SOLUTION 7
HELP THE BUYER TO MAKE GOOD CHOICES
With the growth of the Internet people can buy even financial stock or cars without any help or advice from knowledgeable salespeople. They may save money, but they don’t always make the best decisions, because they don’t have a professional and ethical advisor to help them with the purchase.
This decline in assistive selling can work to your benefit. As a seller, you can focus on helping your customers to make good buying decisions. With expanded product knowledge, an understanding of features and benefits, and good communication skills, you can stand out as a helpful salesperson.
it often seems like it’s hard to find good help
THE BENEFITS OF ASSISTIVE SELLING
The extra effort to offer genuine service to customers can help your sales career in many ways:
• It will show your employers that you are willing to work a little harder to help customers
• It will help you to build relationships with customers who trust you
• It will earn you repeat and referral customers – the source of future sales
• It will earn you more sales and more commission
• Higher sales can help your career progression
your job is to initiate and build mutual trust with your customers
BUILDING TRUST
To override the stigma often attached to the selling profession (see Solution 10), some salespeople refer to themselves as ‘associates’ or ‘buyer consultants’. But a title won’t convince people to trust you.
• Trust is built by not giving people a reason to disbelieve you
• Trust is offering personal information and expecting others not to abuse it
• Trust is believing that what someone tells you is true
• Trust is acting upon the knowledge of others
• Trust is an invaluable asset in any transaction
In this world of nearly 7 billion people, it’s nice to be acknowledged as an individual. in some sales situations, names may not be exchanged, but you can acknowledge the individual buyer by looking her in the eye and being friendly. If names are given, they should be remembered and used appropriately. As the dynamic sales psychologist Dale Carnegie said: ‘our name is, to us, the sweetest word in the English language.’ Remember a person’s name, and you will be remembered.