“One customer, well taken care of, could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.”
Jim Rohn
Author of “7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness”
You have knowledge about your customers’ businesses that is very valuable. Giving good advice that can help them solve some of their problems will make you stronger and will make your customer even more confident that you are not just interested in them for their money but you truly and genuinely care for them! The caring factor is the most important one in selling. Ask yourself what you can do to increase your customers’ confidence and do something about it every day. When you care, you earn the most precious gift available from a worthy customer: Trust!
In times of difficulties, one must abide more than ever by the following principle: In order to receive, one must be willing to give! Did you notice this when you go shopping? So many store owners do not understand this basic principle: the most important sales tool they have is their smile. We all want to be taken care of. We all like to be the center of interest. Yet, look at the retailers complaining that the business is hurting. They show a face of complaint and that is exactly why nobody enters their shop or store. I have never run away from a sales person in a store who was offering me advice. I have never told any of them I did not want to receive their advice. It is funny!
Same thing in any business: you visit a customer and the first thing you do is offer him advice. You don’t ask permission, you just provide him advice or a good tip for his business. Who on earth would refuse that?
Here is a good example: One day I suggested to a friend to change the way they were visiting their own customers. My friend was complaining that his sales people were visiting customers without good results. The closing ratio on customer visits was less than 14%. I asked my friend: “what is the main complaint from the customers?” and his response was: “they don’t like to be visited by my sales guys because they know they will have to buy something…” We implemented this principle, “give before you take”. We created a collection of helpful suggestions or recommendations that my friend’s sales guys could use during their visit. We then implemented the following principle: One visit = one recommendation. Within less than 2 months, the closing ratio on visiting existing customers went up to 32% – over 100% increase, just by implementing this simple principle.
Try it and make some happy customers!
Patrick Valtin
CEO New Era Management International
