As a direct sales consultant, do you remember the day you received your kit or first shipment from the company you are a consultant for? Your excitement for the product gave you a desire to share the product with everyone. Right???? With great enthusiasm sometimes we start spreading the word to the entire world, “I’ve got this product and you are going to LOVE it!!!” Unless you are on a commercial and you can’t hear the feedback of the person listening, that kind of approach doesn’t always work as effectively as we hoped. I lovingly call it “infomercialized.”
How to talk less and sell more
There is HOPE, there is an effective way and it’s all about asking questions. When we ask questions, we can first find out if someone has a need to LOVE our product before we even tell them about it. I saw this hit home with a woman who was in the wedding industry. She was a wedding officiator and her key marketing strategy was hosting booths at bridal fairs. As potential brides would enter her booth she’d introduce herself and share with the brides a couple unique methods she had for making the ceremony memorable. She “infomercialed” the brides not knowing any better.
I asked her if I could share an idea with her. She agreed. I first asked her if when a bride came to the booth does she tell her about every method she has for officiating weddings? She said, “No, just a few examples.” I painted a picture for her of the bride coming to her booth and of her asking key questions that would help her know which ceremony to tell the bride about.
Questions:
1. Tell me when you are getting married.
2. Where will you be married and what will be the theme or the types of decorations you are using?
3. What have you envisioned as the perfect wedding ceremony?
Light Bulb Moment
If you have ten different methods for creating the perfect memory and you only share your top three, what happens when they wanted your idea number seven, but you didn’t tell her that you preformed that type of ceremony? But if you instead ask questions and she tells you what she wants and you can say, “No problem, I can do that and here are a few unique ideas for you.” Could you possibly book more weddings? The light bulb turned on immediately and she was prepared to book more weddings than ever before.
What are your three questions? Have you ever considered that you might be missing out on business because you needed to ask more questions and listen MORE??? Yes, it’s true, talk less equals selling more.
Shy Individuals Can Sell Too!
What is amazing about this method of sales is that even the shyest person can succeed in sales. They are usually the best listeners and that skill can take them far. If you are a natural talker, use that skill to become an expert at asking the perfect questions. Your desire to share an excellent product with others will shine through and be more accepted because you listened and focused more on your clients’ needs.