How to be a good salesperson . . Sell it now!

These are tips from when I was a manager in a JCPenney store in the Los Angeles Market a while ago.  These are time-honored sales principles. Enjoy!

The five steps of a sale.

This post is for sales people, but the concepts could be used in everyday life as well.

Greet the customer within two minutes that she enters your store. Be cheerful, smile, say hello.  During the initial exchange, determine what language the person speaks and if you know that language, speak in the customer's native language. He will feel more comfortable and more open to you if he doesn't have to search for words.

Even if the customer says thay she is just looking, don't turn away to do something else, maybe bend down to straighten up a rack or a shelf, but be nearby, attentive to the customer.  There will be time for you to do general duties later.   Usually the customer will have a question to ask you, and then turn towards the customer, make a positive comment about the item that the person is looking at right now, and start a conversation. Find out why the customer is in the store.

Find out the wants and needs of the customer.  Ask many questions, get the customer to talk to you.  Is she buying a gift?  Is the item going to be for her self? For what purpose? 

Fulfill the customer's request.  Suggest an item that has features that the customer needs.  If the item comes in different colors, find out what color is best, and then put the item in the person's hand for her to see and feel the quality and how it will benefit her to buy it. If the item has zippers, open and close them, for example if you are selling school bags, make sure that all the zippers work before showing the customer.  It might be very embarrassing to have a bag that the zipper is stuck while you are showing the school bag!  Tell about the strength of the material, mention warranties if it has one.

Overcome objections  Sometimes the customer is undecided and wants to convince himself not to buy the item.  So he will come up with objections, as to price, color, size.  Tell the customer that the price is higher because of a better quality item, if possible show a cheaper one, and show the difference in workmanship, or the higher price one has a longer warranty, if the problem is with color, see if there is another one in the color that the customer wants.

Close the sale.  Take the customer over to the cash register,  and then add on a companion item that goes with the big item that the customer just decided to buy.  Chances are that your customer also needs the other item as well and since she has decided to buy the big item, the little one that goes with it will be accepted.

Ring up the sale, with the procedures that are used in your business, say the total price with a smile and put the items in a bag carefully showing that you respect the person and that you appreciate that the person came into your store to buy from you.
Say "Have  a good day," and thank the person for coming in.

Some sales people don't know these five steps and sometimes they make a sale and sometimes they don't. They force the customer to go through these five steps unconsciously by themselves, and sometimes if the customer is with a friend, the friend will be the "salesperson."  If the person is undecided, and you don't help him most likely he won't buy anything.  Not every customer will need you to go through all five steps, some will overcome their own objections by themselves, because they already have bought the same brand in the past.

When a customer is in the store, you are "on stage," your problems are of no concern to the customer and she is your sole focus.  Above all, take your clues from the customer and clue in on what she is feeling and respond appropriately.   Get to be good at remembering names and faces.  Then the next time the person comes into the store you can greet her like a friend and start the conversation in a more natural fashion.

Good luck with your sales!


Rachael Orbach Certified Master Life Coach - American University of NLP Certified Master NLP Practitioner - American University of NLP B.A.- UCLA Los Angeles www.lifecoachjerusalem.weebly.com Blog: www.lifecoachjerusalem.blogspot.com Skype: life-coach-jerusalem 052-750-0608