It is the seller’s job to remove the jagged edges in communication, creating a warmer relationship with the buyer and making the sale easier.
Custoommunication is a complicated thing. Even when you correctly hear what the other person said, it may not be what they meant. Effective customer communication means learning to decipher the meaning behind the words.
When a customer asks for a drill, the obvious response is to sell him one.
But is it a drill he wants? Not necessarily, unless it’s intended as a gift. (I can’t imagine for whom, but stranger things happen.)
What he wants are the holes the drill makes. Yet, that is not exactly true either.
What he really wants is to hang something on the wall—say, a picture. That is really what he meant to say: “I want to hang pictures.“
Read: How to avoid communication breakdown while selling
His problem was hanging a picture, but he came and asked you for a drill—a self-prognosis and diagnosis of what he thinks is the obvious solution.
Yet, if he had said that he wants to hang pictures on the wall and asked how you could help, you could have offered alternatives, including non-intrusive stick-on hooks.
This is the dilemma of the salesperson: customer communication. Deciphering what the customer actually means—and ensuring you are on the same page—is the foundation of sales success.
Is it easy? Certainly not! Can it be done? Absolutely, yes. Here are four ways to bridge the gap in customer communication.
Common sense
If this supermarket has ordered a system (say, a server), it is because the business needs demand it.
It follows, therefore, that chances are their competition requires it too, as the businesses operate in the same environment.
So, when the competition says “we want to buy a server“—or when you call them to interest them in your server—zeroing in on how it will solve their problem positions you favourably in the buyer’s mind and makes the communication smoother.
Research to favour customer communication
Customers buy products to solve a problem, not because they like the product, much as that is what they will say. “I like the drill,” he’ll say. Yet what he likes are the holes it makes—or, more accurately, the pictures he hangs on the wall, held in place by nails in the holes.
Researching why the customer buys the product or service quickly puts you on the same page as the buyer.
For instance, by law, architects, doctors, lawyers, and professionals that earn fees are required to have professional indemnity insurance. With this knowledge in place, your sale is much more focused and shortened than if you didn’t know this.
Read: Research and explore to find out your buyer’s hidden need
Observation
When the lady says she’s looking for a pair of sunglasses, it is the wise hawker who, observing her dressing, tells her to “buy this pair because it complements the colour of your skin (or dress).”
The unwise one will say, “Miwani mia mbili” (two hundred shillings for the pair).
Observation is the reason why the stall owner will invite you in with “Karibu jeans” or “Karibu open shoes“—because you are most probably in a pair of jeans or open shoes at the time.
Note that he could be selling other stuff, but he immediately zeroes in on what will put you both on the same page.
Read: To get his attention, make the opening about buyer
Questions
This last one is the bane of many lost sales. Salespeople, in a bid to rush to the close, want to tell, not explore.
Don’t just sell the drill; politely ask what it’s needed for.
Don’t just apologize to the angry customer for the third time—the one berating you over the third ATM card that has inexplicably gotten spoilt. Explore, through questions, where she stores it.
“Right here. Together with my cell phone and other cards.”
That revelation offers the opportunity to solve the problem by educating her that the magnetic strip is susceptible to damage when exposed to other magnetic strips and possibly cell phone transmissions.
Customer communication
Questions, common sense, research, and observation quickly remove the jagged edges in communication, creating a warmer relationship with the buyer and making the sale easier.
Read: Remove friction from the purchase experience
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