How Convincing Are You To Make Sizeable Sales?
The most successful sales person is the most convincing salesperson. How can an average person do this? How do you close a sale within minutes or even seconds? Will learning different sales closes do it? What about going to sales seminars, or learning communication skills, body language and personality types? Will learning all these make you more convincing? Some people in this company I know of went to an important sales seminar to see one of the top leaders in that field, and also watched tapes on learning sales skills. When they were finished, I saw no significant changes in their skill level.
There is a vast difference between listening to a lecture and putting them into practice by applying the truths it contains. The reason these people did not accomplish noticeable changes is that it still boils down to the hard fact that only a small percentage of sales people do the greatest percentage of sales. What I am saying here is that you have to position yourself into that small percentage category doing the greatest percentage of sales. All the outside help you can get is good, but unfortunately the amount of retention from seminars and tapes is very little. Most people retain ten percent to twenty five percent of what they see and hear.
How can you become a convincing sales person? When you work with people you have to become childlike. A remarkable child blossoms and unfolds like a wonderful flower without any intention to publicize its evolving scent, innocent of his own excellence. The child’s mind is a mind with a heart and is by nature sincere, pure, open, honest, spontaneous, eager and frank; a child is also forgiving and expresses sweetness, laughter, calmness and humbleness with love and trust. A childlike person automatically expresses these qualities and becomes enthusiastic without the ignorance of a child.
Unfortunately, the man who does not develop the qualities mentioned above will be continually plagued with fear, worry, selfishness and suspicion and this will rob him of his peace and will cause him nothing but unhappiness. As there may be many different kinds of sales closes being taught by the pundits, you do not have to try to memorize all of them for success. What you do have to memorize is your product knowledge. Mix that with the qualities of an eager child and you are then on your way in becoming one of the 10 percent of people that do 90 percent of the sales in all companies.
In other words, a childlike person approaches customers without using manipulative techniques. Let us use this as an example, a child asks a pal, “would you like to play with me?” And the pal answers, “yeah, I’d like to.” The child who asked the question got an immediate response to whether his friend was interested in playing with him or not. Likewise, you can tell when a customer is a buyer. All you have to do is ask questions and let your customer do the talking.
When you try to convince your customer about your product, you are creating resistance, but when you keep asking questions, your customer will remain involved in the conversation. When you ask questions make sure you ask open questions, meaning ask questions that will not call for a yes or a no answer. Open questions are those questions that call for continuity in answering. In the meantime you will also learn a lot about your customer and you will soon find out if it is worthwhile spending time and resources on him. Once you have a clear understanding of what your customer wants or needs then ask him some more questions on how to serve him or her. A childlike person does not need to convince anyone to buy just asks questions and let the customer open up and tell you what, how, and when he or she wants.
Let your customer take complete responsibility for giving you his business. Your customer should never leave your store feeling he or she has been talked into buying anything.
During a sale process, you should both feel free to express yourselves freely, like a child, without fear. You want to establish an environment of openness and honesty. This will also facilitate trust building with your customers while you work toward a mutually beneficial closing. And, as soon as you find out that your customer wants what you have, you will know your customer is ready to commit to do business with you. There is no convincing involved, there is no resistance and there is less objections. The only time you will try to convince your customer is when you want to sell a newer and better product than the one your customer came in for. Hence, if you practice the qualities mentioned above, I can assure you your sales will improve according to the amount of time and focus you put in.
Aggressive and Pushy In Selling
If you are pushy or overly aggressive you have bad habits that have to be fixed. The conscious and subconscious minds are the ones that bind you and are the enemy. This is where all bad habits are stored and these very bad habits magnetically sprung up from the subconscious mind and are from your own uncontrolled thought processes and unconscious feelings bringing most of the troubles in your life. It compels you to act against your will. What does that mean?
There are dormant seeds of karma in your subconscious mind that can find expression in your environment when appropriate magnetism re-energizes and reactivates it. These are samskaras, seeds from past lives and obstructions arising from prenatal and post-natal actions logged deep in the subconscious and can be activated as it resides and wait in the spinal region ready to spring forth when karmic conditions are right, ready to reawaken and germinate in a karmicaly defined time either physically or mentally. You become obnoxious, pushy, you drink, you smoke, you eat unhealthy or overeat with the greed for food against your will. There is a remedy.
Customers fear the stereotype salesperson that could lie to them. There are some customers that have made mistakes in buying and are afraid of making them again by being talked into buying without completely making up their own mind. Some buyers have been lied to and have had bad experiences from pushy sales people. There is a remedy.
You do not have to scratch your head and try to figure out what creates fear in buyers. Let me just mention some of the obvious and what is based upon past experiences, and here are some of them: buyer’s remorse, getting themselves into debt, being a compulsive buyer and having a hard time to say no to a good salesperson.
You need to learn how to disarm your customers fear. First is that wonderful smile. That smile in itself, if sincere, will reduce the fear. Then you need to establish a rapport by listening to understand their needs. As there is always a but, if you sense or feel that this sale could be a losing battle, do not waste your time, just go to the next customer or put them on hold and let them look around on their own.
What Customers Fear Most
What Customers Fear Most
You do not have to scratch your head and try to figure out what creates fear in buyers. Let me just mention some of the obvious and what is based upon past experiences, and here are some of them: buyer’s remorse, getting themselves into debt, being a compulsive buyer and having a hard time to say no to a good salesperson. Customers fear the stereotype salesperson that could lie to them. There are some customers that have made mistakes in buying and are afraid of making them again by being talked into buying without completely making up their own mind. Some buyers have been lied to and have had bad experiences from pushy sales people.
