5 Reasons why customers don’t buy (and what you can do with it)

Have you been selling hard but no one is buying? You are not alone. 

And we have all been there. 

However, most entrepreneurs always make the same rookie mistakes that could be avoided. 

When no one is buying, they blame themselves for not selling harder.

Or even blame their product for not being good enough. 

And worse, blame other people.

But that is not the whole story.

When a customer doesn’t buy from you, there are a lot of reasons why you couldn’t close that sale.

And it’s not just how you sell or how good your product is.

So before you give up, you may need to try a different approach on how you bring your product to market.

Selling with the wrong person

Every entrepreneur wants to sell more. But what most do is try to sell to everyone. 

Because why not? 

Well, we all do think that our products are great and will be accepted by everyone. 

But in reality, that’s unlikely to happen. 

And the result will exhaust you which leads to wasted time and financial resources, and eventually be run out of business.

So before this happens, you need to stop selling to the wrong person.

And what you can do is target the right people, at the right time, and the right place.

Here’s an example.

Last year, I started selling vegetable chips. And I didn’t sell to just anyone. 

And because it’s vegetable, it won’t appeal to everyone’s tastebuds so I focus on selling to those who will be interested in my products.

I sold it to gyms, people with health-related illnesses, and health-conscious.

But why did I narrow my focus instead of selling to everyone? 

Here’s a simple answer.

No matter what you do, if you sell to the wrong person, they are never gonna buy. 

So it’s best to focus your efforts and resources on those that are most likely to buy.

They are not ready to buy

When you sell your products or services to a potential customer, and they don’t buy, we always assume that they don’t like it. And we move on and sell to another.  

But it’s not always the case.

If you are not aware of this, in sales, there is what we call a sales funnel.

A sales funnel is a marketing term for your customer’s buying journey.

Some customers decide to buy immediately, but most require nurturing that will eventually lead to a sale.

And these customers pass through different stages of the sales funnel. 

These stages are 1. Awareness, 2. Interest, 3. Decision, and 4. Action, also known as the AIDA model.

So if a potential customer decides to not buy your product, they may like the product and express high interest but are not ready to purchase yet.

In this case, they may not decide to buy because they don’t have the money yet, you are pitching to a person who doesn’t have the authority to make financial decisions, or they just don’t need your product or service at the moment.

So by understanding what a sales funnel is, you can carefully assess which stage of the funnel your customers are, so you can provide a personalized approach and continue to nurture them, so they will eventually buy from you.

And some software allows you to automate this whole process.

You are not selling well

In some cases, customers won’t buy simply because you are not selling well enough.

And no matter how great your product is, don’t expect that it will sell for itself. 

It’s your job to communicate and let people be aware of the problem, and that your product is the best solution. 

While there are different selling techniques out there, I suggest trying these 3 that work really well and will help you increase your sales.

1. Use incentives

Incentives are widely used in any industry. But most are not using it really well.

And are highly effective in influencing a person’s buying behavior.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you own a restaurant, and one evening a customer dines, pays their bill, thank you for the delicious meal, and leaves.

Then what happens next? 

Well, most likely you won’t see that same customer for a very very long time, not until they decide to eat at your restaurant again.

But the good news is that you can influence their behavior to eat sooner by giving them incentives.

And in this case, an example of an incentive to try is having a loyalty program or giving a voucher that says, 10% OFF on your next order (VALID UNTIL NEXT WEEK).

Now that’s a powerful incentive that will motivate them to eat sooner at your restaurant.

There are different types of incentives that you can try. And what works for others may not work in your case. 

So try experimenting with different incentives that will work for you and won’t eat your bottom line.

2. Focus on the benefits, not the features

In 2021, I tried selling a web design service in my hometown. 

So I made a nice-looking portfolio online that showcased my web design skills. 

Then when I was ready, I tried pitching my web design service to other companies. 

But after several pitches, I had a hard time getting a client. So I decided to give up my web design service and pivoted to something else.

And a few years later, I realized my biggest mistake.

I focused on selling to businesses how great the features of their website are gonna be, and not how it’s gonna help their business and achieve their goals.

Plus, the web design market was too small in my hometown at the time.

Anyways, here’s an example of my pitch before:

You will have a stunning website, ecommerce functionality, and a CDN that will load your site super fast and will be encrypted with SSL (most businesses really have no idea what I’m talking about, and don’t care at all).

And here’s how I could have pitched it today:

You will have a website that will help you increase your sales 10x in 6 months.

Simple as that.

So in this case with B2B (business to business), businesses don’t care what tools you use or how you do it. As long as you provide results, that’s good enough for them.

And this does that only apply to B2B, it works with B2C (business to consumer) as well.

3. Stop selling

While this may sound like a contrary to selling, please hear me out.

And you will thank me for this later.

What I’m about to share with you is a powerful technique that not only helps you make a lot of sales but also makes a customer loyal to your brand.

But keep in mind that this strategy won’t make you sell more immediately.

So it’s best to incorporate this as additional support to your existing marketing strategies, and not focus on this exclusively.

And this strategy is called content marketing.

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that doesn’t let you sell your products or services.

But rather focus on creating useful content and helping people solve their problems.

A great example of content marketing is blog posts. 

Now, you may be wondering what it has to do with selling.

Here’s why.

When you help someone, even if you are not asking for any return, those persons that you have helped tend to reciprocate, and they would like to help you in return also.

And this is known as the law of reciprocity.

So if you focus on helping other people, they will eventually help you in return by, supporting your brand, buying your products, and becoming brand ambassadors. 

No one likes your product

Your product may be great, but the problem is that there’s little to no demand. 

When this happens, and you still continue doing business without knowing that no one actually likes your product, then you will eventually waste a lot of your time and valuable resources.

So when starting a business,  it’s best to consider having an MVP (minimum viable product), where you can test the product with the least amount of features and continue to improve based on real customer feedback.

With your MVP, you will gain valuable insights into whether there’s enough demand for your products or services or not. 

And from there, you can make smart decisions by investing more in the business or pivoting to something else.

They don’t trust you

I remember a guy walked into our neighbor’s house with a grass cutter on his back and offered his grass-cutting services.  

And after a minute of negotiation, the guy leaves without having a deal.

Then I asked my neighbor who is also my friend why he didn’t accept the service.

And his response was, “I just couldn’t trust him”. And he continued explaining why.  

Then he said, “I just don’t know the guy. He told me that he is an expert in grass-cutting, but he has no proof. He is just a self-proclaimed expert. And you know the worst part? He might just steal something from our house “.

That’s when I knew how important building trust with your customers is.

You may have the best product and the most affordable one, but if no one trusts you, then your customers are unlikely to buy from you.

Things to consider when building trust are sharing your product reviews and testimonials. These may look simple, but effective ways to build trust.

In fact, according to research from Wyzowl, 9 out of 10 people trust what a customer says about a business more than what that business says about itself.

Final thoughts

Customers who don’t buy your products or services are a common problem when starting a business. 

But it doesn’t mean that there are no solutions to these yet.

Now that you have learned the 5 reasons why your customers don’t buy, implement the strategies that I have shared in this post, and see how they work for your business.

What do you think is the reason why your customers don’t buy? Let me know in the comments below.

Featured image credit: Inzmam Khan