How Women Make Buying Decisions

 
I was reading an article about what men love about women, and came across an interesting point.

The article is written from a man's point of view by author Aaron Traister.  He shares this story about how women solve problems, vs. how men solve problems. 

We love how you solve problems.
The rabbi describes the way his wife tackles obstacles as full of drama: She rages, she cries, she internalizes everything. Her system of problem-solving takes a long time and involves making everything personal and leading with her emotions in a quest to see how she would feel about each possible solution. It is apparently a very stressful process. In contrast, the rabbi's problem-solving method is to just try to find the fastest fix. When I asked him why he preferred his wife's method, he said it was because "her decisions always end up being the right ones, whereas mine always end up being the quick ones."

Interesting point of view.    While I don't agree completely with his word choices, there is a note of truth to what he says.  It has to do with the  brain differences between men and women and how it affects how each of us makes decisions, including buying decisions.

Brain differences between men and women

Science has proved that men and women have different brains.  This article talks about the differences: 

In 2001, researchers from Harvard found that certain parts of the brain were differently sized in males and females, which may help balance out the overall size difference. The study found that parts of the frontal lobe, responsible for problem-solving and decision-making, and the limbic cortex, responsible for regulating emotions, were larger in women.

Hmmm.....so let's look at what our What Men Love About Women rabbi story said:

Her system of problem-solving takes a long time and involves making everything personal and leading with her emotions in a quest to see how she would feel about each possible solution.

Women have larger areas of their frontal lobe, responsible for problem-solving  and decision-making.   They are indeed  planning ahead, visualizing multiple solutions and using that female brain processing to put more time and effort into a decision or problem solving process.   (aka, taking a long time)

We also see that the limbic cortex, responsible for regulating emotion, is larger in women.  Women have more connections to the emotional centers of their brain.  They tap into that emotional center when making decisions (aka, leading with their emotions).

What's interesting to me is, while the language used to describe a woman's problem solving process is often negative, the end conclusion is, "her decisions always end up being the right ones."

Be aware of a woman's buying process when you are selling to her

Understanding a woman's buying process is crucial when you are in a sales situation. 

1. Give her enough time - if a woman says "she needs to think about it," she is not saying no. Women complain that men move in too soon for the close.  If she's not ready to buy, ask her "do you have any questions or concerns I haven't addressed?" to see if she is missing crucial information, then let her go do her processing and set up another appointment.  She will appreciate this!
2. Make an emotional connection-  Ask her questions, find out everything you can about her situation, her concerns, the people her decision will affect.  By asking questions and really listening to her answers, you are building trust - the most important emotion in a sale to a woman.

By understanding the differences between how men and women make buying decisions you can accommodate each gender's preferences - aka, sell more stuff.

What about your sales situations?  Have you seen examples of differences in how men and women buy from you?

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Phil Wrzesinski]

I have seen it in my own household. My wife frets and stews over every purchase no matter how big or small. I go for the easiest, simplest solution possible. My wife will visit six or seven stores weighing every possible situation to make sure the purchase is perfect. I'll go to the store of my choice and make do with whatever they have. Yeah, I can relate to both his and your points.

[AdWomen]

Hi Holly,
Interesting post. Do you know Mark Gungor? He explain very well the differences between the brains of woman and man. This is the video, it's very funny http://bit.ly/1QQbkQ

[web development services]

Quite an interesting post.That too a man's perception.Read the points very well and i must say that i could relate with some that was mentioned over here.People in sales profession ought to read this post.They'll get valuable tips about selling to a woman.Thanks.

[Holly Buchanan]

I love Mark Gungor's stuff - he cracks me up.

[Richandcom]

Great to have more discussion of brain topics since - by definition - the brain drives all behavior.

Let us suggest some corrections that we find find important for marketing and understanding behavior. There is too much to go into a long comment and we post on some of this in our blog: http://bizbrain.tumblr.com.

The basics:

- It's probably incorrect to characterize the frontal lobes as "...responsible for problem-solving and decision-making...". In fact, it appears that behavior is driven by the brain-stem and mid-brain regions in milliseconds, unconsciously and impulsively and reactively. Consciousness and will power appear to have little, if any, influence on behavior. "consciousness is not casual." This, of course, seems absurd since it "feels" strongly like we do. Just like it used to "feel" like the earth was the center of the universe. etc.