You need to learn how to disarm your customers fear. First is that wonderful smile. That smile in itself, if sincere, will reduce the fear. Then you need to establish a rapport by listening to understand their needs. As there is always a but, if you sense or feel that this sale could be a losing battle, do not waste your time, just go to the next customer or put them on hold and let them look around on their own. If you were not working on a sales floor, there are other options available in overcoming the fundamentals of fear to help your customer in the decision-making process.
WHEN YOUR CUSTOMER SAYS “NO”
When your customers tell you that they have to run it by their other-half or their significant other, they are either not sold because of price or they are slow at making decisions. At this point if there are other customers available, let them go and fast, if not you and you feel potential, you can re-energize the sale by going over the main points of the product in a different way and to convince them. Do this if you feel that giving them a little extra time will be worth it. Always give the customer your card if they are not buying today tell them “please ask for me if you come back, I get credit for all my sales.” Don’t use the word commission ever. You want the customer to feel guilty if they come back and don’t ask for you. If you are in a busy store with lots of customers around don’t give extra time to lookers.
A PUSHY CLOSE
A pushy close will promote that sinking feeling of fear in your customers’ stomach. This will cause buyer’s remorse and a higher rate of returns if they buy.
Training Your Customers
Whether you work on commission or not your customers must be trained if you don’t own your own business. Good customers and clients should be trained to only come into the business when you are there. At the closing of each sale, you start off by repeating your days off and never to come in on those days. You also write it on the back of your business card and give it to all good customers. Most important you must remind your customers that if they come into the business and do not see you, it does not mean you are not there, and that they should always ask for you; you could just be in the back room for a moment. You want to avoid other salespeople taking you customers. What you want to project to the customer is the image or perception that working with you will always be fun and uplifting. Those who are successful at this will increase their bottom line. $$$$$ This mostly applies to those working in retail. However if you don’t make their buying experience fun and uplifting you will only be partially successful. If you are in a position to Retail Only:
- Do a return that is beyond the return date. Let the customer think you are breaking all the rules for him or her.
- Once in a while give the customer a discount to make him a loyal customer to you.
- When ever you bend the rules make sure the customer or client knows that you are making the exception just for him alone and you want him only to ask for you when buying.
Treating Your Customers Like Friends
Whether you work on commission or not your customers must be trained if you don’t own your own business. Good customers and clients should be trained to only come into the business when you are there. At the closing of each sale, you start off by repeating your days off and never to come in on those days. You also write it on the back of your business card and give it to all good customers. Most important you must remind your customers that if they come into the business and do not see you, it does not mean you are not there, and that they should always ask for you; you could just be in the back room for a moment. You want to avoid other salespeople taking you customers. What you want to project to the customer is the image or perception that working with you will always be fun and uplifting. Those who are successful at this will increase their bottom line. $$$$$ This mostly applies to those working in retail. However if you don’t make their buying experience fun and uplifting you will only be partially successful. If you are in a position to Retail Only:
- Do a return that is beyond the return date. Let the customer think you are breaking all the rules for him or her.
- Once in a while give the customer a discount to make him a loyal customer to you.
- When ever you bend the rules make sure the customer or client knows that you are making the exception just for him alone and you want him only to ask for you when buying.
Treating Your Customers Like Friends
This is a big part of the customer training. Respect your customers, but not to the point to make yourself seem too stiff. Talk to your customers in a very relaxed manner, like friends even dear friends. The friendlier and more helpful you are the more trusting the customer will become. The end result will be more sales for you. Only spend extra quality time with big spenders which is part of time management.
Asking For The Sale
Asking for the sale can only save you time. When is the proper time to ask? When your customer has a poker face and you feel you have put in enough time you have to always ask for the sale. On small sales you have to ask for the sale right away as they can be time wasters. There are many ways in doing this. If you have any fear that the customer will say no, you can say, “Is this what you were looking for?” This is a way to lead into asking for the sale and to see what objections may pop up. Another wonderful way is to say to a customer if you are in retail, “Before we get carried away would you like me to see if this product is even in stock?” Here you are cutting to the chase and qualifying your customer at the same time.
CLOSING YOUR SALE
Asking for the sale is a good time management tool when you ask for it at the proper time. Most sales people have a small fear of rejection asking for the sale but in doing so at the proper time give you other options besides saving you time. Always ask for the sale when you are selling an inexpensive item; you do not wait for them to buy as this could be a real waste of time when dealing with small or inexpensive items. If you get a no, all your options are now open to you for what you can do next. You can put your customer on hold by saying, “think it over for a few moments and I will come right back to you.” In the meantime look around for more customers.
Do not let the sales floor manipulate you; you have to learn how to manipulate the sales floor. You can apply this closing as a last resort, “take the product home for 30 or 60 days and try it and if you change your mind just bring it in and get your money back.” It is not good opening the door for returns but if you need the sale go ahead and do that. There are customers that abuse return policies and play the system. This is why you must use this closing only as a last resort, as mentioned above…
The Art of Closing Without Closing
manager of every company will tell you to always ask for the sale. Convince your customer to say, “I will take it” and he has closed the sale. This translates into less buyer’s remorse and less returns. Too much high pressure causes a higher return rate. How do you do that? Of course you do not want to wait until the cows come home for your customer to say “I will take it.” A pushy close will promote that sinking feeling of fear in your customers’ stomach. This will cause buyer’s remorse and a higher rate of returns.
There are many steps but for beginners the first step is make your presentation short and to the point if you do have a buyer. This works most of the time. While making your presentation, say just enough to open and close the sale. Always use layman’s terms when answering questions as customers are not interested in bits and bytes or fancy technical answers to buying questions. Talking too much or being wordy by trying to impress your client by boasting or showboating causes indecision.
