“It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right”
Think: What are the different stages in a sales situation? Have you noticed them while you have been purchasing consumer goods?
The sales dialogue is one of the key skills for a sales person. It doesn’t matter if you are selling products or services, you have to have selling skills. Selling skills make a customer servant a sales person. Selling can be divided into four different stages.
11.6.1 Contact Stage
Selling starts at the moment you approach the customer. The step in which the customer and you first communicate in the sales process is known as the contact stage.
Welcoming the customer with a positive attitude and a smile and approaching him in a warm, polite, and sincere manner is important. The contact stage should show your sincere willingness to assist the customer. The scene observed by the customer when first stepping into the store influences the customer either positively or negatively.
In the contact stage, the sales person should be dynamic: he should welcome and approach the customer. The first impression will cause a positive or negative impact in the customer. If you are working in a store environment, the first principle is to welcome the customer. A customer who is noticed is more willing to wait. If a customer arrives while you are serving another customer, try to establish eye contact with the new-comer without leaving the customer you are serving. This behavior gives him the message: “I have noticed you and I am here to serve you”
A smiling, customer-oriented, and interested welcome is one of the most important steps for the positive conclusion of the sales process. The customer’s first impression of your store and yourself is created at this stage. When meeting the customer for the first time, the salesperson has to create a positive first impression. The salesperson always has to evaluate the communication in service situations: are first name-terms okay or not? Can he use spoken language or literary language? Should he use informal or formal style?
Tips: How to avoid a NO for an answer:
· You should say: “How can I help you?” instead of “May I help you?"
· “Hello! Please, tell me if I can be of assistance. I’ll be glad to help you.”
11.6.2 Needs stage
The basic ways to understand the needs of the customer are: to know the motive for buying, to get the customer talk by asking open questions, to understand the customer by carefully listening, and to find out the nature of the customer’s needs. This way a sales person can find out several things: what buying motives play important roles for the customer, what items will be interesting for the customer, what additional items the customer requires in order to use the main item he wanted, and what supplementary items can increase the value or improve the appearance of the main item.
A sales person should gather enough information about the customer and his requirements for the product or service, in order to give an offer that matches his needs. A sales person has to create a conversational atmosphere, where the customer trusts his technical and personal competencies. A sales person can achieve this by giving the customer full attention immediately, by asking the right questions, by listening actively, and by answering the customer’s questions.
When customers do not have a clear idea of what they want and what options there are available, the sales person has to help. It is his job to understand what the customer really is looking for and what product he can offer. The sales person has to motivate the customer to think about his needs and he can do so by asking open questions about: demands and expectations about the product and the intended areas of usage. By answering open questions, the customers grow aware of their own motives. The desire to own the product is reinforced. The customers are then often willing to pay more for the product.
The customer's purchasing motives provide the sales person with important clues to what sales arguments to use in the offer stage and what to emphasize. The customer’s needs should be understood without asking them cliché questions. Open-ended questions may provide answers that offer information about the customer.
One of the most important principles of determining the customer’s needs and finalizing the sales process is to efficiently listen to the customers. Remember to wait until the customer finishes his talk. Establish eye contact and listen carefully to everything expressed. Let the customer feel that your attention is with him throughout the conversation. Confirm what the customer says; always ask for an explanation for anything you do not understand clearly. Listen carefully and encourage customers to talk about their wishes and thoughts in connection with the planned purchase. This way you make the customer feel that you are friendly and competent.
Tips for open ended questions:
· What does ... mean to you?
· How important is ... for you?
· What should ... match?
· What occasions were you thinking of ...?
· What do you expect from ...?
Tips for listening:
· Turn your face to the customer
· Keep eye contact
· Emphasize your questions with gestures
· The needs stage can end once you know what expectations your customers have about the product, and what purchasing motives they have
· Summarize customer´s answers and lead in to the proposal stage
11.6.3 Proposal stage
Now you have the opportunity to talk about the goods, and help customers make a decision. There is an easy rule to help determine how much information to give a customer when presenting goods: As much as necessary, as little as possible. Your customer can retain no more than 5 to 9 pieces of information at once. This only happens when you keep them curious and keep them interested. One piece of information can correspond for example to one sales argument.
The selection of goods that you display to the customer generally should consist of no more than three items. The customer has no longer a clear overview if you display too many items. If you display too few, the customer can get the impression that you are not interested in selling. The other option is that the customer thinks that the shop does not carry a wide range of goods.
Any potential questions and objections of the customer should be predicted and prepared for during the proposal stage. Pay attention to your body language throughout the conversation. The customer should be given the opportunity to talk and ask questions during this stage. You should know that the answer “no” by the customer may sometimes mean “may be”. You should take it also into consideration that sometimes a third person may be present during the conversation and that they might be influential when making buying decisions. Prepare yourself for negative reactions and think about ways how to transform them into opportunities. But remember: principles of courtesy and protocol should be observed. Pay also attention to the time used. The customer should feel that his precious time is being taken to consideration.
To keep your customer interested, you should only mention the features and qualities that are relevant to the customer’s motives for buying. On the basis of the relevant features and properties, you can formulate advantages, and link these with the benefits to the customer.
The benefits of the product should be conveyed in concrete and comprehensible phrases, in which you connect the feature or advantage with the benefit to the customer using “you” plus a verb. Then ask a tag question to check that the argument you have mentioned is actually important to the customer. The price of the items you select should depend on whether the customer has already mentioned a suggested price.
Everything a customer does to prevent or delay the closure of the sales is known as sales objections or resistances. Objections constitute a natural part of this stage and should be seen as an opportunity by the salesperson. If the customer objects, he does not necessarily mean he is not interested in the product. This indicates that you have a chance to sell.
But there are some objections that you can´t rebut. These are objections that have an emotional foundation. With emotionally founded objections, you have to offer alternatives to the customer.
Tips: Features which should be presented in the proposal stage:
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Appearance/design
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Material
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Applications/usage
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Care and treatment
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Additional items
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Supplementary items
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Ecological factors
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Financial factors
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Related services
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Unique aspects
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Alternative/replacement
items
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Guarantee
11.6.4 Closing stage
The most difficult and exciting part of sales activities is the stage where the selling process is finalized or closed. There are two techniques to make your customer even more satisfied and, at the same time, increase your revenue. They are called up-selling and cross-selling. When you order a hamburger, the question by the sales person, “Would you like French fries with your hamburger?” would be an example for cross-selling, while the question “Would you like a larger option with 1 € difference?” would be an example for up-selling.
11.6.41 Saying "Goodbye" to the customer
You should say goodbye to customers as they are welcomed: with a warm, sincere, smiling, and friendly attitude. You should make sure that your customer leaves the store with a positive feeling, even if he has not purchased anything, in order to make him come back. You can use expressions such as: “Enjoy it, Goodbye, Have a good day, Hope to see you again.” You can also address them by their name. You should avoid using informal expressions.
Tips: Features of a good salesperson:
· skills to communicate with people
· understanding his own feelings and reactions
Case: Improve closing skills in selling
Alex likes to talk to his customers. It happens very often that people just come to his shop and chat with him without buying anything. Alex is worried about his income. What should he do in order to improve his selling skills?