Mr. Carnegie once wrote an article titled 'How to Make People Like You' in 'The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking'. The article lists six prescriptions: learn to genuinely care for others; never forget to smile; never forget others' names; learn to listen to others; cater to others' interests and make them feel important. In fact, winning customers' affection is the same.
Sales Skills Training 1: Respect the customer and be responsible to them.
Respecting and acknowledging customers is not flattery, but a heartfelt consideration and care, a sign of depth and upbringing. Everyone needs to be respected; only when you respect the customer will they respond with the same attitude. As a salesperson, only by being responsible to the customer, caring for and understanding them, can you show that you are a friend worth engaging with. This will help build a closer relationship, making it more likely to seize opportunities.
Meili is a salesperson for an insurance company, and whenever her clients have an accident, she visits them immediately.
One day, a fire broke out in the apartment building where one of her clients lived. This client had purchased a life insurance policy from Meili, and she was worried that the client's property would suffer significant losses due to the fire. She knew the client had not purchased property insurance, and this fire must have put a lot of pressure on them.
Meili hurried to visit the client and immediately asked, 'Is everyone okay?'
Then she asked a second question: 'Did you suffer any major losses?'
The third statement was: 'It's my fault for not insisting that you purchase property insurance at the time, which means I can't help you reduce your losses today or share the financial pressure; all I can do is share the emotional pressure with you today.'
The fourth statement was: 'I am very anxious and heartbroken about your situation, and I will do my best to help you.'
Meili appeared by the client's side just when they needed help and comfort the most, which made the client feel warm. In the following period, Meili often visited the client's home to chat and comfort them. She also tailored a property insurance policy for them. In the end, within less than six months, the client purchased this property insurance.
An excellent salesperson always considers issues from the customer's perspective, takes responsibility for them, and reassures them to purchase products. Only in this way can customers continue to cooperate with you. Paying attention to the following details is essential when being responsible to customers.
Be honest with customers; do not deceive them.
Help customers choose the product that is most suitable for them, not the most expensive or the one with the highest commission.
Cooperation with customers should have a win-win philosophy, meaning that the customer makes money, and then you can make money.
Do your utmost to help customers achieve what they desire.
Sales Skills Training 2: The power of a smile is infinite.
A smile is the most infectious form of communication; it can quickly shorten the distance between you and the customer, expressing your goodwill and joy, giving the customer a warm feeling like a spring breeze. When Hilton, the hotel magnate, was broke, his mother told him that to achieve success, he must find a simple, cost-effective, and long-lasting way to attract customers. Through gradual exploration, Hilton finally found this: a smile! Relying on the motto 'Did you smile today?', he became one of the most successful and wealthiest people in the world. This shows that the power of a smile is indeed infinite.
Although a smile is a lubricant in interpersonal communication, it is not necessary to smile at all times. Smiles should be appropriate, considering the occasion and the person, and should be natural and sincere. If it is not heartfelt, it can easily come off as 'smiling on the outside but not on the inside', which not only fails to resonate with the other person and make them feel warm but can also lead to discomfort.
Sales Skills Training 3: Be enthusiastic, but not excessive.
Customers do not like cold salespeople. During the sales process, salespeople should maintain a high level of enthusiasm, which makes customers feel friendly and natural, thus shortening the emotional distance between them. This encourages customers to create a good environment for exchanging ideas and emotions with you. However, salespeople should also be careful not to be overly enthusiastic. Some salespeople immediately act overly familiar with customers upon first meeting, and even when faced with rejection, they still refuse to leave. This excessive enthusiasm can lead customers to distrust the salesperson or even feel repulsed, making it impossible to continue the relationship or close a deal.
Sales Skills Training 4: Make your language more humorous.
In real life, people with a sense of humor are often full of vitality; they have a wide range of interests, abundant energy, and an open mind. As a salesperson, if you can make your language more humorous, you will reap unexpected rewards.
Ada is a salesperson for the Encyclopedia Britannica. After only six months in the job, she achieved quite good results. When others asked her how she improved her sales performance, she said, 'It's actually very simple. I always visit when both partners are at home, then explain my purpose to the husband, listing the practical value and profound content of the book, but I deliberately lower my voice so that the wife sitting next to him will listen attentively. This way, when the husband asks his wife for her opinion, it is easy to reach a consensus.'
This is an application of a humorous method. Humor can bridge the gap between you and the customer, but it is not always applicable. When a customer is experiencing sadness or is very angry, it is not appropriate to use humorous language. Therefore, while humor is a good remedy, it cannot cure all ills; salespeople must adapt to the person, time, and place.
Sales Skills Training 5: Sincerely praise the customer.
Praise is the lubricant of human communication and a necessary skill for effectively using the 'soul transfer method'. For salespeople, if they can use this skill well, they often achieve unexpected results. According to experts, if a person is praised for a long time, their mood becomes pleasant, and their IQ may decrease. For salespeople, giving sincere praise to customers can be a good method for achieving sales success. However, it is important to find the unique highlights in the customer to praise; never flatter without basis or make irrelevant compliments, as this will not help bridge the gap but may instead make the customer feel you are insincere and unreasonable.