We all know the customer is the most important person in our business, but sometimes we forget that the second most important person in the business is any staff member that comes in contact with the customer in anyway. The staff member that deals with the customer face-to-face is the person who represents the business in the customers mind. If that representation is not a great experience for the customer, the business suffers.
To out-service the competition, each contact with the customer must be part of a great shopping experience. Staying even with the competition is never good enough. Exemplary customer service leads to greater sales and profits. Here are four things to remember.
1. Treat Every Customer Like a Millionaire. Think of it this way: If you knew the next customer to come through your front door was a millionaire, capable and ready to purchase your most expensive products and services, at your highest markups, how would you treat them? Most of us would role out the red carpet, fall all over them with great service, and spare no effort to satisfy their ever need and want.
You never know if that next customer is a millionaire. For the most part, millionaires do not look, dress or sound different than everyone else. Even if that customer is not a millionaire, people will buy more products and services when they get treated like one.
2. Get the customer involved in the sale. When I owned and operated a jewelry store, we outsold all of our competition by simply getting as many different pieces of jewelry on the customer as possible. When women came into our store we strived to get her to try on a necklace, earrings, bracelets, rings, and pins all at the same time. Follow the old seller’s rule: The more products the customer views themselves as owning, the more they will buy. Possession becomes ownership.
In our tire business, we involved the customer by having them lift the tires, not just look at them as our competition did. We outsold all of our tire competition. Our furniture business was successful because we involved the customer in the sale. No one ever walked into my mattress department without lying on at least three of our beds. Even while selling intangibles like extended warranties and service contracts, we involve the customer in the sale. By having them do the math – the cost savings they will receive or expenses they will incur – customers mentally pictured the problems they could have if they didn’t purchase the coverage.
3. Give the customer choices of products and services.
People always take the easy way out and saying no to a request for them to buy is easier than saying yes. After all, most people do not want to give up their hard-earned money. People like to shop around to make sure they are getting the best deal. When you give the customers a choice of products and services, the question turns to what they can buy from you, not what they can get from the competition.
4. Ask for the sale. It’s estimated that over 90% of sales people never actively ask for the sale. Sure they show the products and tell about their services, but they never ask for the sale. That’s because they are afraid the customer will say the one terrible word, “no”.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said when asked why he shoots the puck so much, “I miss 100% of the shots I do not take.” The easiest way to ask for the sale is to constantly give the customers choices of different products and services that will solve his/her problems, needs and wants.
Always remember the number-one rule of selling: The seller that solves the customer’s problems, needs and wants will get the sale. Make it easy for your customers to make a buying decision from you.
Bob Janet of Sales Growth Now is a trainer, speaker and author with more than 40 years of experience. He can be reached at 800-286-1203 or at Bob@BobJanet.com. For more information, go to www.bobjanet.com
