Sales Tips and Techniques
Every sales associate can give you list of their personal favorite sales tips and techniques. But all sales representatives are always looking for new methods of selling their product. Here I list some you may or may not of heard of that I have had success with in the past.
1) Learn to qualify your customer.
If you learn to find out your customers willingness and of course ability to buy early in the sales presentation, you will be able to match them to a suitable product quickly and will vastly increase your chances of closing the sale.
You can qualify a customers willingness to purchase very easily using simple questions in your conversation. An example of such a question would be…
“So what is the occasion we are shopping for today? A birthday perhaps?”
Of course this type of question all depends on your type of product. You can create your own version of this, but the point is to find out if they are even shopping today or just browsing.
They may of course answer with the “Just looking” line.
But that is standard practice and is very easy to counter with lines such as,
“OK, welcome to our store. By the way, let me just show you this new product we had in today before you continue to browse”
This will open up the conversation with the customer and you can build from there.
If they out right refuse, then give them some space and observe what they do next.
If they wander from product to product with no pattern, then they most likely are just browsing and leave them to it unless they stay at an item for a period of time.
If they head straight to a product, then of course, let them settle then approach again.
Ability to purchase is also found in conversation by a question such as,
“So how is work going for you these days? Is business good? By the way what do you do?”
Most people will engage in this kind of small talk and give you an idea of what kind of job they have and if it is being financially good for them at the moment. From this you can work out what kind of income they have and if things are going well they are more likely to be comfortable with spending.
Again there are many variations of that question.
2) Always try to get a product into a customers hands.
Letting a customer handle and/or use your product will make it far more tangible than just pointing to it on a shelf or in a case.
Handling and using creates ownership.
Ownership leads to a buying mindset.
This sales technique also lets the customer experience the features and benefits of the item rather than just listen to you describe them. Let them handle and experience them as you describe.
3) If you are struggling to close the sale, turn over.
If your store allows “turn overs” and “split” sales. Use them!
Do not let a customer walk out just because you feel you can not close them or have not been able to form a good conversation with them.
Bring in another sales person and let them try.
Some people bond, some people do not.
That’s life.
You can bring another sales person in with a line such as.
“I’m going to ask John to show you this item. He is our resident expert on this product and he will show you features that will amaze you on this item.”
That is all it takes.
Remember. Half of something is better than all of nothing.
