Know Your Customer
My feeling on this topic is that knowing every little detail about a customer is not important and a waste of time and resources. Listen to your customers (or anyone) when they speak to you. In fact, spend more time listening than speaking. You will learn what is important to them personally and professionally and from there you will know what is important to know about that person.
If a customer constantly wants to discuss topics totally unrelated to your purpose for being there the only thing you might need to know is to move on to a better prospect; unless you are graced with huge orders for listening to the droning. Most customers will make their priorities known to you and will appreciate a professional relationship rather than a professional relationship. It is impressive to have a family history, pet names, and all that other inane stuff documented or memorized but for the most part, it is useless and perhaps even a little creepy in the eyes of your customer. Sorry, Harvey McKay.
Be yourself. Be honest. Be punctual. Be respectful. Do these and you will be successful.
Follow-Up
You probably had an experience in your life where someone suggested that you and they should get together sometime for some activity. It sounded fun but then that person never followed through and you felt insignificant in the other person’s life.
Poor follow-up is possibly the most significant error salespeople can make. Imagine your confidence in dealing professionally with someone who doesn’t do what they promise. After the second chance, your confidence in that person is shaken and you likely will not trust them again, at least not completely. So many salespeople fail in this area that if you can just manage to complete the task you will be in a small percentage among your peers. This translates into you becoming the one your customers and co-workers will trust to get something done. When this happens your job will get easier every day.
Keep Your Word
What makes a sales job so difficult for new and veteran salespeople is being able to deliver on your promises. Early in my career, I fell prey to the temptation to exaggerate in order to get the sale. This is human nature because we do not want to fail. This is why sales trainers always have work; coaching those of us who cannot help ourselves.
In addition to this basic instinct to survive; make that sale in order to sell another day, we try to become people pleasers. This is a dangerous position to put yourself in because you increase the potential for exaggerations to become more frequent and commonplace in your daily contact with customers. In reality, people just want to hear the truth. This means you may have to lose a sale in your effort to be up-front and truthful. This is life.
It does not take long to realize that no one has ever been able to retire on one big sale. This is a long, steady race and in order to be standing at the end, pace yourself now. Follow the Golden Rule and treat those around you the same as you would like to be treated. It is easier to sleep at night and easier to face people in the morning.
Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below. We look forward to talking to you soon!
