Help the customer buy.
Did you know that you never sell anything? While the word sales or selling is used consistently, you don’t actually sell, it’s always the customer who buys. The customer has the end decision, always. The interaction with your customer is always about helping the customer buy.
With this in mind, a key skill in helping a customer buy is to recognise their buying signals. This could be any indication from the customer they are agreeing to the solution. You must listen carefully because sometimes the buying signal sounds like a rejection. There’s a big difference. Here’s an example:
You — “Do you like this in the blue?”
Customer — “Not really, I prefer it in the green.”
Some business owners mistakenly focus on the “not really” part of the response. They only hear the rejection and give up at that point. This response is not a rejection, it’s actually a buying signal. They’re giving you the cue they’re not interested in buying the blue one, but they’re ready to buy the green one.The correct response to the above interaction would be:
“Great! How would you like to pay for that?” or some other closing statement (see your list from Mistake 19).
Here are some other examples of buying signals which are often mistaken for rejections:
You — “I recommend we meet three times per week.”
Customer — “I can only commit to two days.”
You — “This item is going to be the best one to help you overcome the issue you mentioned. It’s $300”
Customer — “That sounds a bit expensive, my budget is only about $200.”
Today’s challenge is to listen more closely for the buying signals your customer is giving you. As soon as you get an agreement for all or part of the solution you’ve recommended, invite them to buy immediately!
If they let you know they’re not ready or not interested in buying your initial recommendation (this might sound like a rejection at first), listen carefully to what they’re telling you they are ready to buy and re-formulate your solution.