Sales Rep 101 – Chapter 12

Reading the Customer

If you have been in Sales before you probably know what I’m talking about. But this part is extremely important. And there are many different ways to read the customer. But let’s start when you first meet your client. And let’s say that this is the first time that you have met them. Maybe it was a cold call appointment that you set. Or maybe it is an account that you have never worked with before. Reading your prospect quickly is very important. When you first introduce yourself your prospect will either be talkative and open to visiting with you for a few minutes or they will be all business and ready to skip the chit chat. And sometimes they may be somewhere in between. But where many Sales people fail is that they try to make every prospect as talkative as they are. That is not going to happen. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a sale. But it does mean that you need to change your strategy on the fly. Now, I understand that your manager may want you to do it their way but if you are not willing adjust you will lose deals. So you need to be prepared to get down to business quickly when necessary. Next you need to be able to read your customer during the sales call. Some times you can just tell that your prospect is distracted. And when that happens you need to make a decision. Do you go all in and present everything you wanted? Or do you have an abbreviated meeting just to get things started and then set up a follow up. I will always do the latter. And believe me, your prospect or customer will appreciate that and probably be very open to scheduling another appointment with you. I have seen sales people time and time again not read the meeting correctly and by the time they walk out of the appointment they have no idea what happened. What happened was that your prospect was completely distracted and probably only heard about 25% of what you actually said and then when you asked them if they would be interested in moving forward they declined. And finally, you need to understand when it is time to close the sale. If I can tell the customer is ready to buy but I have not finished my presentation do you think I’m going to make sure I finish before I make the sale? NO WAY! Because you can actually talk them out of the sale by continuing. Have seen it happen many times! So when your customer is ready to buy shut up and close the deal.