Sometimes when you ask for the sale and the clients are not ready they just say “no” or give you some excuse and this is what you do not want to happen. Hearing objections or more questions is fine but time consuming. And when you learn time management you will understand that spending too much time with a customer can really cost you in so many ways. When you are helping someone who is taking too much time and you see a free customer looking at something expensive, excuse yourself for a minute by saying, “I will be right back.” Walk over to the free customer and quickly sell something to him then walk back to work with the other. If you do it correctly, you will end up selling both customers.
How Do You Handle Shoppers When They Are On A Cell Phone Or Mobil Device
When every third or fourth customer walks into your business using a cell phone, what is the best approach to net that customer and get the sale? First, you have to know if they are real buyers conducting business on the go or consumers using their smartphones to shop. Or maybe they just walked into your store to avoid street noise while talking to friends. How do you wade through these mobil users to get to the sale? Most of your co-workers will be intimidated to approach a customer on a cell phone to avoid interrupting someone’s conversation. With this attitude you will lose many sales because too many customers are walking in using a cell phone.
There are several approaches you can use. The first and usually a good one is you play dumb and pretend they are not on the phone. Walk up to them and immediately smile to get their attention and greet them as if they were not using a phone. The buyer will in most cases give you a hand gesture like saying to give him a moment or he is busy on the phone. Or he might put the person he is talking to on hold for a moment and say, “I will be right with you” or “I do need help with a product.”
Sometimes some customers will just turn and walk away from you and continue their conversation in peace. The next approach is to smile with a hand or head gesture and see if they reply back to you. Finally comes the follow them around until they get off the phone. This approach can be a real time waster if the customer came in just to avoid the street noise while talking on the phone. The “follow them around” is the approach your co-workers will use to avoid interrupting their phone conversation.
It’s A Mistake Not To Buy Now Close
When you use this close you are not making your customer feel guilty you are making him think carefully. For example, when you are trying to sell an air filter and you found out that the customer’s child has asthma and his wife has bad allergies. Tell your customer that it is mistake not to try the air filter when their family’s health is at stake. This close is wonderful to use when you are selling items on sale. Tell customers that supplies on this product are very limited and they should buy it now not to miss the sale price. And don’t forget to tell them to take it home and to bring it back if they change their mind later. Do you get the idea how to apply this when appropriate?
Controlling The Sale
Caution, this technique is not for beginners. As you become more proficient at being convincing, the next step is turning your technique around and treat some of your customers like children. How do you know how and when to do this? It is simple. When customers are under control or hypnotized by your charisma, you lead them around as if they were kids. You will say things like, “come with me, you want to see this?” It is so cool; or “try this on.” What you are doing here is simple and easy once you get the hang of it. It is taking control of the sale at the beginning and keeping it during the whole sale.
You lead and they follow, but you must make it fun for them by keeping the environment very upbeat, smiling, and showing a lot of enthusiasm. Caution and intuition does come into play here as you will sense that you cannot use this technique with everyone. Some customers might not respond favorably. I often mix my techniques together as they all come natural with me. If you have one ounce of natural talent you can make these techniques work and make them work well. Remember it does not matter how many times you fail in the beginning; always try once more. The harder you work, and the harder you try, the luckier you will become.
Are You Asking The Wrong Questions At Work?
When you know a persons personality you will be able to communicate with them on a different level. You want a person to respond positively to your presentation and questions because if you ask the wrong question it is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. The right question will get a favorable response and this also applies to your immediate supervisors and managers.
There are questions that backfire. Dangerous questions, smug questions, and silly questions make you look dumb. Not all questions will make you look dumb it depends if your question is dealing with tangibles or intangibles. If they are intangibles you have the right to ask. On the other hand you can find out about tangibles on your own. Then there are asking questions at the wrong time. The questions that will make you look stupid. The typical reason for beginners asking too many questions is that they feel at loss about product knowledge or where is this product and how does it work. Here are some really irritating questions commonly asked by beginners. “This new digital camera that just came in, can you give me the main details and selling points? Why are you asking me those questions when all you have to do is get out the instruction book that comes with the camera and read it. Next, go into the stock room and look for it.
Your co-workers do not want to do your work for you. Lack of initiative is not the quality for sales. When you are new at a job it is usually understood that you will ask more questions than usual to learn the day to day routine. But there has to be a limit to your questions because your co-workers will start getting annoyed if you over do it for too long.
If you can find the answer to any question you have by finding it out on your own, this is what you do to make a good impression on your co-workers and your superiors. Dangerous questions generate a bad response in most people and you can not know in advance how they will react. It is wise not to ask dangerous questions because they can trigger feelings of insufficiency, blame, rejection, and other negative connotations. Here are some examples of dangerous questions. “Why did you do this to me?” “How could you do such a thing?” It is unwise to ask a question with the word “why” in front of it especially if there is anything negative attached to it. The why can be substituted into what, how and could in most questions. Never say “Don’t take this the wrong way, but.”
You do not want your question to immediately put someone on the defensive. Your questions must be sincere and not to be misread. This goes for customers as well, as they do not walk into your store with a personality badge attached to their shirt to describe themselves.
The best questions are the smart questions. But smart questions require a thinking process so you can gain the advantage because smart questions begin before you ask the question. Smart questions are the type of questions management knows you have no way of finding out the answer on your own.
Bad Habits In Selling
Bad habits are like chunks of glass that look like precious stones, but will give disillusionment and dissatisfaction. Achievement is quickened or prolonged by your habits. I am talking about your daily mental habits that have sphere of influence over your daily life. These habits are like glue that attaches everything to it in your person, bad or good. Good habits attract advantages and bad habits attract disadvantages. When you arrive at work, for example, instead of getting down to business you say to yourself, “I need a cup of coffee before I get started and I also have a really important text I should make.”
