After the employers realized that the organization’s sales and their further work depend on the qualification level, the rapid growth of training programs for employees in terms of professional sale of company products began. Moreover, training in sales techniques for staff and other types of training can be held not only by sales agents, but also simple consultants from sales offices, as well as various project managers and line managers. And this is not at all surprising, since it is possible to sell goods and services not only directly in the hall or in a special office, but also during negotiations and at business meetings of the highest level. So, what is the sales technique of the sales assistant, and also what are the stages of sales?
What are the stages of sales today?
Today, business education has a stable systematization of the stages of sales. So, we will consider the stages of selling a product for a sales assistant:
- preparations for sales (advertising);
- establishing contacts with the client;
- identification of needs;
- product presentation;
- trial transaction;
- discussion of business proposals;
- completion of the transaction;
- setting up long-term cooperation.
Do not be afraid of failure
To date, all kinds of objections, confrontation and differences in goals should not be perceived as something unusual and representing a problem. If we talk about sales, then everything is quite the opposite. It should be said that only when the seller collides with the client’s refusal or the buyer disagrees with the transaction, the seller’s sales technique for the furniture and other goods consultant begins to work - work on questions and objections and further negotiations regarding the cost.
The professionalism of the seller-consultant is manifested in how exactly he knows how to negotiate after he was refused at the first offer of a purchase, so his arsenal should always have a number of techniques that are necessary precisely for further negotiations with the buyer. The variety of all techniques is based on the basic principle of conducting commercial negotiations. It lies in the absence of contradictions on the part of the seller. In direct confrontation with the client, the only right step, in his opinion, can be taken - simply stop negotiations, turn around and leave. Depending on the success of establishing contact with the buyer, the client’s desire for further cooperation with the company, his willingness to give the seller the necessary information at future stages of the sale, as well as his loyalty to the company in general, will depend. Therefore, when conducting commercial negotiations in the inevitable occurrence of contradictions, the seller should not put pressure on the buyer, as this will very badly affect the results of the sale, because the client will become internally “protected”.
Work with questions of interest
Today, there is an opinion that the seller must be active, energetic, able to convince at least someone and at least something. But as practice shows, the most productive sellers are those who can listen. The sales technique of the seller-consultant is that they are asked guiding questions, and they also enable the interlocutor to say everything that he needs. Even when determining needs, the seller must ask such questions that will help him determine the real needs of the client and at the same time allow him to feel really significant, and then he will go into a more comfortable state. This is how the sales assistant should behave. The technique is to make the client satisfied.
By asking questions and his behavior, the consultant should demonstrate such a position so that the client understands that he really needs to know how the offered goods and services satisfy their needs.
To do this, the seller must find out what the potential buyer really needs from the goods. In this case, taking the position of a simple consultant will be most appropriate, since it is sometimes very difficult for clients to say what they really need, since they themselves do not always clearly represent their desires.
What are the customers afraid of?
Due to the fact that the potential buyer himself does not accurately represent what he needs, he develops a subconscious desire to defend himself in negotiations with the seller. The latter should always be ready to communicate with such a client. Be sure to be aware that the buyer is not taking such a position because of a complex nature or not because he does not like the identity of the seller. This closed position is based on the usual fears of the client:
- he is not sure that his choice is really the right one;
- the client is afraid to pay too much by choosing a product with a large margin;
- he does not know by what criteria the goods and the whole assortment are actually evaluated;
- he is afraid of deception by a sophisticated seller;
- he does not want to meet with an arrogant and rude consultant;
- he does not want to get into an uncomfortable position, showing his incompetence in the properties of the goods.
And if even one of his worst fears justifies himself a little, he will leave immediately. Sales methods, sales techniques - everything should be aimed at eradicating the fears of the client at this stage and carefully work out all the objections.
Work with emerging objections
In general, commercial negotiations can be considered started when the seller encounters a first objection. With this type of negotiation, this is the most natural form of customer behavior. For a qualified consultant, any objection is a signal that the client does not have enough information. For a salesperson, buyer objections are a valuable source of information. The sales technique of the seller-consultant is also aimed at the fact that, based on objections, they will always make a conclusion about the necessary product for the client, and he will try to do everything so that the uncertainty is removed.
