It is hard to believe that sales trainers still peddle this hooey. It is even harder to believe that a company as large and sophisticated as Orange – a large cell phone provider – fell for it.
Here’s the story.
About five years ago I was between meetings at an upscale mall in the Tel Aviv area when my cell phone died. I am an Orange customer so I found the Orange kiosk and Natalie (not her real name), the young saleswoman, graciously allowed me connect to their power supply.
While charging up I observed what is all too common in retail: A shopper walked up to the kiosk and browsed the display phones, avoiding Natalie’s gaze.
“Hello,” said Natalie with a smile. The shopper looked up, mumbled a hello, forced a smile and hurried away.
Nothing is as unwanted as unsolicited advice but after observing several interactions like this I offered Natalie some help.
“I work with clients to increase sales,” I told her. “May I share some ideas on how to increase your sales? It is my way of returning your favor.”
“Sure” she said, looking surprised. She hadn’t expected this.
“When you walk into a store, what does the salesperson ask you 98% of the time?” I asked.
She had never thought of this before but sudden recognition crossed her face. “They ask ‘May I help you?'”
“And what do you answer 98% of the time?” I asked.
She laughed. “No thank you. I’m just looking.”
“What’s wrong with this approach?” I asked.
She was silent. Thinking. She sensed it wasn’t right, but couldn’t put her finger on why not.
“I’ll tell you. In any sales situation you need to be gathering insights about your customers in order to learn what is important to them. ‘May I help you?’ gives you no information and closes the door to asking additional questions. Saying ‘Hello’ is just as bad. It leads the customer nowhere.”
“What should I say?” she asked.
“You want to be asking questions that put you in control of the conversation. For example, when a shopper comes to browse the phones, you might say “Hello, are you looking to upgrade your phone, or just checking out what’s new?”
“Regardless of their answer you can now move forward. If they want to upgrade, the next step is obvious. If they are just browsing you might say, “Well once you are browsing, take a look at this…” And show them some of the latest technology. Now you are in control of the conversation. Prepare a few follow-up questions and you maintain control. Make sense?”
“Yes” said Natalie. “Funny you should say this. Just this morning I was at an Orange sales training and they told us that when people come by we should take out the 3G phone and act very excited – as if it’s the first time we’ve seen it.”
“And are you doing it?” I asked.
“No.” She said. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“How about my approach?”
“It feels much more natural and sincere.”
Do you want your sales conversations to feel natural, sincere – and close more sales?
Go here and join me now. Sessions 2 and 3 happen next week. Live training with Q&A.
Dov Gordon