Habits like these are nothing but distractions. You are just wasting time that could have been well spent on the sales floor and you are robbing yourself from making significant sales which results in smaller pay check and commission.
It is better to get into the habit of having your coffee before work or at lunch time, and make your phone calls at lunch time. Refuse a bad habit by rejecting everything that arouses it. One bad habit I see happen continuously is leaving the sales floor early to go home when business is slow, but it could get busy the moment you leave! If this practice becomes a bad habit, just think how many sales you could lose by doing this over and over.
Keep striving until your hard work is met with success. You can be successful or unsuccessful. It all depends on the quality and intensity of your thoughts and the degree of your will power. If you apply positive thinking together with dynamic willpower, you will succeed.
Let’s say that you do your visualizing in the morning and as soon as you finish you say to yourself, “I have probably just wasted my time seeing myself making all this money and I am pretty sure this technique is useless.” Or “I just do not have the patience to do all of this; ‘patience is a virtue of the dead.'” Negative thinking is the same as worrying. When you worry you are digging an early grave for yourself. You let anxieties and worries arrange your own death. Why bury yourself alive daily from fear and worry defeating yourself and thus preventing the good that is coming your way. Which shall it be victory or defeat? If you adhere to a positive thought it will become real in form.
Good Habits For Successful Selling
Good habits are the treasure troves that will bring permanent happiness. Habits are essential but we abuse their power. If you teach a parrot to talk and sing, it will duplicate what it hears over and over. If you teach it to use bad language, it will repeat profanities again and again upsetting you and others. Weak minded people can descend into bad habits effortlessly.
Accordingly, tough-minded people can be taught to make good habits at will. Habits can be made at will by concentration. The technique for destroying habits is by concentrating on the brain cells during meditation or when you are in silence. Concentrate at the third eye or the point between the eyebrows and intensely affirm that all the grooves of bad habits are being erased and destroyed. You should also be more cautious of the kind of company you keep and who you are living with. When you become more advanced spiritually you will notice you are more sensitive, sharp and energetic.
TIME MANAGEMENT For Commissioned Sales People
Once you have developed the right kind of habits in managing how you spend your time during the day will help determine how many sales you make. First, you must know what you are not supposed to do on the sales floor. You may notice your co-workers standing around together talking and joking with nothing to do while waiting for customers. They are in a huddle, this means standing around together like a football team. When you come on the sales floor, you first survey the sales floor and look for any free customers.
You never drop your attention on making sales happen. Do not fall into the pitfalls of being a mediocre salesman by losing your focus. Remember you are there to make money and you must get into the habit of using every minute productively. Take no more than half-hour for lunch unless you are forced to. Taking your lunch at a busy time is the wrong time; do not talk on the phone or text when it’s not necessary; do not remove yourself from the front door where customers come in; do not spend too much time behind the counter and do not take frequent or long brakes.
You cannot forget even for a moment that you are a commission sales person, and how you spend your time with customers who are “just looking” is essential. Develop strict working habits. With the right frame of mind, you will be much more satisfied making sales and money rather than taking long brakes or misusing your time. This will only distract you from your goal. I often heard many sales people saying, “I know the labor laws. I am entitled to so many brakes during the day.” You can imagine this just made me laugh. The more they were off the sales floor, talking on the phone, taking brakes and so on, the more customers I got. Most of these sales people are weak producers, have no fixed goals and are usually transitory in this type of job. It takes discipline discipline discipline to develop the right habits in sales. Those who make the right habits early in their career and stick to it will have a successful profession. The next step for beginners is learning how to ask for the sale.
When To Close A Sale
When you are just beginning your sales career, follow these instructions. When the customer or client decides to buy a product and says, “I will take it” stop talking right there. Customers can change their mind if you try to over sell and buyers remorse can set in. If you work in retail and the product you are selling does not require anything added on, get the product to the cashier. When the customer is checking out and you are ringing up the sale never repeat to the customer how much money he or she is spending because it can also cause buyer’s remorse. The only exceptions are when they are paying by cash or check and you or the cashier may have to repeat the amount of purchase.
The next step for beginners is learning how to ask for the sale.
This is the time when you want to make your customers feel important. If you are a beginner put on your million dollar smile, look them in the eyes and thank them while shaking their hands when appropriate. Make sure after you have thanked them you give them your business card while you remind them about which days you have off and to not visit in on those days. If you are in a position to send out thank your cards to your customers, do it as this really works well to help keep your customers loyal to you.
Selling After Closing Every Sale For Retail Commission Sellers
During the process of ringing up your sales remind your customers about other products they may have overlooked or other items to add on. You just keep on selling until they are ready to leave unless you want to get rid of them. If you have a cashier ringing up your sales make sure he tries to add on to the sale for.
Being Intimidated By A Customer and HESITATING
Some insecure men shrink when they see a beautiful woman walk in; hesitating as though they were going to be rejected as if they were asking for a date. Do not give away your sales because of race or color thinking your co-worker should get the sale because they speak the same language or are of the same color.
What you can do if you do not speak their language or cannot understand them is ask your co-worker to help you translate without giving up the sale. If you are sure the sale is small in nature and would be a waste of your time, by all means turn that customer over to someone who can speak their language and go to the next customer.
