Umbrella Question
Umbrella question are questions that work in any selling situation and are designed to provide you with additional information. Some examples of umbrella question that I like to use are: why? Tell me more. Are there some other examples you could share with me. Umbrella question are ones that get the customer talking more about what they are looking for.
Holiday Networking
When we hear the word holidays we should start licking our lips. The holiday are a great time to begin preparing your schedule for making phones calls to people to whom you rarely talk. There is no better opportunity that during the holidays to call someone you haven’t spoken to recently and wish them a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.
Know your customer’s customer
Take the time to find out all you can about what motivates your customer’s customers. Spend time with them, talk to them, most of all get to know what drives their decision making process. When you can identify this information, you can then provide your customer with even better services and products.
Have you learned something new?
I have found that there is always something new you can learn about your customers, whether they are new or long term clients. Use each sales call as an opportunity to be teachable. You will be amazed how customer change. A thing I found helpful was to after sales call, ask yourself what you learned about the customer and record it in your customer profile.
Agree on something
Never end a sales call without having agree with your customer on something, even if it’s not the close of a sale. I have notice that the objective of coming to an agreement is to demonstrate to the customer that you are able to move the sale forward. If possible, gain agreement on one particular aspect of the sale and use that as a building block for the next time you meet. However, if you cant see eye to eye you may be able to plan a follow up time to get together. The important thing is that you agree on something.
testacr22
Wise words! I think we all should keep this in mind no matter who we are talking to, or whether we are trying to sell something or not. It’s good to engage with others and establish beyond a surface level conversation or relationship. Dig deeper and reap the benefits of learning more about an individual.
I like how the first thing that you listed was a question. This allows for the customer to start out by doing most of the talking. I think this is a great way to also find out more about the customer. Which is the 3rd tip that you listed. Essentially you can start off the sales pitch the right way by learning and listening to the customer and finding out what they need. This will help anyone who is just starting to learn sales.
It is great to see that all of the questions are based on the other person, not yourself. Learning more and more about the customer insures that the sale is driven towards the needs of the customer. This is the type of experience that the customer is looking for.
I really like these tips because they are all new to me. They definitely reflect what we have been learning, such as being customer-focused and being conversational.