Tweet

Think Link

Written by: Warren Coughlin

Article Overview: How to Stop Order Taking & Satisfy Customers by Selling What They Need Brought to you by Action International Business Coach Warren Coughlin

Think Link

How to Stop Order Taking & Satisfy Customers by Selling What They Need Brought to you by Action International Business Coach Warren Coughlin

Most sales trainers agree there are a certain number of steps that need to be taken towards making a sale; typically the steps are something like this:

1. Greet the customer, (or acknowledge, qualify & open the sale, etc.)

2. Probe to discover needs & wants, (or ask questions, sales interview, etc.)

3. Recommend product, (or demonstrate, make alternative suggestion, etc.)

4. Trial close, (or first attempt to open relationship, etc.)

5. Handle objection, (or overcome objection, re-state needs & wants, etc.)

6. Ask for the order, (or close sale, open the relationship, etc.)

7. Farewell and follow through.

In these seven steps a variety of nuances are included which allow for deviation so that the sale can be achieved/won at any point. Too frequently the sales person and prospect who are, ‘Fencing’ for the advantage, see the sale process as adversarial. Often an inexperienced sales person is so relieved at getting to ‘Yes’ that the thought of making sure that the customer has everything they need to gain full pleasure, enjoyment, benefit and satisfaction from the purchase by asking them to spend more is simply not an option. What a dreadful shame to all concerned!

How many times have you been left with a purchase that was exactly what you ‘thought’ you wanted but left you feeling less than satisfied with your new acquisition. Let’s play with some examples:

• A camera with a standard lens but no telephoto lens to capture wildlife in Africa

• A tennis racquet with no case to carry it in

• A tin of paint with no brush to apply it with

• A new outfit without matching accessories

• A new car with no paint/rust protection

• A holiday with no insurance

• A McDonalds burger with no fries!

According to a recent credit card survey, the average number of items on a retail sale invoice INCLUDING grocery sales was 3.3. Think about that, if the average grocery sale is, say 30-40 items, then there’s a heck of a lot cameras out there without film or walkmans without batteries.

So how do we go about improving our sales satisfaction process? Well the first step is under standing that it’s OK to want to help your customer get the most benefit from what they buy from you. Let’s look at the camera scenario we described before. The customer walked into a camera shop and said, “I want to buy a good camera.” The sales person would have asked several qualifying questions and got answers like:

• Good quality

• Easy to use

• Automatic focus

• Like it to be able to grow as my ability improves

• Must have a zoom lens

With today’s technology nearly all cameras have a zoom lens as standard. If the sales person had probed a little deeper we might have discovered the real and immediate need was for a camera with a much longer than average zoom lens. After all, what the customer needed was a lens that would allow him/her to take great pictures of dangerous creatures from a safe distance where they didn’t become a lion’s lunch.

And by the way, what other opportunities would that scenario present for sturdy, waterproof carry bag, extra film, assorted accessories etc., but that’s another story, about turning customers into raving fans

Related Articles
  SEO and Link Building
  Quality inbound links for traffic and ranking
  What are the 3 biggest challenges faced by supply chain/purchasing professionals today? (Survey Result 1)
  One way reciprocal link exchange theory.
  Carefully Choose to Whom You Link To

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: Using Craigslist SEO to Promote Your Website - [quote:372g7ueu]2) Trent: could you explain more about building solid backlinks? What constitutes as solid? Do you go to relevant articles and try to set up a link to your content that relates to that topic?[/quote:372g7ueu] Article marketing Guest blogging Blog commenting Link exchanges Directories Forums Link wheels Social bookmarking Link bait Quality content Also, you want your links to be keyword anchored if at all possible. Links from sites relevant to yours are better too.
Re: Search Engine Optimization - simply trying your hand at doing it yourself :- Directory Submissions - targeted links at high PR directories Blog and Forum Postings - to high PR and frequently crawled sites Social Bookmarking Classified Ads Article Marketing - submit to high PR directories, could also serve as link baits Link Exchange - with relevant sites authority sites Link Baits - for organic linking
Re: Upcoming inventors exhibition - Thanks Ringo, That was a great Link. Great information and contacts Regards
Re: Traffic! How do you get it? - Hi Robert, Yes you are right, the full name is Link Directory Submitter, I'm not sure when it happened but the site is owned by Tom Dahne and Paul Martin. regards, Mal.
Link exchange - Link exchange is the popular method of increasing page rank and generating maximum incoming traffic. But generating enough links is not as easy as it seems. There are many important things you should take care of before starting your link exchange campaign. Before discussing link exchange tips, we should understand exactly what a link exchange is. Link exchange is simply the exchange of your links with others. Every Webmaster wants the maximum number of visitors coming to his site for obvious reasons; his revenue and site popularity both increase with the increased number of visitors. But the basic question remains on how a Webmaster will be able to generate enough links coming to his site? There are two popular methods for creating the targeted links, one is manual and the other is the use of automated linking programs. Whatever method you choose for your linking campaign, remember that each has its own pros and cons. For instance, manual linking may take months to complete and automatic linking can result in untargeted and irrelevant links.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales Courage and Resilience

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

Fear Factors in Small Business: Sales & Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.