Are you shy of the executive types? When you see customers like that do your best to get to them quickly. Keep in mind that these executive types are mere human beings that have the same faults, weaknesses, worries and fears that are shared by most people. Just picture them as they really are, regular folks, not what they appear to be and the mental threat instantly disappears. When you are selling this should give you a hint when someone puts on an act of being superior or arrogant. Customers who seem intimidating are sometimes the biggest spenders.
HESITATING WHEN YOU SEE A CEO TYPE CUSTOMER
You should never hesitate to greet customers when they walk in your store. It does not matter what they look like, what they are wearing or what their body language is. It only takes a second or two of hesitating to lose a sale to someone else who is quicker than you in their approach to the customer. I can testify that many of my co-workers have lost thousands of dollars to me by momentarily hesitating for a second or two by the appearance of a customer. Their mind quickly tells them that the customer does not have any money to spend or something similar to that in thought and bingo they lose.
What Is The Danger Of Greeting A Client Or Customer To Fast
Are you supposed to play it cool? Greeting a customer too fast will cause some customers to automatically respond by saying, “I am just looking.” What this is in reality is a stall tactic. Customers do not like to be jumped on when they first walk into a business therefore they will say almost anything to get rid of an overly aggressive sales person. The only excuse you can have for a fast approach is to beat your competition to the punch if you are on commission. When you are approaching a customer and you are sure no one else can grab them, greet them in a calm leisurely manner so you will not surprise or startle them into saying “I am just looking” or some other stall tactic.
Always greet a customer saying hi or hello. Or good morning, good afternoon, a contagious smile and correct body language. Never keep your hands in your pockets or your arms folded in front of you; do not lean or rest on a counter or other object. If the customer says, “I am just looking” you must give him your name and say, “if you have any questions please call me” or “I would appreciate it if you ask for me, I will be right over here.” I tell customers I speak with to ask for me and give them my name. You want to make your customers feel that by asking for you or calling you, they will get excellent service. When you are very polite, your customers feel comfortable with you and will call you or ask for you every time they come in. This does work because if their first impression is good and they like you, they will ask for you. If you are wearing a name badge, point to it when you give a customer your name, so he can see your name as well as hear it. You must imprint your name in their memory banks. And when they need to call for you later they will have your name on the tip of their tongue. For if they forget your name, you did not make a strong enough impression on them and they can just go to another sales person.
How To Connect With Your Customers
In sales one on one there is not always time to read a customer’s personality type when a new customer walks into your business. Knowing personality types can be very useful but not at first. The most vital trait of a top salesperson is the ability to connect with people emotionally. To do this, the first thing you do when a customer walks in is you sense his or her mood. Knowing your customer’s mood at this time will enable you to connect with your customer emotionally. By asking certain key questions like, “how is your day going” or “how was the traffic?” You can then sense what their mood is. These kinds of questions or any other similar ones that appeals to emotions is fine. For example, when a woman walks in and you see she is wearing all sorts of jewelry, you know she likes jewelry, so you could say something like, “oh, those earrings look great on you.” or “that color you are wearing looks terrific on you; I never liked that color much.” When your customer is a man you could ask him where he bought his tie, the suit or the shirt he is wearing. You could ask him where he bought those sunglasses and so on.
By now, you should know what kind of a mood your customer is in. Moods are emotions and at this point all you are doing is identifying emotions as connecting with others which is about putting head and heart working together. For instance, managers who apply pure technical skills are just in charge, they do not manage; but, managers who add “understanding” and “emotions” may enhance their management styles and skills. People try to read and respond to our body language and facial expressions often on a subconscious level. They are also trying to sense whether we really care about them or not. In short, when you are with a customer let your mental focus be on enjoying what you are doing; bring your product presentation to life with head and heart working together.
When Selling Keep It Simple Using Layman’s Terms
While making your presentation, say just enough to open and close the sale. Always use layman’s terms when answering questions as customers are not interested in bits and bytes or fancy technical answers to buying questions. Talking too much causes indecision, and when you start wasting clients time they will start looking at their watch and thinking about their next stop.
If you get carried away in conversation with your customer, you better have a very good reason for it. Time management is always into play. I only take extra time with customers for a good reason and the main reason is to make a lasting impression for the customer to remember me so he will come back to me next time. I always ask top buyers what they do as some can become great contacts for the future. But when the customer is taking too much time, you must excuse yourself to go to the next customer.
The Buying Signs To Look For When Selling
When customers are ready to buy, you should be aware of their body language and vocal signals. When you notice these signals you close the sale at once. Some of the vocal signs are: Do you have it in stock? Are there any other colors available? Do you gift wrap? Or they move their head up and down as if to say yes. When you notice these signals stop your presentation at once and go for the close.
Handling and Answering Objections Are You A Pro
This is what you have to learn. Keep it simple, know product knowledge and your competitor’s product knowledge. For example if you’re working in a retail store all customers want to know the same thing:
Does it work?
Is it the best available?
Can I get it cheaper someplace else?
Should I wait for a newer version to come out?
How long will it last?
They won’t tell you this but this is what most customers think along these lines. An objection coming from a customer is not really an objection, it is only a question. Listen without interruption and be spontaneous and sincere in your answer to gain the trust of your customer. To be spontaneous you must have product knowledge and to be sincere you must have character. You always want to be as brief as possible answering objections in selling. You never want to be too wordy or too technical. Customers are not interested in bits and bytes. Get to the point in the proper manner and you will close your sales faster. You will also be able to go on to the next customer and that is proper time management. Practice this without fail and you will soon realize that turning an objection into a sale is very satisfying.
