Every sale is a dynamic process from beginning to end. Understanding how it works, it gives the seller the security of knowing at what point in the negotiations have reached and where it is going. Understand the sales process is like having a map with a starting point, a way forward and a point of arrival.
Stages of the sale:
- Get attention
- Establish a rapport
- Gather information
- Creating an ideal state for the purchase
- Present the product
- Managing objections
- Close the sale
This is a simple way of teaching and to explain how a sale occurs, which obviously has its exceptions.
Get attention
The first step is getting the attention of the customer. The way you get the customer’s attention is crucial because it will facilitate the next steps of the negotiation.
So, let’s see what is the ways we can get attention from the customer:
- Be creative
- Ask questions whose answers are “YES”
- Be bold
- Say phrases that create curiosity
- Stopping patterns
Be creative
Creativity is something that varies from person to person and often the creativity does not come at the right where you need to be creative, so you should prepare in advance for creative things to attract customers to you.
Ask questions whose answers are YES
During the negotiations we must seek the consent of the client, you can do this from the beginning of the negotiation by asking questions that can only be answered with “yes.”
For example: A man is driving his car in a rainy day and sees a beautiful woman with an umbrella that seeks shelter from the rain and splashing of passing cars. The man decides to offer a ride to the woman, perhaps because they want to help or maybe just because she’s very pretty.
What is the question that man can do to increase the likelihood of achieving its purpose?
● Want a ride?
The answer, apart from some rare cases it is negative.
● Do you want to take cover from the rain?
In that situation who does not want, the first answer that comes to mind is: “yes, I do”
Another example is the classic call advertising with the operator asks you:
● He wants to save on phone bill?
Who would not, instinctively, the answer is YES I want it
Hence, they are to avoid phrases that may lead to a denial of the potential customer as they could complicate the negotiations.
Avoid the phrases:
● Hi, John and sell household items
Some people have prejudices against the sellers, so the only pronunciation of the word sell can generate a sense of rejection.
● Do you have a minute for me, I would like to show the products
Although this sentence will probably lead to a rejection
Good but these are the phrases that lead to success and create some doubts
- Do you like this fragrance?
- Can you help me?
- Do you like quality products?
- He wants to save
Be bold
The audacity of the seller depends on the ability to be flexible in reaching their goals. Boldness is also affected by security and by faith you have in the products they sell and the desire to achieve a positive result.
Being bold means going beyond the conventional methods and overcome the limitations common to most people. The audacity is often the key to getting the attention and the opening of closed doors.
Phrases or attitudes that cause curiosity
Curiosity is another way to get attention.
You may have seen someone stop to watch the sky as if something very important was happening. What happened afterwards? Well, after looking at the sky more people curious to know what that person was watching.
So why not use the curiosity to sell?
An old American insurance broker had always on his desk a book by Ernest Hemingway notes placed between the pages of the book. The people who sat in front of him looked intrigued by the book because the insurer had the notes there in the middle of the book. Then the insurer by opening the book and doing some bills flutter said: “Ernest Hemingway is dead.” And then continues: “And when he died, he left his family penniless on the streets and no hope.”, Then turning to the customer: “Now you’re alive and you take care of your family, but who will take care of when they are gone? “. In this way the insurer was selling insurance policies and attracted the attention!
Stopping patterns
People live according to plans, models, the so-called “autopilot”, but when a pattern interrupt people’s attention goes to the cause of Think of how many times we do things without thinking, and while we make our mind wanders, we have a thousand thoughts, we dream with open eyes and think back to situations or things of the past, then a noise, a barking dog, a horn of a car there “break” and take us back in real life has caught our attention.
This is another way to capture the attention that can be used in the sale.
Conclusion
During a negotiation is essential to get the attention of the interlocutor, we discussed briefly some of the methods to achieve it. It important to adapt the methods to their own ways of being and the product that you want to sell, use your creativity to create new methods or simply to improve those that already are using.
So the first step in the sales process is to capture attention, but what is the next step?
The next step is to establish a rapport.