Saturday 11 October 2014

7 Ways to Miss a Sale

1 Premature reaction to customer complaints 

Despite the fact that it is possible and it is necessary to anticipate possible criticism of consumers towards goods or services and to prepare for it, there is nothing worse than to come up with a problem connected to your product/service and try to respond to it to your customer who hast't said it aloud yet.

Trying to explain something in advance, you are automatically in a defensive position and look unsure of the true values that are selling. 

How to avoid this situation: When dealing with a potential customer, never start the phrase with the words: "You may be wondering ..." or "You may ask yourself ..." 

2 Give the initiative to customer to lead conversation 

How often promotional mailing end with offers to potential clients to call or contact the addressee in another way in the case of "if you're interested," or "to find out more." And how often the authors of these mailings are complaining that they do not receive any response. 

No wonder: they are asking the client to do their work for them. 

How to avoid this situation: Keep the ball in your territory. Instead of above mentioned proposals write something like: "I'll call you next week to discuss the possibilities of our future cooperation." 

3 Sale of characteristics instead of the real effect of customer problem being solved 

Unbelievable but true: some marketers really believe that consumers buy a product because it has some desired functionality. So they continually list those same functions with the hope that at least one of them will awake interest in a potential customer. 

In fact, customers are primarily interested in the impact that the purchase will have on their lives or businesses. 

How to avoid this situation: Find out why your target customer wants to buy your product and not someone else's. And sell it using the characteristics of your product as possible arguments to ensure this result. 

4 Hypocritical credibility 

Like it or not, but at the very moment when your customer starts thinking you just want to sell him something and nothing else, you enter into an uphill battle for his confidence in your product. The most common variant of this tactic - first of all during the "cold" call to ask "How are you feeling?", "How are you?". People start feeling sick of your call. 

How to avoid this situation: Keep your dignity and professionalism, do not to go beyond the conventional forms of politeness - as long as you do not actually win the credibility of the person, which could take weeks. 

5 Failure to fulfill promise 

The sad truth is for consumers sales are people who are by default, crooks, until proven otherwise. Building relationships with clients to the degree of trust is a long way. 

So, don't count on sympathy until you fulfill everything that agreed with the client on. One failure - and you're out of the game. 

How to avoid the situation: Take one obligation at a time and only those obligations that you are 100% sure. 

6 More chatting than attention to detail 

One of the most common mistakes. When you have something to sell, so easy to fall into a certain agitation and then try to "force the deal" by your own eloquence. Clients actually find this extremely annoying. 

How to avoid this situation: Redefine the sales process in your mind as a passive activity for the most part, which is primarily in listening to the customer's wishes, attention to detail and responding to his words and actions. 

7 Interpretation of "closing the deal" as "the end of the process" 

Maybe it's a consequence of a failure of terminology, but most companies and individual entrepreneurs perceive "closing the deal" as the end of all the actions.

This is just THE beginning. When you close the deal the next step to be is you start to build a relationship that could result in long-term cooperation. 
And it is much easier and more profitable than the conclusion of a deal. 

How to avoid the situation: Always keep in mind the long-term partnership, not a one-time winner. Provide the best customer service to show that the greener grass is on your side.

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