After you have spent a lot of money on promotions and advertising you at last get the customer in you shop. But there are so many of these sales that just simply slip away. So, how do you successfully close a retail sale? What worked for whom?

Esti

(Others will chip in, but...)

1. ASK for the deal. Many people are a little embarrassed and don't want to appear pushy. After you have answered/explained something, ask the closing question.

2. The other thing is to create a funnel. I call it a binary funnel because you present the prospective customer with two options - and keep doingf it until the deal is closed:

- Do you prefer the red or the blue more?

- Do you prefer the red or the green more?

- Do you prefer the green matt or the green gloss more?

- Do you want paint the whole floor or just he walkway

- Would you prefer the 2l or the 5l container?

- Do you want pay cash or by card?

So the decisions 'make themselves'.

Does that help?

Dennis what you call a binary funnel is also known as an "Exclusive Or" language pattern, it is also known as a bind. Though I like the visual imagery that a binary funnel conjures up.

The binary funnel / Bind provides the "illusion" of choice leading to a desired outcome.

Parents use these techniques with their kids.

"You can either brush your teeth now before you watch TV or you can do it just before going to bed at 8pm." (either choice leads to them brushing their teeth and also that they will eventually be going to bed at 8pm after watching TV.)

The power of these suggestions during a close is such that which ever option is chosen the customer accepts the "hidden" assumption that they will be purchasing the product.

- Do you prefer the red or the blue more? (Assumed you have a preference and that there is a heirarchy in your decision making.)

- Do you want to paint the whole floor or just he walkway? (Assumed that you will be painting)

- Do you want to pay cash or by card? (Assumed that you will be purchasing)

My observation and experience of most retail staff in particular is that they do not ask enough questions of the customer in the early part of the sales process. Most are often content to ride the register rather than truly engage with the customer.

The staff I train are taught to:

Ask questions and gather information about the customer's wants and needs (they are not the one and the same!), desired outcomes, previous use of comparitive products (if relevant), and intentions for using the product amongst other things.

They are taught to consult with the customer first instead of rushing over to a product and showing the customer something that may or may not be appropriate for their needs. This tendency to show product first rather than ask questions is a habit that makes it harder to up sell or combination sell effectively.

The more information you can elicit from the customer at the beginning of the interaction the more scope you have to discover other needs that may not have been in the customer's consciousness at the time of entering the store. This provides opportunities from the beginning to combination sell which will lead to higher average sales.

Lastly, the more a customer talks, the greater the chance you have of discovering their unique buying strategy and increase the likelihood of the customer selling themselves on their need to purchase the product.

Two statements that had a profound effect on me in my early days in selling was "Telling is not Selling" and "God gave you one mouth and two ears for a reason."

Hope this helps!

P.S Thanks Dennis for providing such fantastic tips and a great website!

Paul

A response like yours just re-affirms exaclty why the site exists - brilliant!

(And confirms that we are right in thinking there is always someone out there who knows more...)

Now for a member web page on NLP... and with that still the offer a free Upgrade for the first member to do it...:-)

Sure. Point me in the right direction and I will be more than happy to set it up.

On the left-hand menu.

Below Discussion Board Forums = 'Member Webpages'

Click on that and then 'Create/Edit'

That launches a wysiwig page (blank just like Word) and you can write/ insert whatever you want and format it to look how you want it. (including your logo and contact details).

This web page is ope to the public (unregistered members) too...

Cheers

OK. Thanks Dennis. Will do that.

I am currently in the process of creating my own website at the moment for a course I intend on offering to the public. It is not purely NLP based.

I will cross some of that material over to the page. If that is OK with you?

Or would you prefer a dedicated page geared towards the field of NLP and leave it generic?

Absolutely anything you think is relevant to the community (retailers and their supply chain)

The idea is that the experts (i.e. you) can educate the community about your area of expertise - and in turn buil dyour profile.

Invite your clients/partners/ etc along to the party...

Great. Will do that just now.

The webpage is up!

http://www.retailsmartresults.com/members/retailsmart/webpages/NLPer