Beginning sellers very often take objections as a negative client personally in their direction, which causes a negative reaction. With a deliberate, deliberate conversation, the seller will always remain in control, and he will not react in any way to the objections of the potential buyer, but will simply work with them.
Work should begin with a simple compliment. This should be expressed by interest in the opinion of the client and in the response to this objection. Very often, such a technique is called “joining an objection”, which is built on the principle of “aikido”. For example, in response to the client’s objection that the monitors are a health hazard, it can be said that there really is such an opinion, but the monitors are now assembled using a special technology with a protective layer, which completely makes them safe. In such a situation, the seller, as it were, joins the objection, creates mutual understanding with the customer, demonstrates that they have much more in common than disagreements. In order to strengthen the “effect of consent”, before responding to an objection, it should be added: “It's good that you said that,” “I understand you,” and so on. So the seller makes it clear to the client that his opinion is really important to him, and it has the right to exist.
The level of training of a sales consultant is also determined by the fact that he knows how to adapt to each individual buyer.
With the help of affirmative statements, the seller ensures a conflict-free transfer of negotiations to the stage of cooperation. This is achieved by agreeing with the current objections and the subsequent development of the thoughts contained in the objection: “You are really right in saying that the machine is so expensive. But due to such expenses, you will get a lot of additional benefits, which should also be discussed. ”
Very often, objections contain indirect indications of the merits of a commercial offer. The seller must make a positive out of the negative, pay attention to the good parameters of the goods or services.
“There is a suspiciously low cost for your product, in addition, you are still new to the business,” the client can say. And he can be answered that it is precisely due to the short existence that the company is forced to adhere to competitive prices.
The most important thing is to reassure the buyer, offer him, and not argue, try to just talk and dispel all his fears.
True objections
The client’s real objections are often masked by insignificant reservations, since very often he himself does not realize what the true motives that motivate him are. Therefore, in order to reach real, not imaginary, obstacles that will stand in the way of the seller, you should first talk to the customer and understand why he does not want to make a purchase.
How should a seller break through a false objection to the true?
In this situation, a technique called “suppose” might work just fine. The seller who uses it answers all client’s objections with questions that are aimed at removing all excuses: “If there are no financial restrictions, what would you do?”, “If you had no such problem, would you make a deal? ". If even then the client will have objections, then you can repeat the questions. The most recent objection will be true.
False objections
At the same time, one should not disregard other objections of the client, even if the seller can see that they are deliberately false. Moreover, if the buyer raised several objections, then the first answer should be the simplest of all.
Cost discussion
A critical point in commercial negotiations is the customer’s reaction to the value that is announced by the seller. There are a number of techniques that make it possible to make a given value reasonable.
A technique called a “sandwich” consists in the fact that during negotiations the price is placed as if between two “layers”, each of which has undeniable benefit for the client. Using this technique, it is necessary to strive to ensure that negotiations end and begin with indications of benefit and benefit, and not simple numbers.
When using the “comparison” technique, the seller correlates the cost of the product with its benefit, which will be brought to them by the client: “If you think about how much you can save money with this product in a year ...”, “Think about how you will benefit from it”.
The technique of "dividing" is supposed to decrypt the value by decomposing into small components. Thus, you can divide the costs of the purchased product by the number of years during which it is planned to be used, and then calculate the costs for the month of its use.
How to manage your voice?
We all know that depending on a person’s voice, it is possible to give an assessment with an 80 percent probability of age, character, current emotional and physical condition. According to the pronunciation of words by the interlocutor, a conclusion can be drawn about where the speaker comes from, what kind of education and general level of development the speaker has.
The sales technique of a seller-consultant with a high level of qualification should have a proven skill in establishing emotional contact with the buyer due to the voice mood of the second. In everyday life, people’s own voice intuitively adapts to the voice of the interlocutor, especially when they want to get something from him. The professionalism of the seller is also manifested in the conscious management of his voice and intonation, depending on the identity of each client, goals, stages of sales.
The consultant must be “on the same wavelength” with the buyer and help him with the choice of goods, using his baggage of knowledge about the quality of goods or services. If he manages to make friends with the buyer, then he will receive a regular buyer.
In conclusion, we can say that when the question arises of how to increase personal sales to the seller, we can safely say that you should use all of the above tips and strive for more.