Alphabet of punctures

According to a study by the Corporate Management Agency, a buyer in 30% of cases receives information about a product from a sales assistant. Only 21% of men and 23% of women go to the store knowing what the purpose of spending money is. Directly in the store, 38% of women and 18% of men make a purchase decision. That is, competent work of a consultant could significantly increase sales. However, according to research by MarketMasters, sellers' recommendations have the lowest significance for buyers (0,4% out of 100%!) In comparison with other factors influencing a buying decision. Anna Komissarova found out how to increase the potency of the consultant.

Ideally

Of course, sales consultants are the “face of the company” for customers and should be perfectly trained. They should know when they should speak for themselves, and when to listen to the client, correctly and promptly ask clarifying questions, understand what exactly to tell the client and in what words it is best to talk about it.

The seller’s performance will be guaranteed if his behavior model is based on several very good skills:

- the ability to unobtrusively establish contact with a potential buyer, listen and understand the interlocutor, draw attention to the useful properties of the product;

- the desire to create a feeling of goodwill and personal attention among customers;
- the ability to detect explicit and hidden needs of the client.

There is nothing supernatural in these skills. They can be mastered and developed. This means that each seller will understand how to facilitate the performance of routine duties, how to maintain restraint and goodwill throughout the working day, how to win the favor of the client to himself and his company, how to organize work in order to do more.

According to a study by the Corporate Management Agency, product buyers would like to see a sales consultant about the same age as themselves. For 87% of buyers, it is important that the sales assistant has a beautiful voice (for how to put a voice to sellers - see SR, # 57). For every fifth woman, it is very important that the sales assistant is in clean shoes (a review of shoe cosmetics can be found in SR, # 41).

On practice

What are the main mistakes of consultants? In the opinion of Serviceman Training & Consulting specialists, they can be conditionally divided into 4 groups of indicators. Low conversion rate as a rule, it is due to the fact that the sales consultant is uncertainly trying to start a conversation or at the wrong time chooses the moment to start communication. It can also frighten off buyers with too aggressive behavior, like a bazaar woman, or it may be so passive that it would never occur to the buyer to complete a purchase and sale transaction. The inability to respond to the doubts of the buyer and the too early start of communication with the buyer, who did not even have time to look around the store, also does not help the mountain to come to Mohammed.

Low average bill it develops when the seller offers only cheap models, because he does not know how to offer benefits from purchases of more expensive goods, or does not know the goods presented in the store well enough, or cannot find out the true needs of the client.

If the sales assistant didn’t “bother about business” with customers less or spent less time in the smoking room, then most likely number of checks per hour it would be much more.

The number of goods in the check can be increased by up-selling, that is, by offering the buyer related goods. Therefore, it would be nice for the consultant to know "inside and out" the assortment of the store, to have a little bit of taste, so as not to shock the client with the offer to purchase green ankle boots for a red dress. That is, it is necessary to use the Sherlock Holmes method to find out the buyer's need in full, focusing not only on satisfying the initial request when selling. Natalia Zhadko, program director at Big Change, believes that the key to successful consulting is just a human approach to the client. She calls it “village sales”. The trouble with all sales training is the discrepancy between theory and life, since, as a rule, they are conducted by those who have never sold. As a result, when a customer comes to the store hoping to buy shoes at a discount, and there he is greeted by "armed to the teeth" or "gallantry itself" stuffed with complex structures, there is a feeling that he has ended up in a madhouse. In fact, a person in a store wants a simple "village" communication that does not overload. And it arises naturally when the questioning eyes of the buyer meet with the eyes of a consultant who is well versed in the range and really strives to help the client.