Getting Inside Your Customer's Head--Continued

The reason I titled this blog "The Fine Art of Selling" is because selling is an art.  Understanding the complex motivations of customers is not an easy task.  You have to be very sensitive to what the customer wants and by "customer", I mean everyone involved in the purchase decision.  You may be talking about your product with one person, but there may be many involved in the decision process.  A good salesperson needs to find out how the decision is being made.

A Salesperson makes money by selling stuff.  A good salesperson spends time understanding his customer and the decision making process.  A bad salesperson just tries to sell stuff, and if he meets resistance, quits and walks away.

I had a situation recently where a customer called me and asked for a quote on a particular item--and gave me the model number.  I could have quoted him and gone on my way.  But this is not my style and not what made me successful.  I asked questions, and more questions; and my questions lead to other questions and I found out the situation was NOT what I thought it was.  Just quoting him, and maybe getting the order and making $25 commission, is what a bad salesperson does.  Asking questions and turning one possible order into a situation where you now own the customer because you took the time to understand what he really wanted will turn him into a huge customer and many hundreds of dollars in commission.

Spend the time to get into your customer's head.  Own your customer.