Monday, May 21, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007
The Art of Selling Part II
A lot of people in the sales industry will tell you that there's no magic words that can net you more sales. We sell a higher quality product where I work, and that of course means higher prices. Customers often get beligerant when you tell them the list price. "I can get it way cheaper elsewhere." "You guys are ripping people off." etc. I took the approach of simply explaining how our product was superior to theirs but that had a low success rate. My boss explained it to me that when I did that, it felt like that I was being a snob to them. That I felt I was superior to the other dealer and/or the customer themselves.
So he taught me the three F's. Feel, Felt, Found. These three words help you identify the customer, especially when used like this:
I know how you feel
I felt the same way
Then I found out
You don't say that phrase exactly, but you use that as a basis. For instance, if you're selling computers and trying to compete against Dell with custom built machines you might say something like:
Yeah, I understand what you're saying. When I first started working here I thought that they were outrageously priced because I could go to a mass retailer and buy them much cheaper. Then after I checked them out and really took some time to learn about them I realized that the people who build those computers don't really care about how they put them together, they just want to shove them out as fast as they can. Our people take pride in how much care goes into each individual machine.
So he taught me the three F's. Feel, Felt, Found. These three words help you identify the customer, especially when used like this:
I know how you feel
I felt the same way
Then I found out
You don't say that phrase exactly, but you use that as a basis. For instance, if you're selling computers and trying to compete against Dell with custom built machines you might say something like:
Yeah, I understand what you're saying. When I first started working here I thought that they were outrageously priced because I could go to a mass retailer and buy them much cheaper. Then after I checked them out and really took some time to learn about them I realized that the people who build those computers don't really care about how they put them together, they just want to shove them out as fast as they can. Our people take pride in how much care goes into each individual machine.
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