As a longtime sales professional in fashion retail and other industries, I have listened to all sales techniques and received countless lectures delivering winning scripts. I read, listened, processed and analyzed all the information transmitted and as a nonconformist I discarded 99%. There are also those who consider themselves gurus of sales training and profess to know everything. I’ve heard them refer to customers as ripe fruit or conversion rate. I often hear the term “sales in progress” and it shudders me to think that the term is used so openly. The other is “make the customer the hero.” And here’s a weird one “competing in baking”, so are we in a cooking competition? What about sincerity and transparency, where and when do they come in?
If you think of customers as foot traffic, conversion rate, fruit at your fingertips, statistics, and measure your behavior in numbers, then you are most likely an accountant or manager and you are likely to operate in isolation from your face. of coal. You will be analyzing numbers (foot traffic), most likely holding a weekly sales meeting and delivering some kind of motivational speech that you have read in the last post about a new revelation of a sale closing. What does it mean to close a sale? Is it like closing a door for security purposes, so you are closing the door once the sale is complete, the money is in the till and, bingo, you have already forgotten the face and name of the person you are just sell a product? ? When that customer returns, he will pretend to remember, is that sincere? You quickly move on to the next piece of ripe fruit and close that sale quickly because you are on commission and competing with your other sales colleagues, or you are competing with your customers. It will do almost anything to get a customer to buy.
It’s all geared toward short-term profit, or as one sales guru on the networking circuit cited “ripe fruit.” A consistently successful sales professional will look above and beyond for the fruits of their labor and push the limits of service every time, not thinking about ripe fruit, closing a sale, conversion rates, and foot traffic. You will seek to establish a relationship, committing yourself on a basis of mutual trust. This is a fundamental human need in any relationship, trust is based on sincerity. Subconsciously we look for sincerity and character in others and if these qualities are not detected, the whole foundation is undermined.
You can collect all the techniques and scripts written on paper for what they are worth and use them to fuel your barbecue. Every year a new wiz bang sales technique appears, then disappears and is forgotten as soon as another appears, all are geared towards short-term profit. Why not read Stephen Covey or Dale Carnegie? These two authors are essential for all libraries. His focus on business and relationships is long-term and principled.
Now this is the moment you’ve been waiting for; And the best sales technique is “no sales technique”, no deception or smoke screens, just total transparency. With sincerity of heart you connect with your peers on a fundamental level, all barriers are broken and a relationship is formed. There are no scripts reminiscent of parrot craze, no wiz bang techniques from the latest sales guru. Don’t think about closing a sale, think about opening a relationship, the customer you spend an hour with may not even buy from you. But statistically there is a 90% chance that one day he will come back and buy. Meeting a customer’s purchasing needs can be a very rewarding experience if done sincerely.
I hope this has been informative, any comments or feedback are very welcome.
