The perception in the market place is that people are shopping
on price alone. The only reason your customer asks the price up
front is because that is what we as business owners have trained
them to do.
How many times have you rung or gone into a business not really
knowing what model, style, colour or features you were looking
for and purely asked for the price? At this point did the sales
person come back with "that is $29.95" or did they ask you some
questions about what you were looking to use the product/service
for? In this instance let's say it is a kettle.
Now in most people's eyes a kettle is a kettle but they have many
different features and offer many different benefits. So what
if the sales person simply said to you when you inquired about
price, "just so I can help you best is it OK if I ask you a couple
of questions about the kettle you are looking for?" Would you
have answered yes? My bet is that the answer would have most definitely
been yes!
The sales person could then ask questions like; are you looking
to replace an existing kettle or is it a gift for someone? Do
you regularly use your kettle or is it rarely used? Would you
like a kettle with a quick boiling time? Have you seen the cordless
options that are available? Are you looking for something to match
your kitchen? So what colour are you looking for? Is it important
that it has an automatic cut off when the kettle is boiled? Are
you after a stove-top option, or an electric kettle? Kettles come
in different cup capacity; do you require 10 cup capacity or is
5 a better size for you?
From these questions the customer gets the idea that the sales
person is genuinely interested in their needs and the salesperson
is able to offer options in the most suitable kettles for their
needs. The price is therefore negated. It is just a matter of
now asking the customer to buy.
A good salesperson would then ask, "well based on what we have
just spoken about there are two options to choose from, model
x and model y, which one suits you best? Great, I can either put
that away for now or I can process it on credit card for you and
have it delivered to you tomorrow - which do you prefer?"
If the option is credit card ask "which credit card is it easiest
to process that on?" and make sure the prospect is aware there
will be a delivery charge of x amount. If the option they choose
is to have it put away, this gives the sales person the opportunity
to get the customers name and contact details. If the customer
chooses this option make sure the sales person gets a time frame
for them to pick the item up. Be definite with the infinite. If
the customer is in your business the sales person then simply
takes them to the point of sale terminal and transacts the sale.
This example was based on a kettle, a relatively small dollar
item, but how does this apply to your business, this process works
equally well on cars, houses, furniture, service based business
and any other product I can think of, including funeral homes.
You just need to work out what your customers are actually looking
for when they ask for the price and what's more important to them
in their buying decision!
