Tips for Sales: Customer’s Perceptions
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Here are two things that I absolutely hate to overhear salespeople say to customers or prospects:
1. “My schedule is wide open next week. I can meet with you at any time.”
2. “I sure hope you need to reorder those filters. I’m having a terrible month.”
Why do I hate hearing things like that? This kind of verbiage is counterproductive because we always need to look busy and successful to our customers and prospects. M
any studies have confirmed that people feel more confident buying from sales professionals that they view as in demand and very successful.
Do you want to be treated by a doctor that drives a 20-year old station wagon and is always available? Our customers and prospects feel the same way. They assume that if we are busy and come across as successful that we must know what we are doing. The psychological term for this is cognitive consonance. If we’re busy and successful looking, then we must be busy and successful.
What should we do if a customer or prospect asks us about our availability and we have nothing scheduled on our calendar? We answer by asking them what a good time would be for them. “You want to meet at 2:00 on Wednesday? That will work perfectly; that slot is available in my calendar.” There are a million ways to handle this, but the rule of thumb is not to give them the perception that we’re twiddling our thumbs.
How do we answer a customer or prospect when they ask us if sales are good? Regardless of how bad or good things are going, answer with something that sounds like, “Things continue to go very well for me here at the XYZ Company. Thanks for asking.”
People like to deal with successful people. We can make the buying decision easier for our customers and prospects by coming across as a winner.
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March 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
This is great advice Scott, especially for new sales people still building their prospects/customers. Its even more impactful when your calendar is ACTUALLY FULL!