This is the beginning of the buyer's cycle. It happens in almost every sale and unless you are aware of the four steps, you will allow the buyer to proceed unimpeded through the steps. So what are the four steps of the buyer's cycle? Read on.

1. Lie. The first step in the buyer's cycle is to lie. In most industries, the lie is usually told like this: “We would love to talk to you about your company, we've heard great things and want you to give us a quote.” You hear this lie and think, “I got this one.” So you pack up your laptop, get in your salesmobile and head to your prospect's office. In the first appointment, there is a lot of mutual mystification where both buyers and sellers pound their chests and speak to the quality of all operations, service standards, sales and payroll figures of their companies. At the end of the meeting, you, the producer, walk out thinking first, “They like me,” and second, “I've got this one.”
2. Steal. Let's think about the second meeting with prospects. You enter the office and the first thing you do is pull out a proposal. For the next hour, you review the prospect's current coverage, but then say, “Wait…let me show you some enhancements that would make your program better. Oh, and look, your current vendor failed to include option C, X, and Z? Wow! Aren't you glad you didn't have that problem!” As the prospects listen, they smile; they have not had this type of free consulting for years. The prospects ask many questions, make notes and steal as much free knowledge as possible. You're only happy to provide the data needed because “They like me!”
3. More lies. The third step of the buyer's cycle occurs at the end of this proposal meeting when the prospects say, “This looks great, we like you, we've never had a better presentation!” They also say that there are a few other people in the decision-making process and that they will all have a meeting to review. They are pretty sure they will go that way but need to do a little comparison with their current program first. The last thing they say is, “We'll call you on Friday and give you the good news.” Thus the third step in the cycle is yet another lie.
4. Hide. The fourth and final step in the buyer's cycle is the “hide” stage. The call on Friday never comes; as you toil for the next few days, you wonder what happened and so you begin calling the prospect. Suddenly the prospects are no longer available, but you have unlimited access to their voice mail. They now are in a meeting every time you stop by. Eventually they disappear from the face of the earth.

To summarize, the buyer's cycle is as follows: lie, steal, lie, hide. But why is this the case? Well, if you think about our first example of the retail store, all buyers are conditioned to react in this way. It's more of a self-defense move than an actual desire to lie. But again, using the retail store example, is there a way for you to break the cycle? What if you simply asked, “Is this the first time in our store?” The prospect's response of just looking no longer works and they would be forced to start a conversation, albeit small, that could lead to the reason customers are in the store. The point here is that as you begin to understand each stage of the buyer's cycle there are things you can do to interrupt each stage.