Are you a salesperson or a help-you-buy person?
Editor’s note: This is the third blog in a series about asking for the sale. In this installment, Steve Lemco describes the difference between a salesperson and a help-you-buy person.
As unlikely as it may sound, the number one mistake made by salespeople is that they don’t ask for the sale.
Here’s the reason: They act like salespeople. Salespeople try to sell you something. If the customer doesn’t buy, that’s it — they quit. Their downfall is that they get enough sales to get by, so they feel they have an OK system.
It’s their bus stop, or in other words, their life, and I’m not going to rain on their stop, but I’m here to tell you it is not an OK way to go about it. Good luck trying to intimidate or lean on customers to buy. You will get some sales that way, but I don’t like your chances for repeat business or referrals.
What I’m about to say demonstrates the tremendous difference between a salesperson and a help-you-buy person. Like a salesperson, the help-you-buy person wants the sale, and if he or she is any good, he or she wants it today. To make this happen, there are some things you need to know. You’ve got to know that if customers do buy today, they do so because they want to. Also, you’ve got to believe that the customer is there because you have something they want.
You’ve got to believe the company wants them to have it. You’ve got to know why you are there, which is to help them buy what they want. And both you and the customer must know that they don’t have to pay for it, not all at once anyway, because you have a super financing program. And most important of all, if your customer doesn’t say he will buy one today, then you Gotta ask for the sale.
When you ask for the sale, one of two things will happen: they will either try to buy, or they won’t. I am not concerned at this time with which one it is. We will be dealing with both decisions later. My concern right now is that you understand that you must ask for the sale from every single customer you talk to.
What will make it easy to ask is the relationship you’ve developed along the way. I cannot stress enough how important probing is to every aspect of the sales game. It’s the one step that never ends as long as the two of you are communicating. Once you greet somebody, you don’t ask them to go back outside because you want to say hello again. And you usually don’t make a demonstration more than once. All these steps happen in their appropriate place, then you move on past them. But what does stay with you throughout the process is the relationship with the customer that you are developing.
When you play talk ping-pong with your customers by asking “What” questions, you will become a friend in the business instead of a salesperson. Now how tough is it to ask a friend, “Would you like to buy one today?” Believe it or not, this is the question least asked in sales situations.
The best outcome is when the customer says, “Yes!”
What’s the worst that can happen?
It’s not that they may say “No!” The worst thing that can happen is that you don’t ask at all. Because if you do ask and they say no, then you can put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and get to work solving the mystery of The Customer Who Didn’t Buy What He Wants. And just think, what if you do discover the answer, solve the problem and your new friend buys what they want? Who’s the winner? Who helped them win? Gosh, what a friend you are! You didn’t quit. You hung in there and helped someone have a better bus stop. You should almost feel guilty about getting paid. Well …we won’t go that far. Still, it’s a great job — making people happy, helping them buy what they want — not like real work at all.
The second thing that makes it easy is the Gotta-Wanna. If you want to ask, you will. Try it with me one time. Say the following line out loud, “Would you like to buy one today?” How does that sound? Say it again. Practice it.
Being a top help-you-buy person is simple. Take it one step at a time, say the words you already know, and apply the Gotta-Wanna we were all born with. You have now mixed the ingredients for the simplest formula there is for success.
To read the first blog in this series, click here. To read the second, click here.
Steve Lemco is the youngest brother of the late Ed Lemco and has been doing sales training and hiring for motorcycle dealers since 1983. Steve has trained in every state in the U.S., as well as England, France, Australia and New Zealand. Steve incorporates motivational boards and games along with his training and hiring because he believes the best way to get the job done is to make it fun.
Contact: stevelemco@aol.com
Website: www.stevelemco.com
Phone: 253/826-6110
