Close More Sales

If you look around your showroom, how many products appear to be similar?  Most decorative plumbing and hardware professionals will answer "too many".  Imagine what a customer sees and thinks.  The fact is that almost all products in a showroom, when you compare features and benefits, will function similarly within each product category.  Recently a University of Southern California professor conducted a 76-part survey with 230 buyers to determine how customers perceive sales professionals and how they then make the decision to buy or simply walk away.

The survey found 40% of respondents want sales professionals who can demonstrate that they listen, understand the customer's goals, wants and desires and then provide a solution.  30% of the customers want sales professionals to make them feel comfortable and assure them that the long-term needs will be met.  This is easy to imagine in a showroom.  Customers rely on a sales professional's expertise to specify the best solutions for their project.  They count on the showroom to troubleshoot problems regardless of fault because they purchased their new bath from the showroom and not from a rep or a manufacturer.  They expect their sales professional to help avoid problems by providing guidance to installers and others.  Customers expect a showroom to inspect products before they are sent to the site and to stage deliveries as appropriate.  Customers may not know that is how a showroom delivers value.  To paraphrase Steve Jobs, customers don't know what they need.  Meeting unforeseen or recognizable needs are where the showroom can truly shine.

An additional 30% of customers want sales professionals to challenge their thoughts and perceptions, then recommend a better solution.  Again, this is another opportunity to create value, establish trust and create avid fans.  If you believe there are better options for your customers, ask ftheir permission to suggest a better alternative.  That way you can avoid the impression that you are a know-it-all or worse, that your customer is not smart.

How many times do couples disagree over a purchase?  In most buying situations there is one party that bullies his or her way to get what they want.  When you recognize that this is occurring, focus your attention on the party who is dominating the conversation.

The study found that buyers don't necessarily gravitate toward market leaders and are willing to look at alternatives.  In the decorative plumbing and hardware world, there are only a few brand names that homeowners, designers and trade professionals recognize.  The survey found that only a third of the buyers prefered the best-known brand with the highest functionality and cost.  Instead, 63% of buyers would purchase a brand that had 85% of the functionality and 80% of the cost. 

Most people who enter a showroom know they are going to pay a premium.  Too often, however, sales professionals evaluate a customer's budget based on appearance or what they can afford themselves.  As Michael Silverstein explained in Trading Up and at a DPHA Annual Conference, consumers will spend three times the amount they mentally budget for when they make an emotional attachment.  Don't prejudge a customer's budget.  The survey found that price only becomes a factor to those who are price immune when the solution recommended is priced far more than other options.

The survey also found that in the fashion industries, consumers are most attracted to charismatic sales professionals who they truly enjoy being with.  Having the most technical acumen or product knowledge was not as important.

The survey reinforces the fact that most customers who come to a showroom are not "rational" decision makers.  When you can recognize the intangible, intuitive human element of the sales process, you will close more sales.