ANSWERING OBJECTIONS
Listen without interruption and listen to the whole objection without cutting your customer off or they will think you are not listening to them. If the objection is about getting a better price or product from your competitor, knowing about your competitors products is very important as it establishes you as being a product expert. It also builds a rapport similar to a teacher with a student, or a parent with a child. Now you may be turning an objection into a sale by gaining their confidence. Know your product inside out, especially the ones you sell all the time. If you are asked a question about a product and you sidestep or do not know the answer, the customer immediately loses confidence in you.
Remember, do not lie or knock your competitors’ products. You want to establish that there is no comparison between stores or products. But what do you do when your competitors’ price is less. You price match or lower your price just a little to save the sale and win a customer. The exception to this rule of price matching is that you do not price match with a membership store or the Internet. Explain to your customer that buying on the Internet can be more risky because if he is not happy with the product, it can be time consuming and difficult to return the item to get his money back. Shipping back and forth can also get expensive.
Make sure customers understand that when buying at a membership store they will get poor customer service or none at all and when making a return, they will have to stand in long lines. Assure them that you will make their buying experience a breeze and that they will have better customer service and problem free returns.
The Real Danger In Trying To Upgrade Your Clients Or Customers
Upgrading causes indecision, period. But you should always do it when you can. Here is an example. A customer comes into your business and very quickly you greet the customer and realize that he came into the establishment to buy. If you’re working in a retail store “give me three of these cameras,” he says. Great, you think you have a sure sale on three cameras but you spontaneously say to your customer, “in case you did not notice, we just received a newer camera with lots of new features that the ones you wanted do not have.” Your customer replies, “oh really, is it more expensive?”
And you say, “Yes it is.” Then your customer goes on to tell you that he will have to call his boss to tell him about the new camera and ask you for literature to show it to him. You see, here you have just lost a sale trying to upgrade. You did not know the facts of this sale so you blew it.
Here is how you do it. The customer comes in for the three cameras and, instead of trying to upgrade, you add-on accessories, cases, memory cards. By adding on you are feeling out your customer. If there are any objections, you will find out this way. It is safe to try to upgrade when there is little or no risk especially on less expensive items. Now, if you have the customer under control, that is when you do your thing and upgrade. One of the biggest obstacles in upgrading is the customer’s budget. No matter how convincing you are, you can run into a brick wall if they just do not have the money and indecision sets in causing procrastination. And that is how you waste your time. I have found out the hard way that it is better to have a sure, fast sale than risking an upgrade when there are big bucks involved.
Attraction and Repulsion. Have You Turned Off Any Clients Or Customers
How good is your charisma and body language when you meet or greet people? Attraction and repulsion is a universal law that governs our whole universe. When you meet a new person you can be instantly turned off or repulsed by them. It is much better there is more of an attraction when you greet a client or customer. Greeting the client correctly is as important as closing the sale. The reason this is so important is that when the clients or customers are real buyers and they do not want to acknowledge this at first, you must make an excellent impression on them so they will come back to you every time and the way to do that is to be a smile millionaire.
The contagious smile comes first of course. This does take some practice as it is a cardinal rule. When you greet a customer you must have a real smile; a contagious, million dollar smile on your face until it is second nature. You have to practice this without fail. Even if it means you have to stand in front of a mirror and push up the sides of your mouth every day for a few moments to practice. Use the mirror to check your style.
Do you want to know what you look like when you greet a customer? Or when you make a sales presentation in front of one? Let’s tweak your presentation in front of a mirror, so you can correct your faults and your bad habits. When you practice in front of a mirror you can fine tune your style, check if your posture is perfect, and if you like what you see. Your co-workers are not there to correct you in any way.
Only your boss will give you constructive criticism and you will not like hearing about your faults from your boss. Go in front of that mirror and be honest with yourself and see what your co-workers and customers notice about you every day. If you are having a trying day, you do not want to clean the floor with your long face.
Learn to smile from the heart. I am not saying that you should always smile like a clown or a Cheshire cat. That kind of smile doesn’t mean a thing, it is worthless. But a smile that comes from the soul communicates itself in your expression, in your appearance and it is sincere. Do not smile in a motionless, skillful way, when within, your thoughts are on other things. When you fake a smile, there is nothing within you to make the smile genuine.
Not many can refuse to accept a person who has a genuine smile when it is mirrored from the heart. In comparison, the designer jeans of today’s styles will not sell in stores unless they are distressed to the point of looking old and almost ragged. Manufacturers are now using lasers to achieve the used look. When you look at the results, it looks good on the surface but you know it is a fake. You do not want your face to look like designer jeans walking the sales floor with a smile so contrived. People can tell when something is a fake. I always get the feeling when I see a fake smile that I am being played.
This is where your enthusiasm comes in as you must be very upbeat and cheerful. I was taught at a very young age never to say to a client or customer, “can I help you.” If they wanted help they would call 911. In reality, the hungry salesperson wants to cut to the chase not to waste his precious time. He must then tweak “can I help you” in the correct manner. When I noticed customers walking in very fast as though they were on a mission, I already knew these were the real buyers. I always start off with them by saying, “Hi, what brings you in today?” or “can I get something for you?” I offer to get something when I feel the customer already knows what he or she wants.
Always greet a client or customer saying hi or hello. Or good morning, good afternoon, a contagious smile and correct body language. Never keep your hands in your pockets or your arms folded in front of you; do not lean or rest on a counter or other object if you are in retail. If the customer says, “I am just looking” you must give him your name and say, “if you have any questions please call me” or “I would appreciate it if you ask for me, I will be right over here.” I tell customers I speak with to ask for me and give them my name. You want to make your customers feel that by asking for you or calling you, they will get excellent service.
