in a sophisticated buyer sale than an unsophisticated buyer sale.