In 1995 I was 12 years old. I had just stared selling at my parents furniture store. My mom and I would always compete on the sales floor and she was never shy about letting me know that she was a better than me. I had a deep desire to beat her and to prove I was better but time and time again she would out sell me. Obviously, she wasn’t interested in telling me her tricks. After all, she wanted to win as bad as I did. I had no choice but to figure it out on my own. So, at the age of 12, I created a way to make myself better. To my surprise, I ended up getting me a lot of orders.
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When the customer gave me a non-buying signal like, “Let us go home and think about it” or “I have to bring my spouse back in later”. I would take that opportunity to get better. I knew there was a reason that they weren’t saying yes and the only way to figure out why was to ask,
“Mr. Customer, I am so thankful that you stopped in today and gave me the opportunity to serve you. I feel like I should apologize though. I tried my hardest to help you find what you were looking for today and I feel as though I have failed. If you could, please let me know what I did wrong so that I can better serve my next customer”
Great Article Douglas! When I was in retail I did a version of this too with the same results that you experienced!
Thanks Pete! Great minds think alike.
Hey Douglas. Great post, I shared with our team….I actually used this same exact close some when I first started. It’s funny how so much about sales is common sense and people who are just introspective come to the same conclusions after trial and error.
I haven’t forgot about getting lunch and want to do that soon. Last week was nuts….and the next 2 days I’m stuck without a car (my wife wrecked in the snow Friday)….We leave Wednesday for a 5 day vacation and then the day we come back we close on a house and move. Let’s catch up after Feb 1. I won’t forget! Thanks, Tim
Thanks for the comment Tim. Looking forward to that lunch meeting!