Thursday, June 10, 2010

Top Ten Things Every Great Sales Person Knows

1. Smile. It starts before you greet your customer. Everyone loves a smiling face. Give your customers your best smile and watch what happens. More often than not they will give you a smile in return.

2. Know Your Product. How much do you know about your product line? Are you prepared to compare and contrast your varying products if you sell multiple lines and varieties of items? Can you point out advantages and benefits? Prepare, prepare, prepare!

3. Listen to your customer. Listening skills are critical in the sales process. Your customers will give you all kinds of clues as to exactly what they are seeking and it is your job to listen to what is being said especially to what is said between the lines. When selling mattresses I had to listen between the words for the exact product my customers were seeking. It is a good idea to repeat back to your customer, using their own words, the exact words you heard them use.

4. Use Eye Contact. Appropriate eye contact is critical in selling face to face. If you are serving more than one person, be sure to look each person in the eye at some point during the transaction.

5. Remember their names and say them correctly. Everyone loves the sound of his or her own name. When you remember your customer’s name you just paid them a high compliment. When I encounter an unusual name that is not familiar to me, I’ll often write it down and spell it phonetically so that I can say it back to my customer correctly. Use their name. A person’s name is their most important possession.

6. Know your systems. How well do you know your company policies? What is your return policy? Can you smoothly and quickly process an exchange or refund for a customer? Can you perform a simple ink cartridge change on the credit card machine? Knowing your systems, your computer, and your company policy are some of the most important skills you can develop as a sales person. You efficiency in these areas is just as critical as your ability to ask for and close the sale.

7. Let the customer engage with the products. When you can get a customer touching an item or holding a pair of shoes, your success in selling that product just increased. I watched this happen countless times when I served as a department manager for a large music store in South Carolina. Every time I could put something as simple as a CD into my customer’s hands they would more often than not walk out of our store with that purchase. When I sold choir robes, it was important for the customer to feel the quality of the fabric as I explained the differences in the materials we were comparing. We love to touch and feel. Use it to your advantage in selling.

8. Watch for buying signals. Common buying signals are: tugging on one’s ear, asking about price, asking about delivery, asking about technical data, reviewing facts about the product you covered earlier, asking about warranty, sometimes a quickening of the pulse or a small bead of perspiration on the upper lip, asking how long this price is honored, and more. The secret to successfully closing the sale when you start sensing buying signals is it stop talking, answer only the questions being asked, and otherwise keep your mouth shut. Don’t talk yourself out of a sale.

9. Ask for the sale. There are dozens of books on the market today that offer great tips on closing sales and they all offer their own hot list of closing techniques.

10. Confirm the order, review the receipt and give them your heartiest appreciation for the purchase and for their trust in you.

Good luck and remember, every person you meet is wearing an invisible sign around their neck that says, “MAKE ME FEEL IMPORTANT!”

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