Shut Up and Ask For the Sale

January 31, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on February 1, 2011 Your prospects and customers this year will continue to search for the best deals on the products and services you sell. They will shop price harder than ever before and they will demand more services. That is good news for retailers who are willing to...

- Increase the number of services they provide customers

- Differentiate themselves from the competition

- Sell benefits, not features

- Make it easier for customers to buy from you

Retailers that want to win sales and increase profits this year must also become more aggressive in:

- Learning new and different selling and marketing techniques

- Asking for the sale

- Following up after an offer or sale

- Delivering services that were mentioned

- Never letting a customer walk

Each of these suggestions is as important as the other. But remember that the associate who makes it a point to ask for the sale over and over again is more successful than one who only talks about their products and services.

Back when I owned a furniture store a certain salesman used to call on my. He was terrible in every aspect except for asking for the sale. He never gave me one good benefit to do business with him or the companies he represented.He never once respected my time.He would just show up, open his display books, throw his material swatches on the counter and start asking for the sale.

"You should buy this three piece set in this fabric, this fabric and this fabric," he would say as he turned the pages and flipped the material swatches around. Then, without me saying a word, he would write the three sets down on his order sheet.Then he would move on to another style of sofa, love seat and or chair and repeat the process.He repeated it over and over again until he had filled out his entire order sheet. He never bothered talking about the quality of the products or give me the benefit of asking questions.

When he finished, he pushed the order sheet over to me and said, Sign here!"And you know what?After I crossed out a few of the lines, I ended up signing.I knew I could buy similar furniture from others (sometimes at a cheaper prices). But I was always so enamored that he asked for the sale I always bought from him.

Whenever I trained a new sales associate, I made sure they saw this guy in action. And at the end of the presentation, I'd tell my associate, "When you ask for the sale as aggressively as this man, combined with showing our customers the benefits they receive when buying from us, you will be successful."

Another way to close a sales is simply by listening for the customer to make a closing statement and then write up the order sheet. Just stop the chatter and start writing. Each day I see sales associates who lose sales because they don't know when to SHUT UP.

While shopping one of the big-boxes for a client, I watched a perfect example of losing the sale because the sales professional did not SHUT UP. Here's how it went down:

A woman standing by the store's bathroom toilet display asked the salesperson, "Does this toilet come in rose color?"Immediately the salesperson said, "It comes in rose, it comes in white, it comes in green, red, blue, almond, black, brown, gold...." He named at least another dozen colors. Then, without taking a breath, he opened a book and began to read how the finish was applied and why it would never discolor.This all took a little more than a minute.The women thanked him and left the.As she passed me I asked her, "Why didn't you buy that toilet?"She replied, "He would not shut up and sell it to me."He missed the closing statement. All he had to do was SHUT UP and write it up.

Make sure to listen for the customers closing statements, which is anything the customer says that is positive about your product, service, business or you. Here are a few:

€¢ I like that.

€¢ That will work for me.

€¢ When can you deliver?

€¢ My wife will like that.

€¢ That's just what I've been looking for."

Bob Janet of Sales Growth Now provides seminars and keynotes to help companies increase sales and profits. He can be reached at 800-286-1203 and www.BobJanet.com.