Continuing with my series on my summer job, another aspect I learned is to not be too eager. Sometimes, I felt so excited to see a customer walking through the door that I would overwhelm them with information and excitement, thus scaring them away.
I call those who tend to be scared easily the “tentative customer.” Lots of customers came in, just wanting to see the “new” ice cream/coffee place that opened up, rather than wanting to purchase anything. The difficulty is determining who is a hesitant customer and who is not quickly. I would often guess wrong and think the person walking in was ready to purchase and get all excited, spouting all the information I knew. But then it turns out that they just wanted to check out the place, and were often intimidated by my enthusiasm.
Another aspect of the tentative customer is understanding that it’s okay for them to not make the decision right away. Instead of being pushy with the tentative customer, I learned to busy myself wiping down the counters or taking other orders after telling the customer to “Please let me know if you have any questions I can answer for you today.” Oftentimes, the tentative customer had a lot of questions, and when receiving an answer they liked, would no longer be a tentative customer, but rather a buyer.
At the end of the day, one of the most valuable sales tactics is understanding that no two people are ever the same, thus each customer will require a unique sales approach, focused on them and not “the pen” you are trying to sell.
BoweryJE22
“The Pen” example was so such a great awakening as what was needed to be pointed out in the wrong of most sales pitches. I have to agree that I too tend to get a little jumpy when I see a customer come into the store I am working at. It takes practice when it comes to calming down quickly and unnoticeably
I love how you are writing your blog posts about your personal sales experiences. Being too eager is definitely something to watch out for. I see myself doing that too at jobs that I have worked at. Seeing people when you are trying to sell just makes you so excited because it is our natural human instinct to connect to them and just assume they are there to purchase something even when they aren’t. Great post!