If it's one thing I've learned about sales, it's that barely any customers ever enter the store with exact questions. And of course, it's normal to just want to see what you can find. So then, it produces that awkward response to the ever popular "can I help you today?"
"I'm just browsing."
That's all they say and just like that, they sorta push you away and it's off to leave them alone. And that's all well and good, but there's just one problem with that. The training videos showed all the customers way too polite, even when saying they are just browsing. If that training video was actually based on reality, we would have seen employees getting the occasional cold shoulder or the customer that just gets annoyed upon human contact.
If it were up to me, I would just say hello and let the customers do their thing. However, we have to keep asking the same question that causes the dreaded reply. Just looking.
Luis:
ReplyDeleteIn my years in retail I was a tremendous salesperson. I say this without modesty because at the time I took little satisfaction in it. I just did what came naturally and before long I was managing stores and earning a big percentage of store profits. But there were two things I seemed to do that others didn't. First, I never greeted a customer with a question they could answer with a yes or no. In fact, I usually opened my conversation with an unrelated topic such as, "I really like your watch. I've been looking for one similar to yours." Most customers, even me, are programmed to throw out the "just looking" comment and beginning with a personal compliment or statement initiates a conversation and lowers their defenses. Second, people hear at the same speed as they speak. Modify your speech to match theirs. Become the type of person they like and they"ll by anything from you. Just food for thought.