When you are very polite, your customers feel comfortable with you and will call you or ask for you every time they come in. This does work because if their first impression is good and they like you, they will ask for you. If you are wearing a name badge, point to it when you give a customer your name, so he can see your name as well as hear it. You must imprint your name in their memory banks. And when they need to call for you later they will have your name on the tip of their tongue. For if they forget your name, you did not make a strong enough impression on them and they can just go to another sales person.
Making Habits In A New Job When ENVIRONMENT Is Stronger Than Willpower
Habits shape your future success. When you make a habit you are burning a groove like on a CD-recordable in the computer of your subconscious mind. For instance, when you start a new job and you have not yet developed good working habits, you just watch your co-workers and do what they do. Taking hour lunches, frequent breaks, talking on the phone, grouping together and gossiping are optional habits. Maybe your co-workers do not need to make that much money or maybe they do want to make a lot of money and do not know how to. Or maybe they are just working in sales temporarily to make just enough money to take care of some current need so they opt for these habits, which will not do them any good.
New habits will imprint memory grooves in your subconscious mind and you will find yourself acting on them over and over like your co-workers do. You have to stop poor working habits right now! With self-discipline you must impose strict working habits on yourself so they will become subconscious habits for success and you will do them naturally. As with a good habit like brushing your teeth, these habits will govern your day on the sales floor. Your conscious mind believes a repetitive thought is a habit that it cannot remove or get away from.
If you keep repeating the same action over and over it gives power to that new habit and it will burn a habit groove in your subconscious mind. The computer of the mind will play those CD’S of habits time after time just like if you are pressing the repeat button on a CD player. And your own body acts in response to those habits with obsession and compulsion without your permission. You can also compare repetitious habits with the groves on a phonograph record that have recorded your habits with the needle of your subconscious mind playing them over and over.
You can change your bad habits or get rid of them because they are your own thoughts being repeated by you. You brought them into existence and you can destroy them and smash them to smithereens with willpower. “Habit enemies” can force you against your will to act against your right behavior. Habits can be formed like dough in a mold. When the dough is wet and soft it is pliable like your mind.
When the dough is heated in the mold, it is set and becomes solid so as with your habits being firmly set with the repetitions of your thoughts. Refuse to feed bad habits by starving them the nourishment of additional wrong actions and with the help of visualization and repeating new good habits over and over, it will add fuel to your willpower, hence your success is assured in the amount of your new found strength. Remember environment is strong but your willpower ought to be stronger to succeed in any endeavor. If you think you lack willpower, the way to develop it is by determination. “I won’t do this” or “I will do this.” Focus your will power on these simple but powerful thoughts daily.
Do You Know How To Dress and Look For Success?
I talked about the customer’s body language but what about your body language. Are you doing your very best to look sharp? If you are going to control the sale or want to be the top producer, you better look the part. You want your customers to see you in shined shoes, neat shirt and well groomed. Cigarette and bad breath is a no-no. When your customers look at you up and down you want them to instantly feel comfortable with your appearance.
If you are planning on staying in sales and if you are wearing a beard get rid of it. The statistics say that beards and sales do not mix. Men, make sure that you have a close shave daily and no scruffy whiskers. You really do not want to have that grubby look as it will not impress your clients. Forget about the good looking guys on TV that have that look. Hollywood is not real life.
Always look your customers in the eyes, never turning away or look down at your shoes when you are speaking. It is a sign of insecurity and you may be perceived as being shifty. If your customer does not trust you he will not buy from you. Keep a big smile, have a firm handshake, have good posture and never slump your shoulders. Learn how to assess people and practice how to speak well.
If a woman is naturally unattractive she should adopt all the methods of the beauty salons to make herself more attractive. If she has an unattractive body she should redecorate herself with a million dollar smile and a charismatic personality with mental and spiritual decorations. She should develop the power of being magnetic. Few have this power of magnetism, but most do have some latent power within themselves. Magnetism is the attracting force that like gravity draws everything unto you. It not only draws the right friends, the right wife, and the right husband. But if magnetism is wrong it will draw the wrong relationships and wrong everything else. So for all the ladies and men.
Finding Your True Vocation
Children by the millions start their life’s path with no certain destination. Take a small toy engine, wind it up and see it run without a track and it smashes into anything that crosses its path. Most people, early in life start out on life’s journey aimlessly without the right goal. These sleepwalking people never know or understand what parts to play successfully on the stage of life. Start with your childhood to your present life carefully analyzing yourself so you will not be sidetracked in the wrong direction in a contrary search. Once you have found the path best suited for you fortify it with creative monetary making techniques.
Our universe is governed by the law of change so you can not remain still. You must go forwards or backwards. Why walk uphill with tendencies previously formed towards the wrong occupation when your heart’s desire was formed when you were three to eleven years old. Don’t ignore any permanent desire when your innate tendencies lead to business, law, music, medicine or other occupations. If your heart’s desire is not satisfied you are not on the right path and you will never be happy going in a different direction.
For example, if you are a staunch vegetarian you should not go into the butchering of animals or sell meat. It fine to temporarily take little jobs but don’t allow you to stay in such a position. If you have to reconstruct your life remember it is never too late to determine your vocation in life. Don’t spend all your life desiring to do something like being an artist or playing a musical instrument when you are to lazy for the required effort. You need a sustained effort and a strong purpose not to fail in attaining your vocational desires. You must consider karmic prenatal habits before considering a career. This is the reason for failure when a born artist wants to be a businessman with no prior experience. This is why the spiritual man cannot make it as a businessman.
If you hypnotize yourself as a failure, no one will be able to convince you that you can be successful. When your will is hypnotized with failure you paralyze yourself and you become lazy. The mind should never succumb to a bleeding untamable heart. Failure and successes are interrelated but success does not always come. Being unhappy struggling is better than being like a like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. When failure comes learn by it because you are your own creator and you direct your own will. The past is gone forever forget it; the present is here now and the future will come. Now this moment, is the time to start.
