Retail Selling’s Greatest Weapon….Not Being Used

*This blog, which is part 1 of 2,  is mainly directed to the retail sales professional, although it’s certainly relevant to any person involved in the profession of selling.*

Iwant to start this post with a few questions and I ask that if you’re reading this to please take your time with each one and answer each one to the best of your ability.

Are you using your greatest retail sales weapon?

Have you ever forgotten the name of a customer during the sales process?

Have you ever had a customer tell you one thing at  the beginning of the sales presentation and then at the end they do an about-face?

Have you ever had a customer decide not to buy your product wthout having documented their contact information before they left?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you may now stand in line with the rest of the retail sales world. In fact, most of these events happen in retail settings hundreds of time a day throughout the sales universe. But the nagging question is:

WHY???

Think about it for a moment. Why do these negatives occur over and over again in retail sales situations but yet we continue to allow such terrible practices to rule a major component of any solid economy? I submit that it is possible for you as a sales professional to never answer these questions in the affirmative again. How so you ask? Well it’s the secrete weapon of course. Yes, the greatest weapon in a long list of arsenal available at any retail store around the globe. So what is this powerful weapon?

 A Clipboard

Now, now, don’t role your eyes or think that I’ve lead you on a wild goose chase. I’m serious when I say that a clipboard is truly the greatest weapon in retail sales. The reason for this is simple and it goes back to a blog I recently wrote about how we must all become sale ‘doctors’ and follow the example that the great hospitals of our society have taught us.

To do a quick review, whenever we go to the hospital we typically speak to 3 distinct persons- the front desk attendant, the nurse, and the doctor. Each one of these persons asks us, the patient, important questions to diagnose our ‘problem’ and then, eventually, offer a solution. But the key to this entire process for hospitals is the fact that they have a form, which is typically attached to a clipboard, and contains a list of pertinent questions to ask the customer as well as their contact information. This critical document often times spells success or failure for hospitals, especially when it comes to a doctor’s thorough examination of all the facts involved in the patient’s case. (To read the doctor analogy in detail, please see my ‘Sales Doctor’ blog)

We’re Doing It All Wrong

Which brings me to the point of this article.

You'll never forget the essentials again.

 Why don’t ALL retail sales companies have the same documentation style of hospitals? Now granted, I understand that there are certain retail products that are not so involved, but when it comes to automobiles, machinery, electronics, hot tubs, grills, pool tables, jewelry, shoes, clothing, etc, etc there is no reason why EVERY customer should not have to answer a specific set of questions related to their ‘problem/need’. But instead of using the hospital method with proper questioning and documentation, most retail businesses focus their sales training on how to present, and not how to find out/define the need/ identify the problem/ or whatever else you’d like to call it.

In my hot tub business, whenever anyone comes into the store, a sales associate immediately grabs a clip board with our customer questionnaire attached to it. This way, the sales person is documenting information throughout the ENTIRE sales process. In other words, usually after the first 10-20 minutes of talking with a customer the sales associate already has found out:

Customer Name

Where they live

Why they are in the store

What got them interested in owning our product

Any concerns the customer may have regarding product ownership

What type of company the customer wants to work with

etc, etc, etc.

Now you may be thinking that this sounds like too many questions, but when done properly, such is never a concern. For example, one of the first lines our sales associates tell customers is something like this:

“I want to thank you for coming into our store today Mr. Jones. I’ve been in this business for quite some time and I’ve helped many people find the (insert product here) of their dreams. But in order to do this, I’m going to need to ask you a few questions and write down your answers so as to not forget any pertinent information and therefore identify just the right (insert product here) for you and your family. How’s that sound?”

The Documentation Advantage

Whenever a customer hears such a statement from a sales associate, they immediately realize they’ve come to a place that is all about THEM, and not just about the salesperson and their eloquent ways to pitch a product. Just a few advantages a sales person has with this method are:

1. Have the person’s name in front of their face and never make a fool of themselves by forgetting it.
2. Focus the presentation on the information(needs and wants)  the customer spoke about(what’s importan to them) and not on what the sales person is excited to talk about.
3. Remind the customer, in writing, of what’s important to them with their (insert your product here) purchase during the close.
4. Retain the customer’s information, like name, email, address, etc even if the sale is not completed, therefore allowing a business to build a ‘potential customer pool’.

These four advantages will be analyzed thoroughly in part 2 of this blog, but I’m sure you can already start to see clearly the powerful benefits of documentation in a retail sales environment. No question, this is a culture that needs to change in our society. Every customer and every sale is absolutely critical to the lasting success of a retail store in this down economy. Documentation, with its symbol being the almighty clipboard, is our answer.

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