Things You'll Need:
- Confidence
- A genuine concern for your clients
- Patience
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Step 1
Attempting to get a sale without first building a relationship with a client is like asking to marry someone without even knowing their name. You must be willing to take the time and build a relationship with your client. This includes knowing their first and last name by heart, and even finding out a little bit about their personal life—i.e., their hobbies, their spouse or children’s names, their birthday, etc. Small gestures like this can actually make a huge difference in your ability to build trust with your client.
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Step 2
Speaking of trust, your client has to know that you’re a trustworthy person. Since they may know little to nothing about your background or your intentions, this can best be demonstrated through your actions. Some trust-building actions include keeping your appointments with them and not showing up late, returning their calls in an expedient manner, addressing their concerns in a timely manner, and following up with them exactly when you say you’re going to follow up with them. Keeping your commitments with your clients goes a long way in building trust with them.
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Step 3
Rehearse every possible objection you can think of that your client might have, and develop well-rounded and sound responses to those objections. It is important for your client to see that you’re well-prepared to handle their objections. Many times a client’s objections are not an outright “No”, they’re simply unanswered questions that the client is hoping you have an answer for.
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Step 4
Your client must know that you are always going to act in a manner that is aligned with their best interests. If a client even detects that you are doing something to manipulate them or “pull the wool over their eyes”, so to speak, you have all but lost their business. This means that you have to be willing to walk away not having made the sale, if it turns out that doing business with you would actually hurt their bottom line. Once you have demonstrated that type of loyalty to your client, they will many times be much more willing to give you their business.
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Step 5
Being overly aggressive or overly eager to close a sale can actually cost you more in the long-term. Cool and quiet confidence wins more sales than over-eagerness and desperation. People can “sense” desperation, and much like in the dating world, it is a “turn-off” to potential clients.
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Step 6
Once a client has agreed to buy from you, SHUT UP. They have made their decision, and you would do well to support it 100% with smooth, quick closing action, not a bunch of over-talking the point. I have actually heard of several cases where salespeople initially got a “Yes” from a client, but then subsequently “talked the client out of it” during the closing process with a bunch of idle chatter.
Comments
sneedc said
on 7/4/2009 I hate aggressive salespeople, in my practice, I try to keep a low-key approach when I peddle my wares. Thanks for these great tips! 5*