Sales Process Part 3

At the end of our last session, you had qualified your customer by questioning to establish his needs, then you made a sales presentation which showed the benefits of your product. You went directly into a close without pausing. If you have done everything right, your customer is ready to buy and you proceed to make a work order and get the customer to sign.

If he is satisfied, you show him the work order--including the tires, mounting, balancing, alignment, warranties, etc--and ask him to sign. As soon as he does, you've made the sale. Congratulations!

It doesn't always go that smoothly, however. At some point, you may get an objection. This is not a bad thing, it just shows that your customer really is interested in your product.

How do you deal with the objection? Very simply: Listen, Pause, and Answer.

Listen to what they say. For cost objections, for example, is it, "It's more then we can afford." Or is it, "I can get it cheaper down the street."

In many cases a cost objection is a ploy to see if they can get you to lower your price. So don't immediately drop the price. Explore a little bit first. By Pausing, the customer will often add additional information such as, "Yeah, they've got tires down the street starting at $25 each."

Of course, its not their size and its not the brand you are recommending. The best thing for you as a salesman to do is to be familiar with your competitors--clip their ads out of the paper each week, know what they are offering--phone shop them occasionally.

To answer the objection point out differences and then go back to the previously agreed upon needs and reemphasize those. Don't be afraid of the fact that your product costs more money--they are getting a better tire plus they are getting your service! That's worth something, isn't it? Remember, they weren't expecting to get the tires for free, if you are a hundred dollars higher, you just have to sell that hundred dollars to the customer.

You need to have prepared answers to the most common objections you get. For example, "Yes, Mr Customer, we are higher. For the extra money you are going to spend with me, you get free rotations, free balancing, and free flat repairs for the the life of the tires. Plus we have 27 locations, so if you travel, we can provide service at other locations"

Remember too, that in any sale, you are selling yourself as much as you are selling a product. Be sincere and let your personality come through.

Finally, its all in the preparation. Knowing your products, your competitors and having answers to com mom objections will carry you a long way. Good Selling!