Most customers who go to a Receptive Sales Store (also known as Retail or Salon)… end up leaving "without buying".
It sounds reasonable and seems to be normal. True?
No!… It may be the "common", but it is neither one thing nor the other… at least for the client. Nor should it be for you.
90% of customers who left their business "without buying" could have bought.
Yes, you read that right… 90%!
Would you like to know what to do to increase the probability that 90% will come out "with the bag"?
I imagine your answer: Who would not like…?
The vast majority of customers who go to a store… never hear the "closing question."
To be more precise: 90% of customers who leave without buying did not hear the invitation from the seller to decide.
Generally, and after serving a customer, vendors are left waiting for the… "Well, I'll take it", but…, also generally,… the customer just… "leaves"!
It's that easy…
I could finish this article here -I already told you the end-, but I would like to help you a little more.
I have it on record, documented, filmed, recorded… I only needed to present it to justice!
Salon Sellers… don't ask Closing questions!
To be fair… "most salon vendors" don't ask closing questions to their clients.
Let me share with you my experiences:
What do customers say before they “run away”? (Or "to" flee?)
They are not so original… They all say the same thing, and… they always say the same thing !:
- "What time do they close?" "I take a little tour and come back…" "Let me think about it and I see…" And at best: "Well,… thank you…"
… and go!… just "GO"…
In general, people flee from the improvised, from those who do not take the client's problem as their own, from those who do not have the capacity to establish and maintain a relationship with others, from those who do not show interest in their needs,…
Customers run away from sellers! To be fair, again,… “They run away from bad sellers”
Take the test
Enter a store, waste half an hour to the seller, ask him to show you various things, ask him what you want, try on all the clothes you want, jump from a shirt to a pair of shoes, and then say something like: "Well, thank you…" and go away!
The feeling of total disinterest and indifference that the seller shows when he lets him out without doing anything, -although maybe it is too late… - Isn't that what bothers him the most ?! Made him waste half an hour of his life!
Now… imagine what would happen if we asked the seller why he didn't buy “the one who left”?
Well imagined… I would blame you!
- "I did not know what I was looking for" "I wanted to compare prices" "I had no urgency" "I was walking", "Blah, blah, blah…"
So….
What questions to ask?
There are three basic ways, to request the Closing to the client, that are most adapted to the receptive sale:
- Ask him: I see you like that one. Do you have it? Understood: Shall I wrap it for a gift? Alternatives: Do you take one or both? Do you pay cash or by card?
It's that simple. Here the entire "Closing Technique" was completed.
And why do you ask"?
Customers love to "make the decision." It bothers them that they make decisions that they didn't make.
Questions are the right tool to handle the entire sales process and all the more reason for closing.
(Note: The only difference is that at the beginning of the sale the questions must be "open" enough for the customer to talk about their needs and say everything they have to say about their possible buying behavior.
-For what occasion? - And in the end the questions must be totally "closed" and thrown in positive -Buy or buy? -)
On the other hand, customers respect, appreciate, value and need the Sellers who help them make the decision, that is, those who ask them closing questions… at the right time and after they have done what they do. those expected.
When to ask the closing question?
Good question… The salon vendor should ask the closing question “Two minutes before the client leaves”…
And how do I know when that moment occurs?
Better yet, ask: "A professional salesperson should know when the time is right to do it."
Let me explain:
Have you ever wanted to pluck a green fruit from a tree? Well… "That was not the time"
Did you ever want to take a train that had already left?… "A little late… right?"
The seller has to “mature” the closing… Take the client, by the hand, to the top and not pretend that the effort to reach it is done by him alone, perceiving the adventure as impossible.
Let's see if I explain myself better now:
You invite a friend to your pool at the weekend. But his friend came dressed. If you try to push her into the sink, she will defend herself like a cat in a bag (this is not the time).
First, you will have to create the right environment and wait “crouching” for the right moment. When she is already on the edge of the pool, in her comfortable bathing suit, in front of a resplendent sun, and has the favorable conditions… there she has to give the push… "that is the right time".
Your friend will love it… she will enjoy the dip… she will laugh and she will even thank you…, even more, she will be willing to return to her pool other times.
He does not know how many times I observed vendors trying to "pluck" green fruits…, taking trains that have already left…, pushing dressed people to the pool or… asking the customer to jump to the top in one go… or just not doing "nothing" All this!
The Closure is like the mature fruit of a job well done… you just have to pick it up… at the right time.
It must be as natural as it is logical… The natural and logical thing is that if a client "sees" the business, they do not want to miss it.
And when the salesperson "sees" the business through the eyes of their customer… it's time to ask the closing question!
And just as they flee from bad sellers what customers buy first is from the Good Seller. If it started badly, it will be difficult for it to end otherwise.
And if, even so, the customer does not buy?
Well, I did not tell him that I was not going to lose sales… did I? But look what happens:
The closing questions lead to two paths:
- At the closing of the sale which is what the seller and his client are looking for, or the reason why the client does not want to buy… the Objections
(But this is a topic that I would like to leave for another time… You must be eager to implement what you have discovered so far)
In the latter case, do you want to know what the Sellers say when the customer leaves without buying ?:
- "The size really did not fit well" "He is going to buy it from the cousin who works in…" "I was not thinking of buying something of this quality" "It was a colleague who was doing research… he offered me a job"
Sounds different… doesn't it?
Of course, they are answers given by sellers who "ask closing questions", they learn things that others do not. And along the way… they close twice as many sales.
Closing attitude
It seems simple right?
And so why don't most sellers ask the closing question?
Napoleon Bonaparte said: "Nothing is more difficult and, moreover, important than being able to decide"
Now, if a Salesman were before Napoleon, it is logical that his legs would shake, but… be afraid of not…? It doesn't seem like a reasonable excuse for not asking closing questions, don't you think?
Dear reader, I want to "remark" that "that" is the only reason… "most sellers are afraid of not."
Some sellers do not know that they have to do them, because nobody explained them to them… others cannot because the mice ate their tongues and others, the vast majority, do not want to do them… for fear of not.
And this is a problem of Attitude and not of Techniques. They are willing to lose the sale but not to hear a no.
closing!
The truth is that a customer who does not buy leaves the business with his problem in tow…
He will keep wasting time or "walking" until he finds someone to help him decide… someone who takes his problem as his own and decides to help him, someone who wants to ask him closing questions.
And if you do not find it, you will end up deciding alone, with the risk of making a mistake, buying wrong, late, more expensive, etc, etc,
Nor will he remember the seller who did not help him decide or the thousands of excuses for which he did not: "I do not want to pressure him, we must let him go, why do I have to get involved in things that do not interest me? I can appear rude, reckless, inopportune, etc. etc."
The role of a Retail Seller is not to display items and recite prices…
What are you waiting for?… Hearing customers say, "Well, I'm wearing it."
And… if he doesn't say it and just… leaves?
Dear Sellers: Stop Losing Sales…
"Ask Closing Questions!"
