By Paul Blomfield

You’ve seen the game where you cannot say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in answer to a question?

Well this is the opposite. You have to practice your closes and handle objections but you must NOT get to ‘No’.

Let’s talk about your objectives here. You want them to tip over the edge of decision and into that euphoric place of decision. You want a YES.

By Paul Blomfield

You’ve seen the game where you cannot say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in answer to a question?

Well this is the opposite. You have to practice your closes and handle objections but you must NOT get to ‘No’.

Let’s talk about your objectives here. You want them to tip over the edge of decision and into that euphoric place of decision. You want a YES.

But how to get to yes?

Let’s look at a common scenario

Customer: “I must say I like the product… How much?”

You: Only $459 plus delivery!

Pause (this is usually where both parties are waiting for something to happen. Who will break first?)

Customer: “I’ll think about it…”

The problem here was that you didn’t close! The customer was left to decide and didn’t. You didn’t so much lose the sale, they just didn’t take it there and then.

So what could you have done about this?

Customer: “I must say I like the product… How much?”

You: Only $459 – usually we charge for delivery but if you take it today, we’ll do the delivery for free. Where would you like us to send it?

If the customer gives you an address, you’ve probably made the sale.

If the customer counters with more doubt, give them more confidence…

Customer: It is a lot of money…?

You: I can see you’re keen on it! Why not take it home and look at it in place. We can take your credit card details and put it through in the morning. Is your car nearby?

Getting them to take the item away greatly increases your chances of a sale.

So getting back to the exercise, there are two columns: one has the ‘buyer’s needs’ and one has the ‘product attributes’.

• Print off these tables – you are the seller and your associate can be the buyer. You need to sell the buyer your product. He will counter with objections and you need to try to keep the conversation going until all his objections have been dealt with.
• Note that the ‘buyer’s needs cards’ and the ‘product attribute cards’ are somewhat different. There are some things that don’t match and you’ll need to make sure the OTHER benefits make the sale.
• Make sure you practice the close. If you ask for the sale and the customer can answer ‘no’, you have to try and rephrase it and get them to yes.
• Tip: Don’t show the buyer your notes before you start doing the questions!

So now you’ve got to sell the product. Your buyer says, ‘have you got it in black?’ - you need to counter with ‘it looks best in silver, but we also have blue and green, let me show you’.

If the buyer says he wants high reliability, you need to counter with ‘excellent warranty and local parts and service’. And so on…

Try different buyers with the same questions.

Good luck, practice being brave and making the sale!