A confident and educated customer is your best customer.
The higher the level of confidence and product knowledge your customer has, the higher the probability of making the sale.
Build customer confidence
Are your salespeople convinced all your products offer good value and are priced correctly?
If an employee is not personally confident in the product’s value, it will show in the pitch. This is typically because they apply and assume their personal decision making is the same as the potential customer (for example if they can’t afford it, neither can the customer).
This is a good opportunity to reinforce with the sales team the need to ask the right questions of the customer and focus on meeting their needs or solving their frustration.
Improve product knowledge
One of the biggest waste of resources I observe is with respect to the suppliers to your business. Suppliers are typically ready and willing to provide all the necessary product knowledge and education to your sales team. Why wouldn’t they, it will increase their sales!
So does your business take advantage of this? From every supplier, for every new product?
I find the reason this opportunity is missed is a lack of planning and communication.
Start online
If customers check you out online prior to contacting you, your website can start the process of educating the customer to make a better decision. When you provide information that helps them work through their decision making, this differentiates your business.
Since most potential customers want to know the how and the why, you can easily position yourself as the source of this knowledge.
Don’t make assumptions
When you work in the same business for a long time some things become obvious and second nature. Try not to assume your potential customers know what seems like common knowledge to you. The sharing of this common knowledge is very much appreciated by the customers who “didn’t know that”. A sales system that includes testing the customer’s level of basic product knowledge will make sure it is done consistently.
Incidentally, a sales system is what the entire sales team should be used for all interactions.
If you have any questions regarding improving your business systems for increased profits, please feel free to email me: paul@thebusinesstherapist.com