For example, so called "executive function" often is mainly a pop construct. For professional marketers, it's best to be skeptical of brain information and ideas in the popular media. Good headlines - weak science.

- The limbic cortex does have influences on behavior but brain-stem and deep, very "old" structures seem the main causes.

These points are actually critical for marketers since it predicts, accurately, that self-reports can be very poor predictors of, and in fact counter to, real-world behavior.

In our client work, it has pointed us to deeper, brain-stem processes for our "investments." This is also why businesses serving addictions, coffee/booze/fast-food/nicotine/drugs/etc, as so reliable and profitable.

Note: The brain knowledge is changing daily and we are not scientists, but our general understandings are primary research-based heuristics. Equally important, we find they work. There are also immense individual differences.

[website designers southampton]

I go for the easiest, simplest solution possible. My wife will visit six or seven stores weighing every possible situation to make sure the purchase is perfect. I haven't addressed?" to see if she is missing crucial information, then let her go do her processing and set up another appointment.

[Dhalvorsonbush]

Women have great intuition. Most men would rather women make most decisions anyway at home. That is why they want to make all of them at work.

[Web design Jaipur]

These points are actually critical for marketers since it predicts, accurately, that self-reports can be very poor predictors of, and in fact counter to, real-world behavior.

[4rx]

Well usually i let my wife to make the accounts and stuff like that because she better on that than me, and she really seems to enjoy, when i meet her a few years ago she never work in administration but know she's working in one HP offices as administrator and she never make studies or something related, she's just good at it.

[Adidas Running Shoes]

This is excatly what I was looking for. But I really didnot wish to let him stay alone at home because he is just too cute and sweet. Now we can plan ourweekend accordingly where he may also enjoy.

[Dinos]

they live somewhere in the United States. I searttd looking at profiles in my local area only and what I found was that many of them appear to be bogus. That is the English isn't good enough to be a native speaker. And certain sentence structures common to Russian are being used. Has anyone else noticed this? It's really disappointing because a few years ago when I used Online Dating I had a lot of success and actually met some cool people from around the world. But now these sites are swarmed with impostors and my guess is they are looking for love connections only to solicit money later on. What do you think? Have you noticed the same thing? What do you think should be done about it? What have you done about it?

[Araceli]

I know about what you are talking. I was ctenacotd by russian girl thru online dating and she was beautiful and we hit it on from there. i chatted her for about a month and suddenly she stopped replying to my mails for about two months.After two months she replied with an emotional mail stating her grand mothers health. how the thiefs entered her house and hurt her and she was in hospital and needed surgery and money for that and asked for my donation. and i knew where it was going.

[Eric]

Meeting Russian Women Online?Hello all,I am a divorcee who has done some rediang on Russian Women and relationships with American men. I'm not interested in paying some outsourcing agency money to find a Russian woman that I am compatible with.Anyone have any ideas how I can contact these ladies on my own?BTW. I am signed up with a couple of the more popular online dating services.As always, any help/guidance is greatly appreciated!!!All my best,RonnieB

[Willi]

Well, to my mind all of this is a problem to the exentt to which fancy-dress parties are a problem and I'm not the only one who sees balls as a retrograde, politically conservative custom which entrenches a Bourdieuian habitus of the wealthy and privileged, and their pretty girls, etc. But you can't have one and not the other and this is where talking about tradition' as opposed to principle is unhelpful.On the other hand, getting involved and voting for change' is not, in itself, self-reflexive cultural analysis, is it? It's action I mean, I understand your point, but there is a difference between managing a facility and reflecting on a philosophical principle. I mean, how do you propose one to go about introducing mixed-sex nude saunas into these public facilities?

[Moh]

Imagine if we could Imagine if we could plastically plug into bniras on life support, to experience the knowledge and experiences of elders who came before us.Imagine if we could develop hypersensitive neurons that picked up the electrical charges of someone else's neurons in effect, reading the mind of someone else.Imagine a neuron garden.Imaging parasites that ate away the goo on the synapses between neurons which speeds up thought processes.