One of the biggest keys to closing a deal with a potential customer is making the customer feel comfortable enough to want to make the purchase. Many salespeople use tactics that place the buyer in a very awkward position, and from that alone, the sale often falls apart. Creating a feeling that you are a friend or acquaintance of the customer works much better than being too aggressive in your sales approach. Here are a few ways you can make the customer feel more comfortable around you and put you in the best position to close the deal.
Gain the Buyer\'s Trust
When your potential customer meets you for the first time you are no different than the dozens of other salespeople they see in a given week. The goal here is to convince them that you can be trusted. To do that early on you must be sincere in your presentation and you must mix in a little sincerity. When you first meet and introduce yourselves to each other, it looks very bad if you are asking the buyer\'s name again ten minutes later. If the buyer makes a point about something and you not only do not acknowledge it, you forget it later in the presentation, you\'re putting a very bad impression out there. To gain their trust you must pay attention to them and be honest with them from the beginning. When they stop trusting you, they stop trusting what you say and your chances of closing the deal are over.
Pay Closer Attention
Your customer will make comments throughout your presentation that tell you why they need your product or service. Once you identify why they want the product you need to be able to switch gears on the fly and stress to the buyer that you understand their concerns and how the product can meet those concerns. If you can quickly identify their desire and show how the product can help them with that need, you increase your likability ten fold. Stop being an obnoxious pushy salesman and become a caring person who listens and identifies problems. Think of the customer as your closest friend. Would you cheat and push your best friend? No. You would treat them with patience, courtesy, and respect. Treat your customers with the same respect and caring and protection that you would treat your best friend. That is the type of salesperson every client loves to work with.
Be That Expert
The buyer not only wants to buy a product or service, they want to buy it from someone who is an expert in the field and not just another pitchman. Take time away from the sale to make yourself an expert on the product or service and get a little acquainted with your clients business too. When you are discussing the service to your client and discuss a few tidbits about their business, it shows you took the time to research them and gives you more credibility and makes them more comfortable. Offering your advice on why a certain product can benefit them as compared to how in the past it may not, shows you took the time to study the history of their company.
Being a good salesperson is all about relationships. To get the customer to like you and be comfortable around you, the most important thing to learn early in the sales pitch is to be honest. Trying to get the sales by any means will result in either a very brief relationship or none at all. Making the customer feel like you genuinely are interested in their business means you have to really be interested. Being honest will help you make more closer connections to potential buyers that can result in them referring you to their colleagues. Be honest and informative with your customers from the start and they will most certainly begin to trust you.
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