Sales Success Begins with Engagement

Being in sales as I have for over 35 years, I have come to love watching professional sales people take care of their customers. Sales specialists have many talents they have learned to master but the first and most important is their ability to engage with people. 
Believe it or not customers are people and they like to be treated as such!

Imagine for a moment two potential sales scenarios. The first begins as a mother with two small children steps into your store. After a moment, your sales person looks up from what they are doing and says, 'Can I Help You?’ You can guess the response: 'No thanks, I'm just looking.' 

 By the way the quickest way to get dismissed from a sales opportunity is to say, 'Can I Help You?' Think about it - when they say no, which they do nine times out of ten, you are finished. Now if you stick around asking questions you are viewed as just a pushy salesman.

So, back to our scenario, the mother looks around for a few minutes, picks up a couple of small items to purchase and leaves. As she heads out the door someone says ‘Thanks for Coming In'. 

Now think about it. Your business has successfully motivated a potential customer to walk through the door and you have very little if anything to show for it.

How did she hear about you? What was she looking for? Where is she from? What is her email address? Has she liked your facebook page? For heaven's sake do you even know her name?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER?

Now for our second scenario. Same woman arrives with two small children. This time your rep initially engages the customer by commenting on the customer's cute children. (Hint: Every Mom likes talking about her children) How old are they, the rep asks? Smiling the mother begins to talk about her lovely family. Encouraging her , the rep begins to ask questions: 'How many children do you have?' What are their ages? As the Mom brags about her family the rep is making mental notes.

Notice the rep did not have to ask to help the customer, they just did. 

 This segment of the interaction is where the rep is playing Sherlock Holmes. Remember, the world's greatest fictional detective gained his fame by being very observant and asking lots of questions. Your rep in a fun non-pushy conversation begins in this same way to discover the needs her customer has. 

Never forget, businesses are in business to solve problems!Customers come to you with needs - professional reps discover what is needed and creatively seek solutions thru the products and services they offer.

At the appropriate moment your sales rep introduces herself and asks for the customer's name. 'So Cathy, what do you have going on today?' Cathy replies, 'My son is getting baptized this Saturday and I am looking for a something to remind him of what a special day it is.' Now a Sales Professional can go to work exploring options and narrowing down the choices. Salesman Solve Problems. Your rep suggests, ‘An image of the Savior being baptized by John the Baptist could be perfect.'

"To Fulfill All Righteousness" by Simon Dewey

12x14 Strata Design S115SSF1 $34.99 

And then a bonus. While talking about the upcoming baptism, Cathy mentions that Saturday will be busy because they have a wedding reception as well. This becomes an opportunity for an Add-On Sale. 

Again, a problem has been revealed and your rep has an opportunity to pick up an additional sale! Before leaving the store with several gifts your rep invites Cathy back for an upcoming sales event -and- she says, 'Don't forget to like us on Facebook for special offers and updates.'

Imagine the difference in these two scenarios. 

One of my favorite quotes says it best:

"You can have anything in the world you want, if you are willing to help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar

So focus on engaging your customers and solving their problems and watch your sales go up!

Greg Stroud
Director of Sales and Marketing
Altus Fine Art

Change the World?

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Sometime in my youth I came across one of those business posters where they take inspirational expressions and pair them with a stock nature photograph to create office art and that was the first I came across this quote.  Years later I find myself in roughly the same industry as the publishers of that poster - publishing inspirational art and wholesale picture framing.  We work in a small office and production facility tucked neatly away in American Fork, Utah.  We have a small group of committed employees who show up for work every morning at eight and leave every day around five.  Without really understanding the impact we are or are not having on the world we go about the business of designing, publishing, printing, matting, mounting, framing, packing, and shipping artwork, large and small, to destinations around the country and world.

Today I spoke with a gentleman in a remote area of Louisiana - he called in to get more information about a painting we publish by Simon Dewey - Why Weepest Thou.  It is a painting that he is familiar with and sees on a regular basis during his church service. He mentioned that he loves the picture and can't get it out of his head, so much so that he wants to have one in his home.  The painting tells the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb as Christ appears to her to comfort her and announce His resurrection.  Its message is one of hope, faith, and testimony that there is more than just living and dying.

Within a few minutes and some back and forth conversations this gentleman had picked out the size and frame he wanted and had placed his order.  The product was one that we had in stock, by the end of the day it had been carefully packed for transit and was on its way to a nearby sorting facility.  Five days from now it will arrive on the front porch of his house and our work will be done.  We will move on to other orders and new products that we will be releasing shortly.

Change the world?  You betcha.  While the course of human events will largely stay the same from today to tomorrow morning when we wake up and go to work, I do think that our lives are better for the daily contact we have with wonderful people. I hope that the painting we shipped today will be of lasting value to this man and I hope that tomorrow I will be more mindful of the impact that small daily interactions with good people can have in mine.

http://www.altusfineart.com/home/afa/smartlist_128/why_weepest_thou.html