DID YOU SEE THAT?

If I were to ask you,”What is the most important step to a sale” what would your answer be? Would you answer the opening? Maybe the probing? I be some would say the CLOSE! Others would insist follow-up. Depending on the sales process you used the list could be from as few as 3 steps to as many as 15, and each would be considered “THE MOST IMPORTANT” by someone.

Now if you asked me that question, I would give you an entirely different answer then any of you would give. I would say that the most important step to a sale is a step that I have never seen listed in any sales process. It is a step that most sales reps never include as a step. I would say that OBSERVATION is by far the most important step to a sale.

What you see is a lot more dependable than what you hear. I was once working with a rep and we walked into a small business. It was a metal working shop with about 6 people working on the production floor. The rep walked right up to the manager and started to talk with him. After about 5 minutes the manager looked us both in the eye and told us how dead their business was. That is when I first started to have a problem. I was looking at 6 guys, all hard at work. I saw pallets of metal stock lined up the entire length of the building. As hard as they were working, everyone in the shop seemed to be in a great mood.

What I was hearing and what I was seeing didn’t match. Being my usual nosey self, I left the reps side and walked over to one of the guys working on a machine. I simply said, wow, you are all covered up, is it always like this? He replied that he has been there for the past 2 years and that they have been busy like this the entire time. When the rep and I walked out I asked him what he has been seeing since he has been selling them, his answer was not what I expected. He said, I never noticed.

After I picked myself off the ground, I had a very heated discussion with the rep and tried to explain to him the importance of observation. I told him that from simply observing a customer each and every time you walk in you can tell a lot about their business. You will see what their normal work load is; you will be able to tell when they are slammed with business or when they are slow. This is information that will make you are better business partner with the customer and help you develop a better consultative selling relationship. It is also the best way of knowing if and when a customer is telling you the truth.

Another priceless part of observation is being able to see changes when they are new enough and small enough that something can be done about them. If you see a competitor’s product in one of your accounts that you have not seen before RED FLAGS should be waving! You need to start asking about it or it may be the product that is replacing yours.

Observation is the number one thing that can give you the heads up you need to keep a customer, it is the number one thing you need to open a customer, and it is the number one thing you need to keep a customer happy. I can’t think of 3 better reasons to keep your eyes WIDE open when you are making sales calls can you?

Lorin