In numerous studies of successful firms vs unsuccessful [criteria of successful being attitudinal surveys of clients, vendors and employees plus stock holders and profits, the profits focus always gets in the way-always!
There is no argument that profits keep the entire “ship afloat.” However, it is the performance of the “stakeholders” [customers, vendors, et al] that decide whether the route to the profits is paved with harshness, insensitivity, ruthless behaviors and sullenness or......a positive, team work environment. Some people hate going to work [the author's lady] while others can't wait to get to work [the author]. When we love both doing what we do and with whom we are doing it [Southwest airlines?] vs hate going to work [most firms], we find out quickly that dollars do not make people happy, but attitudes and behaviors do!
For those reasons, top sales people review what makes their customers happy vs sad and angry and try their best to connect the product with the customer's happiness. In some cases, it has been shown that even hungry sales people will not even let the good customer buy if the purchase will put strains on the customer!
It is a fact that in college classes on SELLING, fewer and fewer colleges across the nation offer such a class. And the faculty who used to teach these classes have retired and the younger one's don't enjoy the science of selling.
Also, in stores, there are rarely any qualified staff to teach sales techniques-and again, it is not meant to infer that “how are you today, may I help you” is a sales approach as it is certainly not! A greeting may or may not be a sales approach but when someone is just greeting you and then stops talking, that is not a sales approach. Often of course, the alert sales person is going to listen to the customer and after a cordial welcome, will watch the customer and then, after deducing the desires of the client, will being with the first approach -trying to figure out what product will please the customer. This dual approach is rarely taught by anyone and because it is not, sales are down in most all stores nationwide!
Joe Girard, in "How to Sell anything to anyone" introduces the RULE of 640; please one client and he/she will inform 640 others, displeases and you will eat beans for a long time [author's inference of the other half of Rule 640.]
Some old professional sales techniques I studied 35 years ago;
- Do you introduce to the client, complimentary, and not related products and sale items?
- Do you inform all employees that every employee is a sales person and then do you reward every person for extended efforts in making sales?
- Do you pay for floor people to attend community college, 3 unit credit sales courses?
- Do you have your people shopped? [Have professional review firms act as clients.]
- Do you ask your people to visit the competition every month to compare styles?
I have not had one merchant in 25 years tell me that their business was basically like any others; that their selling chore, responsibility, skill needed, or opportunities were similar to their competitors.
My close call selling percentage, before I quit selling in the field, was 85%. This meant, whether I was selling oil, greeting cards, film processing or whatever, I would canvas via the phone book or other media, logical dealers or retailers of the kinds of goods I was wholesaling to see who might be a reasonable retailer. I would take my goods, [and their insurance] and seek them out when they were likely slow, so as not to interrupt their sales or customer service time.
I would not ever say I was there to sell something to the merchant, because I wasn't! I was there to solve his/her problem(s). All merchants ( I haven't met any exception in 30 years) need to serve customers and therefore, solve their respective customer's problems.
According to scientists to study human behavior (you might think behavior science is hokum, but I know better), people have needs that need satisfying. Coke satisfies the average soda drinkers needs better than Dr. Pepper, Ford satisfies the motorists needs better than Subaru, et al. Research, questionnaires, surveys and other investigation systems can accurately determine what customers want and wise merchants follow these guidelines.
When I sold (satisfied a merchant's problems which were increasing his sales) my metal treatment, I simply asked what he/she would say about a chemical that would increase an engine's RPM even if I did not touch the vehicle in any way, and the vehicle could be in horrible condition. I knew the characteristics of my product (called Tephguard) and knew what it would do. I didn't say that I would make the merchant lots of money. The merchant's money was his business. Merchants are rarely stupid. The merchant's (mechanics) problem I sought to solve was to increase his customer's engine speed without touching the engine--just by having the mechanic pour my junk in a can into the crankcase of an operating engine.
