You know what to say, you know your product, its features and benefits, and you know it will benefit your customer, so why can’t you make that sale? Well, the public has a perception of sellers: they think you are only interested in the sale and they know that they will probably pay you a bonus for every sale you make.
In short, they are skeptical of everything you say. It’s your job to change that vision and an effective way to do that is to focus on your customer. To do that, you can actively listen.
Actively listening
Active listening is the secret to great sales technique. It allows you to put all your focus on the customer, so you can really figure out what they want and need. And we don’t just mean hearing the words without actually hearing them, we mean actually hearing and understanding them. You must make the client feel that you care about him personally, that you want to solve his problem. And be careful, this cannot be faked. If you try to trick your client into thinking you care, they will notice it in your tone and body language, like it or not!
Active listening will make the client feel special; At that time, it will have your full attention. This will encourage them to open up to you, allowing you to tailor your presentation to their specific needs. It will become much more natural than any pre-prepared sales pitch you can deliver.
Do you actively listen?
A simple check to see if you are actively listening is to take note of where your attention is while the customer is speaking. If you start to formulate your answer before you finish speaking, you can be pretty sure that you are not listening correctly.
Other ways to focus on your customer
Here are some other simple things you can do to help improve your sales technique by completely focusing on the customer to:
Be friendly, this is practically a given. If you can’t be friendly with your leads, you really should rethink your career in sales. And it must be genuine or they will feel it – people are generally very good at detecting insincerity!
Relax – the tension will show up in your body language and tone of voice. And if you’re tense, chances are your customer is, too, which isn’t a good conversation starter.
Look the customer in the eye, I don’t know about you, but I think there is nothing worse than having someone speak to me without making eye contact. It makes me think they have something to hide. However, be aware of cultural differences. In some cultures it is not acceptable to look people directly in the eye unless you know them well.
Find out something about your client, for example, do you both have a dog? Do you love a certain film genre? Or do you both love theater? This common ground will give you a great base to start with and show the customer that you are a normal person like them, not a super selling machine!
Ask how they would like to be addressed; Don’t just assume it’s okay to call the customer by their first name, some people don’t like it. However, if you are happy that you use your first name, please do so and do so often, as it fosters a sense of calm.
Find out what motivated them to learn about your product; this information is like gold to you. It tells you why the customer wants your product and allows you to tailor your conversation to that particular area. For example, imagine you sell vacuum cleaners that are good at picking up dog hair, removing dust mites, and removing dirt from carpets. If you discover that the customer has a dog, you can focus on removing dirt and hair as the main benefit. If you discover that the customer suffers from asthma, it wouldn’t make sense to focus on picking up the dog’s hair, but effective dust mite removal would be a great selling point. So be sure to ask questions about customers’ lives and habits so that you can show them how your product or service will simplify theirs.