When your mind is made up on what vocation to follow, don’t give up even if the ground underneath you gives way. Willpower should be so positively set that you will attach to it until you have success. You must be very careful in choosing your work. If you do not find anything you love doing, keep searching for it. Your vocation must be liked before you can succeed. Do not rush to make up your mind on what path to follow; take your time, but when you have chosen your vocation and you feel what you’re doing is the right thing, stick to your decision. Only if someone shows you that you are absolutely wrong is when you should change your mind.
The ultimate and true success of any business enterprise is solely dependent upon an effective head and competent employees. If you ever own your own business and it becomes successful, be sure if you start expanding that you keep a controlling interest. Be careful when you start to hire new employees as many businesses fail because of unqualified associates. Slick, silken-tongued, prospective employees are easy to find and abundant and could easily cause you ruin. With careful observation, using your own intuition and judgment, you can pick employees with superior qualities. But check their references and be very observant and open-minded with keen vision.
When interviewing a prospective employee the intuitive way of reading character is through the eyes. The contents of a man are reflected in their eyes because they are the direct index of the mind. Be careful of revengeful, crafty, sarcastic, untrustworthy, shifting, or cruel eyes. Any lack of straight-forwardness or hate-projecting eyes along with a sinking feeling in your stomach, beware of that person. Feeling the vibrations in people can help you determine accurate results. How do you sense good or bad vibrations in relation to people? Certain people will vibrate with cruelty, some with temper, and some with nervousness. Other people are spineless and vibrate no will at all. The ones that vibrate kindness you like them at once.
The surest way to read the good or bad vibrations people radiate is by watching your feelings so you can sense the vibratory rate of their mind, body and soul. A sick or ailing person has inharmonious and negative body vibrations and should be rejected. Free yourself from any feelings or attraction for the opposite sex as you must be in a neutral state of mind. Keep a kind, unprejudiced feeling in your heart and the microphone of pure feeling will judge superior than any intelligence in the land.
The transcendental way of interviewing a prospective employee if you are somewhat advanced spiritually is when meditating; in meditation, visualize the eyes of that person and examine the feeling that materializes in your heart. If you sense any fear or hesitation, don’t hire that person. Keep this in mind, if you are receptive and calm during the interview and you penetrate their eyes and study that person your first impression will be correct. If you awaken your creative ability any difficulty can be overcome. The success of your business lies with yourself.
How do you attract intelligent employees who are honest and will remain loyal? Seek out creative ability and most of all trustworthiness with those who will make your business and your ambition their business and their ambition. Make sure you test any new employees as to their honesty with money, as you should never take for granted the integrity of any employee. Make sure you subject your employees who are handling money to temptation to see their reaction. You never know what a dishonest person can do to your business. Try to confidentially find out about the honesty, character and ability of a prospective employee when you check their references. On the other side, and if you are an employee and you hear something detrimental or harmful, stay away from that employer altogether and look for another position.
Never forgive a treacherous employee, but forgive minor mistakes twice or thrice. Remember treachery in an employee will be repeated when you least expect it. Find out through mutual friends if any of your business associates talk against you and if they do, find out their intentions. Discharge any employees who drink too much and dissipates, that show no signs of reform. Never hire anyone who is mentally or physically a lazy person. Taking a friend as a business associate can mean trouble as he would be inclined to be too familiar as he would not take orders from you and would try to capitalize on that friendship. Remember business is business and for warned is for armed.
Worldly people never consider who their real employer is, God. It is He who has employed you under someone else. It is He who promotes you to carry out His work. Therefore, by performing your job duties with the right attitude to please your real employer no matter how important or unimportant your job is you will never fail no matter what direction you choose.
The majority of people want significant or privileged positions, but is unrealistic in their expectations on how to achieve them. The first step to increase the bottom line for your company is to develop the proper qualities by loyal unselfish actions for the betterment of the employer. These unselfish initiatives will automatically propel you to a better position by activating the laws of cause and effect. The biggest to the smallest companies the world over are looking for this type of worker because there is no type of business that can succeed by going it alone. So be full of enthusiasm, honesty, dependability, loyalty, creativity and be ready to swing into action.
All commercial businesses should be spiritualized. If your business does not conform to divine laws it will never last. If your business caters just too human lavishness, and the mighty dollar, unethical or false pretenses, it will certainly be ruined by the execution of the spiritual law of the survival of the virtuous. Any business that hurts the true spiritual well-being of the individual does no real good, and is certain to meet with devastation by the very same nature of its actions. Money-making alone should not be the goal of business. Service should be the true spiritual goal of business. By spiritualizing service in your work rather than having moneymaking your entire goal, you will change the plan for your life and never will you be left out. Profiteering should not be synonymous with business. Eradicate this idea completely from your mind. Businesses blunder into periodic inflation and depressions by operating at the expense of others well-being with their own self-interest. This metaphysical blunder will cause selfish enterprises to fail. From the teachings of SRF.
How To Avoid Merchandise Returns
The norm is to close the sale as quickly as possible and get your customer in and out so you can go on to the next sale. When you sell a product that is not a gift for someone other than the buyer and the product is in electronic or gadget category, take an extra minute or two to make sure the customer has a basic understanding of how to work or use the product. When the customer is an older person who may not be good at reading or understanding technical instructions, you are leaving yourself open for a return. If you did not explain the operation or give any instructions in simple English, chances are that if he has any trouble using the product and becomes frustrated with it, he will return it to you and bye-bye commission.