Questions That Sell

When you think of your stereotypical run-of-the-mill salesman what do you think of? Most of us probably think of a pushy, greedy, quick talking, scum-bag kind of personality- the kind of person one might find at a used car lot, or selling products door to door. What you may not realize, and may be surprised to find, is that our motives for hating the talkative salesman may not be as pure as you thought. We hate talkative, pushy salesman because we want to be the talkative pushy one in our relationships. Very few people actually enjoy hearing others run their mouths, but almost everyone likes hearing themselves speak. This creates a strange paradox for the salesman who is now in the position of having to sell a product without talking about it- but how is that possible? The answer is actually quite simple: let the customer talk. People love to feel smart and they love it when people listen to them and act like their opinion actually means something to you. And what’s more- when they talk they oftentimes wind up selling themselves the very product that you were trying to sell them in the first place! So how does one get the customer talking and thinking about your product? -by asking questions!

The dawn of internet shopping has given customers a source of information that they didn’t have 10 years ago. When most customers come to your store to make a big purchase, many of them are already well educated on the product and may actually know more than you do as the salesman. When these customers arrive at your showroom they aren’t there to year what you have to say; more often than not, they are there to show off what they know. Asking questions that get the customer talking about what they know immediately bolsters their confidence and their likelihood of purchasing from you. The modern salesman, then, needs to be a master of the question. Many car dealerships actually build this into their training programs. Salesmen are given lists of scripted questions to memorize before they even see a fact sheet on one of their cars. The world of sales is changing and where salesmen of old was a peddler of facts and features, the modern salesmen is a peddler of self-confidence. Make the customer feel important and you should have no problem closing the deal.