Improving your sales results with great customer service

Sales people have a reputation as being pushy and unlikeable.

Considering that in general ‘people buy from people they like’, it makes us question whether B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) companies are giving sales people the right skills for the current customer.

The answer: not always.

In this article, we will look at a different approach that focuses on improving your sales results with great customer service, rather than so much through sales techniques. 

We are in the information era

First and foremost we should realise that in several years from now the current time will be remembered as ‘the information era.’ With the great success of the internet people now have access to information at the click of a button and don’t even need to leave their smart phone to learn about the latest product or service they wish to buy.

What does this mean for sales people?

In short, it means that sales people need to be more sophisticated than ever before and especially need to focus on creating positive long term relationships with each customer. Please note, this may not relate to a sales person selling some bananas, but it certainly relates to any product or service where the customer is concerned about price.

What should sales training focus on?

In order to become the ‘sophisticated sales person’ training needs to be a top priority and more importantly, it needs to be the right type of training. 

Effective training focuses on: 

• The psychology of the sales person.
• The process that the customer goes through when making a buying decision.

Unfortunately, not all companies follow the above two steps to success and still deliver training that is geared towards ‘sales techniques,’ which for today’s current market can come across pushy and even manipulative.

After reading today’s article, perhaps take a look at your own sales training and consider which areas you are focusing on as a business.

When you educate you build rapport

Chet Holmes who is the author of ‘The Ultimate Sales Machine’ clearly states in his book that when you educate, you build rapport and when you sell, you break it.

Highly successful sales people understand this and can even be considered as experts in their particular industry or market. They take the time to learn the latest trends, what else is available other than just their solution and are extremely engaging when with their customers as a result of this knowledge.

Consider today how passionate you are not just about selling your product or service but about your industry. Are you keeping up to date with your market and are you willing to help your customers understand the market too?

Less strategy and a lot more psychology

Overall, selling effectively in the modern world requires a lot less strategy and a lot more psychology. This means doing your absolute best to help each customer as much as you can. We can no longer search for the quickest sale and just try to close the deal when the customer has said ‘yes’ three times.

Put time and effort into training, be passionate about learning your particular industry and know that it’s the customer who always closes the sale, never the sales person.

Written by Pete Scott, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.