Sales Training Tips Know Your Customer
A good salesperson will make their product and pitch fit their customer. They will take the time to learn about their customer, whether it be through initial research or through questioning they will assess what is important to their potential customer before going in for the sale. There are some rules of sales that should not be ignored.Prior Research
Research is an essential part of any sales role, the opportunity should be taken to research a potential customer before they are approached, learn as much as possible from all resources such as the internet or even colleagues. This will help a salesperson to build initial rapport with any potential customer as they are instantly credible and have clearly taken real interest.
Customer Questioning
The use of high gain open questions with a customer will help a salesperson understand what is important to them when considering new products or services, what standards they expect, what timescale they work to and who is involved in the decision process
A salesperson should let the customer speak and listen for signals of interest, a good rule to adopt is the 80/20 rule, let the customer speak for 80% of the time in response to good questioning. It is human nature to like talking about yourself and a customer will not be excluded from this rule so the opportunity should be taken to play on this to gain as much insight into a customer as possible to help make a sale.
Through questioning a salesperson should help the customer realise a need or problem and then offer a solution, if the customer highlights the need themselves half of a salespersonò€™s job is done.
Tailored Proposal
Any proposal should be tailored to the audience and play to their interest, if a customer likes to talk numbers they will be offered numbers and if they like talking status matching benefits will be highlighted. A good salesperson will use everything they have learned through questioning to ensure that the proposal appeals to their customer and that it plays on the identified areas of interest.