I'm not a big fan of salespeople, yet it's exactly what I enjoy doing. If I hate salespeople, how do you think ordinary everyday shoppers think of us. They hate us! Salespeople are rude, they ignore the customers, lying to make a sale can be a common practice and they rarely build a true relationship with you, which can make you feel used and confused.
There are a few great salespeople, though. Ones that make you feel like a million bucks, the salespeople you recommend to others and you have built a long relationship with, this is the type of professional I'm choosing to be, and also to help train as many professional as I can.
I'd like you to read some common mistakes that are made daily, and also hope you choose to improve and stop making those mistakes as soon as possible.
My favorite topic is dress code.
Why in the world is this such a difficult subject for most salespeople to understand? People spend extra time getting ready to go out on the town on weekends. They go out and buy expensive clothes to go dance and eat supper at weddings but if there is no dress code in the work place, many salespeople choose to look like they aren't even trying. You are the person that the customer sees before they make the buying decision, if you look like a customer and not a sales professional,do you think you will succeed in the sales game? You may do ok, yet chances of being the best will be slim. The customer is looking for a professional so why not look like one?
There is a simple and effective law in sales, dress one step up from your customers, look like you're trying. Don't argue with the law I didn't make it up. I can tell you, I've heard many salespeople in retail complain that customers walk right by them not even knowing that they are salespeople.
Remember how I said a silent customer is thinking they hate you, if they are presently judging you on the way your dressed (which they are) it begins their thinking process even before they have spoken to you. Please do yourself a favor and spend a little extra money and time getting ready for your customers. They make you money and the more money that is made the more money YOU MAKE. Simple law.
I could go on and on but it's time to move on..
Confidence and body language
I get the pleasure of working with another salesperson at my present job, which can make selling that much easier. The other salesperson can reinforce my points to the customer, if I'm having a difficult time with a prospect I can pass them on to my partner who can do a better job that I can. I can tell you selling with 2 people is a great way to sell. Although I've heard this complaint time and time again:
"They didn't believe anything I said and went right to you, it's because......."
To which I reply:
"It's because you didn't show any confidence"
When you stumble over your words, speak in a low tone of voice and your posture has you leaning on things, you are not taking control of the conversation, better stated the customer doesn't really care what your talking about.
Here are some basic rules:
Stand up straight, shoulders back take a deep breath and start speaking to your customer with confidence.
A simple way to build more confidence is to know the products your selling. There is no need to know EVERYTHING about the products, just some of the main points.
One thing I can't stress enough, is if you don't know an answer to a question, don't fake it. Saying "Uhm!" and "aahh!" really doesn't get your customer in the trusting mode.
I once observed someone lying that they used a product they were selling only to be cornered into a question that proved they were lying, guess what happened. The customer walked out, do you think the that salesperson looked like a pro, let me answer that one for you, no!
K.I.S.S
Keep it simple stupid, thats exactly what K.I.S.S stands for. At the time of this writing, I sell nutritional supplements, they can be extremely complicated when explained in the wrong way. When training anybody new to our industry I always use the K.I.S.S acronym. If you make things sound complicated, using words that are over the customers vocabulary, guess what, they are thinking how much they hate you. They are off in another world thinking exactly "when is this person going to shut up?", then once your done talking they have forgotten what they came in for in the first place and say "Let me think about it". That's exactly what they are doing, thinking "What was he talking about?".
Make things so simple a child can understand what your talking about. Everybody wants solutions to their problems, not a biology lesson.
Objections
For many years, I found myself arguing with customers objections, how do you think I looked to those customers? After figuring out that I didn't know everything, and learned to ask more questions as to why the consumer thought the way they did. I found out that asking polite questions was a much easier way to get people to buy. The more open ended questions are asked the more it gets the main reason why the person thinks what they think. Then it's much easier to persuade your customers to your way of thinking.
Simple law, everybody believes their way of thinking is the right way to think and everybody believes that the way they do things are the fastest and best way to do things.
If the customer already hates you, why would you argue with them when you can persuade them to your way of thinking.
There are so many things we can improve on daily, that we choose not too. It's understandable, we are comfortable with how we do things, it's our comfort zone. You can choose to stay in that comfort zone forever but I want you to get use to hearing:
"No! I don't need any help!"
Don't give anymore reasons to be hated by people that could be spending thousands of dollars with you over the next few years.
Stay motivated
Shane C
