Make it easy and extremely pleasant to deal with you
Be in no doubt that, to gain the very most sales, the whole transaction must be a smooth and pleasant journey for the customer. Even the payment process should be a great painless experience! Creating a pleasant customer experience will take the combined effort from the receptionist who takes the order, through to the sales staff, to the back room operations, all the way to the CEO.
- If a prospect finds it difficult or awkward to talk to you, that’s game over for the sale.
- If the sales person rubs the prospect up the wrong way, no money will be coming into the company from that customer.
- If a prospects gets a “6th sense” about some underlying problems in the company, she will sense it and not place an order with you.
- If a member of staff says something with even a tinge of a sarcastic tone of voice, then this will be transmitted to the customer.
If you do nothing else in this course, ensure you do this! What’s more, making the transaction smooth and hassle free makes the dreaded price objection seem much less valid too.
Be there ready to accept payment as soon as the customer is ready to buy
These days there are a large number of ways for you to be paid so it is inexcusable for you not to be on hand to accept at least 3 or 4 ways to take payment as soon as the customer wants to give you their hard earned money.
Yes, you should be there ready to take the payment within 2 seconds of them accepting the quote! You should want to reach into their pocket to help them withdraw their chequebook!
Do not give the prospect too long to stew on their decision … they may well talk themselves out of it! Being able to accept payments quickly and easily is very important especially if you have a difficult customer, or one that has spent ages choosing your services and then decides to proceed. Get your card machine out and get their money before they have the chance to change their mind!
Think like your customer
With everything you do it is so important that you think about your customer constantly and what they need or want from you. The more you get into the mind of your customer, the easier it will be to sell to them, because you will be able to match their wants and needs to the goods or services you sell a lot easier.
You need to be totally clear on who your target customer really is, so that you can learn to adapt your sales scripts to match the language they themselves would use. More on that later.
Be prepared for rejection
No one gets 100% of the quotes they go for, no matter how many closes they learn or objections they fight off. No matter why the prospect decides not to go forward at that time, do not take it personally and do not leave under a cloud, cursing and huffing and puffing. You must do everything you can to leave the door open so the customer can come back to you when she’s ready.
Create an enjoyable atmosphere
One of the most important elements in selling is to create an atmosphere where everyone is happy with the outcome. The prospect will never be happy to spend her money with you if you have not created an enjoyable atmosphere within which she is happy to part with her money!
What is an enjoyable atmosphere? Simply this … it is whatever the customer wants it to be.
You will quickly learn to gauge what it is a nice and pleasant atmosphere for any particular customer. If the customer is flamboyant then you can match that. If the customer is demure then you should respect that also. The atmosphere should be easy, relaxed, trusting and stress free without any sort of pressure being applied to the buyer from the seller.
The atmosphere should be one of mutual trust and acceptance of each others role in the agreement.
