A new breed of zombies have emerged and they’re trying to sell you everything. Sometimes they want to moan their way to your buying the extended warranty, getting an upgrade, or giving your personal information for an online campaign.
In order to get a lot of things in life, you need to be willing to sell. There’s nothing wrong with making a sales pitch. In fact, you could be helping solve a problem with your offer.
The masters of sales make it look easy. It’s not that they manipulate you but they make you realize that you need something you didn’t know that you needed. These people have a talent for sales and they’ve taken the time to develop the skill.
On the other side of the spectrum are people who stink at sales. They have become the equivalent of zombies when it comes to sales. They used to do non-sales jobs but are now required to ask a customer to buy from them. To them, sales are unnatural, especially because they probably have not been trained very well and are just reading from a memorized script.
They struggle, verbally stagger around, and make the sales experience a bad one for everyone. There’s a better way and if you’re ready to improve your sales skills, you should consider these tips:
Learn the Script and then Personalize
You can tell when someone is just reading from a prepared script. They are sharing the words of someone who doesn’t know or care about you or your needs.
Scripts are like color by numbers paintings. They could be considered art but you won’t find any in a museum or your home.
While I have no doubt that the script contains important terminology, it should not be your only sales tool. Understand the information in the script and then put it in your own words.
“Would you like to sign up for our extended warranty?” doesn’t do much for me from a sales point of view. You’ve left me just two options, saying, “Yes,” or “No.”
Why not look to see what the person is buying and work it into the question. You’d say something like, “This widescreen TV is going to give you a great picture when you’re watching sports. Do you want to get the extended warranty so you’ll know if something goes wrong, you won’t miss the big game?”
By personalizing the situation, you help the other person visualize how they might need the warranty.
Care or Act Like You Do
When it appears that you care about someone, that person is more likely to trust you and buy from you.
When you appear to be only interested in meeting a quota, people pick up on that. Nobody cares about your quota but they do care about how you can help them solve problems.
Listen
At the first sign of an objection, most sales people immediately jump to a prepared list of responses. Maybe on some people, these responses are the Jedi Mind Trick that will get you business. Often, they do nothing more than further convince someone that they don’t want to buy from you.
Ditch the the flowchart and just listen to the person in front of you. Then, respond like a human being and not like a zombie. Remember, zombies have one thing on their minds. Eating people!
People like to know that they are being heard. Grant them that honor before you jump in with your prepared zombie comeback.
Bottom Line
The start of the sales process shouldn’t mean the end of the communications process. Come back to the world of the living the next time you sell.
