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How many races has this title line started? Millions? Billions? Who really knows, the fact is that when we hear this line we all know exactly what is going on and what to expect.
There are lines that have become such a part of our life and culture that there is no misunderstanding their meanings. Lights, Camera, Action! Let the Games Begin!, Halt or I’ll Shoot! (OK maybe we have just heard this one on TV…I HOPE), Gentlemen Start Your Engines. Each one of these lines immediately brings a picture into our minds of the event that is about to take place.
Do your customers form a picture in their minds when you say certain lines? They do if you have taught them what to expect. When I was in the sales field, I would say, “Let me show you what I mean” and my customers knew immediately that they were about to see a demonstration of the product I was showing. How? I trained them, just like you train a pet, my customers were trained to follow me to wherever I went to see the product work. If I said to a customer, “Fair enough” they knew I was closing the sale and that this was the time to say no if they had a question or concern, if not I was writing the order.
How do you train a customer to react in these ways? Actually it is simple, you need to use the same terminology every time you make a sales call. The first time the customer won’t know what to do when you say the phrase, you need to help them by giving them guidance. The next time they may or may not remember so a little gentle push in the right direction will help them recall what you expect. Usually by the third time they are fully trained and will know what to do on your “signal”.
This training is very useful. It can help you in a lot of situations when selling. I have seen reps unable to make the transition from the warm up where you are talking about all sorts of things and usually not business to starting the sales presentation. If you have a line that you use over and over your customer will know when you are starting to sell. I used the line, “I have some great things to show you today”. As soon as I said that line, my customers knew they were about to see products.
Some reps have trouble asking for the sale, as I said earlier, after I showed the customer the demo, answered what I thought were all their concerns and gave them my value statement and price, I would say Fair Enough? That was my close 9 out of 10 times.
There are books written that have hundreds of statements in them for each step of the sale. Read one of these books if you don’t already have your own lines. If you have a line that works, you need to start using it over and over again. I have had sales managers tell me that I sound like a broken record. Maybe I do, but I sound that way while I am breaking records! Sales records that is!
I am a sales trainer, you are a customer trainer. We both have to use methods that are time tried and proven. This method is one that has worked for years. I didn’t make this up, my sales trainers didn’t make this up, my trainers trainers didn’t make this up. …..
If you don’t think this method works ask any of your friends that have small children (or maybe you have the small children yourself) if there isn’t a noise that the child makes that tells you exactly what they want. Notice, I didn’t say word I said noise. Even before children start to speak, they use simple noises to train their parents what to do by making certain noises. If a 6 month old can do this, I THINK you can use the same ideas to help yourself succeed.
Lorin
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