I went to meet a customer on Tuesday.He was very busy due to the visit of some Foreign Delegation.The moment he saw me he told me to come on some later day.
“May I come on Thursday or Friday”I asked.
“Please come on Friday”
“Friday before Lunch or after Lunch”I asked
He told before Lunch would be fine but don’t come as soon as the office opens.
“Sir Friday at around 12pm is Fine?So we are meeting on Friday at 12 pm in your chamber.”
As soon as I came out I wrote a Whattsapp message stating that we are meeting on Friday at 12 pm.
In sales communication or for that matter in Business communication asking closed loop questions gives you positive response from the customer.If we ask open ended question like when can we meet next.He would reply I shall call you when I am free.And that call is never received.
Just one day before we meet the customer we should set the context by sending an e-mail or Text message or both.
We should remind him of the meeting next day.Then we should set the Agenda of the meeting politely with his permission and even request him make available the other stakeholders in the organisation.
With this kind of sales structure we shall be in control of the sales.
In real sales communication we should listen more and talk less.In any communication for that matter the more we talk the more we reveal our weaknesses.It is therefore advisable that we should encourage our customer to speak more.When he speaks we shall be able to recognize his pain-points.Moreover he will come out with deep seated objections in his mind.
There are three types of customers
one who are feeling the pain due to not having our product
and the other is feeling the pain and is postponing the purchase.Our brain is actually hardwired to protect us from taking risks and taking a decision is also a risk.
Third type of customers are feeling the pain of not having the product and are looking for the product and he just needs a push from some expert to zero on the product.Here we have to present ourselves as an Expert in the field.