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Stop Selling On Autopilot
I've been updating my computer system (again!) lately and have been making periodic trips out to the local super computer chain store in my area for this or that. A fair amount of the time, I'm able to find what I need, get in and out, without much hoopla. But when I'm looking for a more expensive piece of equipment, I have experienced a little of what I'm calling the Attack of the Sales Zombies.
I’ve been updating my computer system (again!) lately and have been making periodic trips out to the local super computer chain store in my area for this or that. A fair amount of the time, I’m able to find what I need, get in and out, without much hoopla. But when I’m looking for a more expensive piece of equipment, I have experienced a little of what I’m calling the Attack of the Sales Zombies.
We’ve all had this experience. . . we’ve all bought something from a robot. Well, not an actual robot, but someone reading off a script, unable to stray from what they’ve been programmed to regurgitate, someone who asks the same questions over and over regardless of what you want or need.
I can tell you. . . if I’m in a store or looking for a new vehicle and the sales zombie comes up and starts in on me, I either determine a) will this be worth helping them out or b) where’s the closest exit. There have been times where I’ll try to steer them, kindly, into an arrangement that will benefit us both, but there are some sales people so dead set on their ‘by the numbers’ tactics that I just have to walk away and find the next person.
There are a few very simple things sales professionals can do to understand the true power of persuasion. The first step is to create rapport with prospects and clients. Old fashioned sales training, for the most part, glosses over rapport with a brief ‘how’s it going?’ sort of greeting. Rapport is a deeper than that.
Rapport is pausing briefly on how the client/customer is doing, but really getting to the heart of the matter . . .“So why are we here today?” Why are they in the store? “What will having that do for you?” What will the product or service you provide do for them? “Ultimately, what will having this do for you?” The key is to really listen. LISTEN. Don’t push your agenda. Don’t try to give them whatever it is you need to sell that particular day unless it will truly fulfill their needs.
If you are a real estate agent, and you understand that the potential client is selling their house to move into a bigger one because their family is growing, you’re not going to sell them a smaller house. You’re not going to try to sell them a condo with one bedroom. You’re going to combine their needs, their values, and their criteria, with the inventory that you have which will work for them. It seems obvious.
But the experiences I have had as of late in said computer stores has been so counterintuitive as to make it frustrating. Part of me wants to go ahead and give a sales training just at the stores where I shop. So if you’re ever in the Seattle-Tacoma area and find yourself receiving extraordinarily persuasive and helpful service at a huge computer store, you’ll know why. . .