Good salespeople are a company’s best asset, but a good salesperson needs to know more than sales tactics.
The most important skill is customer service. Until the customer is engaged emotionally s/he is not paying much attention to the information or facts that salespeople are presenting. Buyers initially are more interested in working with a salesperson that wants to discover what they are looking for, rather than hearing about products they may or may not want. So leave the sales pitch until later and spend the first few minutes connecting with the customer. Salespeople who build trust with their customers are much more likely to make the sale.
Salespeople should participate in a dialogue with the customers about their needs, wants and desires. Listening to their customers’ responses will give salespeople the information they need to present customers with the right information on the right products at the right time.
Communicate the benefits of the products through information that will resonate with the customers. The time spent listening to what the customers want will make personalizing the sale so much easier.
Another form of communication is storytelling. Salespeople should have a number of concise and relevant stories to tell the customers. Keep the stories short and easy to remember, and they will stay with customers, who are then more likely to repeat an interesting, unusual, or humorous story to their friends or family.
If you want to to sell effectively you must genuinely like people, treat them well, and make them feel important.
Salespeople should be able to transfer all these sales skills to the phone as well as developing other skills, such as being aware of the tone of voice of the customer. The salesperson should establish quickly why s/he is calling or why the customer called the company. Don’t start asking questions until you know why the customer called or the customer knows why the salesperson has called.
Once the sales person has engaged the customer a small amount of small talk is acceptable.
In short, engagement is the key to creating long-term customers.
A tip of the glass from me to you
E Column
by Elizabeth “E” Slater, In Short Direct Marketing
A recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and sales in the wine marketplace. Slater has taught more wineries and winery associations how to create and improve the effectiveness of their direct marketing programs and to make the most of each customer’s potential than anyone in the wine industry today.
Follow E on twitter @esavant and facebook.
