We all know this pain way too well. We are out shopping for a gift or even for ourselves and we get to the store an there are a million variations of the exact same thing. This can happen with phones, clothes, electronics of any kind, furniture… the list goes on but the idea is that we are overwhelmed by the number of options, we end up making a poor decision or we do not buying anything at all because we cannot choose.
Rather than leaving a customer to fend for themselves have someone aid the in the decision making process. It is a necessity to have a sales person at a furniture or car dealership. If customers come in not know what they want they will see a field of cars and just walk aimlessly looking at the stickers and just looking at MPGs because they have no idea what else to look for and then leave because they got nothing out of the experience. A salesperson can talk and relate and see what the customer needs. From there they can point them in the right direction and give a customer something to look at and narrow down the choices. That is the biggest step. If you can reduce the number of choices from 31 to 5, that is a victory and something a person can handle.
Now some people do not want any help and do have an idea of what they are looking for, this is more common now because of the customer’s access to information before the buying process. In these cases it is still important to approach them and ask if they need help. People will appreciate the offer and may end up asking that person for advice or detail about a product.
It all comes down to being a business or salesperson who is not pressuring anyone to buy, but rather to be there to inform customers about what they are looking at and help them in the right direction. If you can do that, the potential of losing a sale goes way down.
testacr22
Great outlook on this topic! I think we all could easily relate to a time where we could have used a little direction in a buying situation but either received no help or had someone come and just try to push a product on us. Sales really is all about informing customers and looking out for their interests. Great post!
In the car industry we sometimes refer to this as “catalogue syndrome”- where people have difficulty making a decision because of the shear number of options available to them. In these cases, it is important to realize that the customer ALWAYS knows what they want- it is just the salesman’s job to help them figure it out for themselves. Actively selling customers can overwhelm them, but most customers welcome a pressure free consultation, which is why the term “salesman” in the car industry is being replaced by less threatening job titles, like “sales consultant.”
The approach of “informing rather than selling” seems to be so key to me – You want to meet people where they are at. If you just push people, you are not meeting people where they are at you are just trying to sell them, and that is not going to work. You want people to see that you actually care about solving their pain, and not just making the sale.
This post is great. Information can sometimes be overwhelming and it is helpful to have someone who can help you process the information. I also love when salespeople help you look at all the options instead of trying to insist that you buy the most expensive option that there is. Information can help or hurt the salesperson and I think it is important for salespeople to use information to help them.