To Sell Successfully, Ask Questions.

I was looking for curtains for my new house. In today's consumer market, the curtains sellers will put up flyers in the lifts of newly bought flats. We decided to call two.

The first one came with a travel luggage with 8 catalogs of curtain samples. Too much of a choice can also serve as a headache for use. He then asked the type of materials we liked - Glossy, Semi Glossy or Matt.

We went for Matt.

Next, he took a look around our hall, examining the entire interior design and made recommendations for us. So it was down to three set of colours and finally the One!

After the selection, he then went around the rooms to make measurement. He didn't just go after making the measure. He made some small talk to introduce his company and himself.

A second curtain seller came the next day. Instead of carrying a luggage full of samples, he only carried three. When asked, he lamented it was difficult to carry more. (Note the first one came with a travel luggage).

Instead of starting with the selection of the curtains, he went straight to make measurements. Then he told us to choose our desired curtain design, only to highlight the strength of his material.

No question, no sale.

Comments

3 Challenges Of Targeting Singapore SMEs For IT Solutions

IT vendors in Singapore love to target the SMEs (Small Medium Enterprise) in Singapore due to the sheer volume of SMEs here. I learned that targeting SMEs here require a special understanding of the environment, especially when it comes to IT solutions SMEs are defined as enterprise with less than 200 staff and annual revenue of not more than SGD2 million dollars. The sheer number of Singapore makes the industry a "honey pot" for any IT vendors. Source: http://www.singstat.gov.sg There are 216,900 enterprises in Singapore and 99% are made up of SMES and they contribute close to half of the S$367.00 billion nominal value created. While targeting SMEs is a must, I have experienced some the challenges around the way and look to share with readers here. Challenge 1: SMEs may not have a dedicated IT person It is impossible for SMEs to avoid having any IT today as the Internet has made IT a must have. In my discussions with SMEs, it came to a surprise that most SM...

Let Me Sell You This Pen!

How would I sell you this pen? I see lots of linkedin posts about selling pens these days. Looks like there is drum up demand for pen salespeople. On a serious note, if I will gauge your interest in getting a pen. By doing so, I would be asking why you need this pen. From the answer, I probably be able to gauge your interest. You need this pen because you need to sign lots of documents. So probably I will introduce you to a pen that would write and last longer than other pens. Or you need a write upside down or write in zero gravity. In this scenerio, I would probably introduce you to a pencil instead. If you just want to find out more about the pen, or just window shopping for a pen, I would still take time to intro you to some pens, but I wouldn't count on you for a sale. Though, I would put you in our mailing list so you will receive our EDMs on pens and maybe there comes a time you be in the market for a pen. Selling a pen is a test of identifying what your sales ta...

What's The Strangest Thing A Customer Asked To Monitor

I was asked today what was the strangest thing a customer ever asked us if we could a monitor. "A IT manager in a legal firm asked if we could monitor his copier/printer," I replied. Apparently, when the lawyers are photocopying or printing and they run out of paper, they blame the IT manager because his is in charge of the IT devices. Interestingly, the first thing we can discover and monitor in the offices are usually those copier printers type. Apparently the printer SNMP is able to show paper levels. So now with a IT monitoring software, when the paper levels run low, it will send a email to the admin staff and the admin staff will top up the papers. The legal firm also saw less cursing and swearing at the copier printer.

Sales In Shorts

Search This Blog