Shopping on your local high street can be a
frustrating affair. Many people try to avoid the experience at all
cost, and with online shopping becoming more and more user friendly
on a daily basis, there’s no wonder why so many people are moving
away from it.
I find shopping on the high street a very
frustrating experience, not only because of the vast amount of time
spent queing to pay for the purchases!
As a sales person, I
find it hard not to over look or to analyse the techniques that the
people I encounter in day to day shopping use when it comes to sales jobs.
Retail sales staff do have a vital role to play when it comes to the
stores making sales and ultimately money from their items.
With
this in mind, I find it hard to believe that the major forces in
retail don’t have a good training program to get their staff up to
scratch when it comes to sales techniques. If this is the case, then
most of the time it must be the sales staff who fail to take it on
board, or use what they have been taught, as most of the time I find
that staff use poor sales techniques.
The one sure way of not
making a sale is to approach a potential with a closed ended
question. A closed ended question is one that prompts a one worded,
or simple response. For example, if somebody asks you if “you need
any help”, your response is more than likely going to be “no
thanks”.
Why is this? Well it’s part of our traits. It always
has been and most likely will always be. When you are shopping you
don’t want to be bothered. Most of the time you won’t like the
thought of somebody pushing you into a decision to purchase anything
at all.
Instead of that question, people in sales jobs should use a
question that will prompt a fairly decent response, one which can’t
be a simple “no”. The easiest way of doing this is to ask about a
type of product that they may be interested in. For example, a shoe
sales man could ask about the type or style of shoe that the customer
may be interested in.
There can be no simple “no” response
to it, unless the potential customer severely lacks any type of
people or communication skills!
A simple yet effective change
to your opening question in retail sales jobs can make a huge difference
in the progress you make.
