Great Sales Experience Leads to Purchase
One of the biggest problems I find with people in sales is that they don't truly listen to what you are telling them. They ask a question or two and then make a quick "diagnosis" of your need. This was never more apparent to me than last month when my wife and I were shopping for a digital camera and a new camcorder. We did our research, set a budget and headed out on a busy Saturday to look at our options. Interestingly, our experiences were completely different because of how the salespeople interacted with us.
Don't go for the big sale first
The first store was a well-known chain appliance store with a long history of great service. We thought that this would be the right place to start. This is a store that pays its employees a commission on sales. We walked through a group of 5 salespeople in the electronics section and not one of them acknowledged us or asked if we needed help...not a good start. We found the camcorders on display and after a few minutes were asked if we needed help. We explained that we were looking for a camcorder and a digital camera because we are going to have our first baby in January. After describing the features we were looking for, the use and our general budget, the young salesman led us to a mid-range camcorder. Then, as if he didn't hear a word about our budget, he went straight to the highest-priced model. After a two minute sales pitch on how wonderful this very expensive and out of our league camera was, he asked..."Whadda ya think guys?" My reply as I turned to my wife, "I think we will go somewhere else" and we walked out. It was obvious he was going to go for the big sale first and then would work his way down to get the highest price possible. No thanks!
Focus on the customer
Our next stop was another large electronics chain store. All of the salespeople were helping people, but two took the time to let us know that they would be right with us. This store doesn't use commission based pay, but we felt our business was very important to their people. After only a couple of minutes, a nice saleslady offered help. Given the same information as the first store and after asking several info-gathering questions, she pointed us towards 2 mid-range cameras. Then as if we were the only customers in the store, she broke down each camera model by feature and the differences. She spoke clearly and answered each of our questions with thought. She was exceptional! After 30 minutes, we had our digital camera, our camcorder, and all the necessary extras. We spent over our budget, but we felt as though we weren't being oversold. She even made sure to ask questions about the baby during the process, which built trust and acceptance with my wife. What a fantastic experience!
Does the offer match the needs?
Each store had an equal chance of selling us the cameras, but the second salesperson did things the right way. By asking strong questions, showing us that we were important, and offering all options that met our needs—the second store got our business. We will now take all of our business there for our electronic needs and refer our friends and family.
How is your team "selling" your firm's services? Do your customers feel important? Are the right questions being asked? Does the offer match the needs? When your firm is having trouble building new business, take a look at how new customers are being "sold" to and make sure that is how you would want someone to do business with you.