The question is “Why the customer wants it in the first place.”

It’s a logical next step after greeting the customer to ask what the customer is looking for, it enables you to show to the customer what’s in your merchandise that matches her requirements. 

However is it not a desired scenario wherein you as a sales person know why the customer wants it in the first place? Would this additional information not empower you to directly address the concerns of the customer, show them the exact right thing and close the sale in a much shorter time and in a more efficient way as you can easily suggested a few add-ons.

Try to imagine the following two scenarios:

First Scenario - the customer walks in, greetings etc. and express that she wants to buy a lens for the camera, you show her many options such as wide lens zoom lens prime lens etc… after around 20 mins the customer is totally confused but you are lucky she really needs to buy so she just randomly chooses a cheaper standard lens and you have a sale.

Second Scenario – The customer walks in, greeting etc. and expresses that she wants to buy a lens for the camera, you reply to her asking a question: What kind or lens are you looking for as in what do you expect out of this lens, she replies that she needs it for usual photos such as selfie, portrait, landscape etc. basically the usual stuff. So probe further by asking do you have any occasion for which you need this, she replies yes my husband and I are going for a vacation to Paris. You reply back “wow so off to Paris it’s a lovely place, come let me show the perfect lens for you will need for this trip and you so her the lens that’s can serve her well and at the same time you recommend to her an add-on of a tripod and guess what she buys a high quality lens and the tripod. Bottom line since the sales person knew why the customer needed the lens, she was able to show her the right product and also sell an add-on in much lesser time and less effort.

Is it not an obvious to be related to the second scenario, wherein you so smart effort and make quick and bigger sales and that go through a lot of effort and have smaller chances of even selling or even completing the demonstration of the product without zoning out the customer.

The important point to note here is that once you apply the second scenario, you build trust in the customer the trust in build because you proved to be the expert that they were looking for, you recommended the right product which served them well, you cared for the customer’s requirement rather than just trying to transact. And it is due to this trust that the customer will prefer to come back to you again and again to shop for whatever she needs. It is because of this trust, she will refer you to her peers.

Remember customer predominantly buys from a place for 2 main reasons:

1. TRUST
2. Value

The customer must trust you and the store and must see value in your merchandise. It is your job as a sales person to build that trust and also it’s you job to make the customer see the value in what you sell.

In my next post, I will write much in detail about demonstration/presentation and will also cover trial close.

I hope you gained value out of the above and will appreciate if you leave your comment and share this post.

Until then happy selling.

Photo credit Vincent / Flickr