Make Your Customer a Star

First of all realize that the average person would rather talk about him or herself then hear about the 10 most famous people who ever lived. In fact, there are 3 things that people care about the most, which are Themselves, their Job or Career, and their Family. Train yourself to be a great listener and show a sincere interest in your Prospects and Customers. This is the easiest and quickest way to develop Rapport. They will end up "buying" You and whatever you represent will go with that Sale.

Here’s a few great sayings to remember.
"To be Interesting, you have to be Interested."
"Make a Friend and then Make a Sale."
"They don’t care how much we Know until they Know how much we care."

The Mega-Buck Producers will readily admit that the Sale is actually made during Qualifying. This is when you gather the information you need in order to complete the Sale. Although you might believe you are a good listener, most of the time people only hear words and noises and rarely do they intently listen. You see people are normally too busy thinking about what they are going to say as soon as the other person is done talking.

I urge you to develop your listening skills in 3 critical areas:
[1] What they say
[2] How they say it
[3] What they really meant
Of course, if you’re not sure, ask them.

The best way to Qualify is to use Instructional Statements. I understand that in Selling 101 we learned about Open and Closed Questions and that Open ones were better since they usually give us more information. However if you need to find out 5 to 10 things during Qualifying, it can end up sounding like a FBI interrogation. Instead, start to use Instructional Statements which are less confrontational and much more conversational. Start using;

"Tell me about . . ." and
"Share with me . . ." and
"Fill me in on . . ." to name a few.

In addition, please realize that these Prospects and Customers have probably been Qualified by many other Salespeople, all of which ask for the same basic information. Through the years many of these Prospects have developed "Scripted Answers" to these "Scripted Questions", which aren’t always the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The simple way to get them off of their "Script" is to start using Continuation Phrases. Each and every time they answer a Question or Instructional Statement, before going on to the next subject, try saying;

"Go on" or
"Tell me more" or
"And then what happened" or
"Please continue", etc.
Whatever they say next to explain, justify, or enhance their initial response is the now truth.

An advanced technique is to listen for and use the other person’s Favorite Words and Phrases. The average person uses an average of 3 of their Favorite Words or Phrases during each minute of talking. These will be Words of Phrases that we recognize however they aren’t necessarily part of our everyday vocabulary. Write them down and the next time you talk with them, feed back their Favorite Words and Phrases. If you ask someone what amount of extra Money would improve their lifestyle and they answer with; "$400 or $500 a month would sure keep the wolves away", when you are doing your Presentation you would say;

"Most people feel that an extra $400 or $500 a month would sure keep the Wolves away, how about you?" 99% of the people that you use this advanced technique with will have no concept what is going on. All they know is that they are starting to feel extremely comfortable with you. Why? Because you’re talking their language.

If you’re selling any type of Investment, it’s absolutely critical that you determine their Hot Button. Oh sure you can open some New Accounts without knowing it, however the odds are that you will never do a bunch of repeat business with them unless you know what they are trying to accomplish with their hard-earned dollars. A phenomenal technique to use is the "Banker Question". You’ll need to change the actual amount depending on the Income and Net Worth of your Prospect, however here’s how it goes;

"Let’s pretend for a moment that your Banker called you tomorrow morning and said that someone had just put $50,000 in your Bank Account and it’s all yours, tax-free, however there is a catch. You have to spend every penny by 5 o’clock tomorrow or you loose the entire amount. You can’t save it or invest it and you have to go buy something. Now imagine for a minute that you have $50,000, tax-free, all your bills are paid and you have to go buy something. What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to buy for yourself or your family?"

It might be a Boat, a Cruise, a getaway Home in the Mountains, etc., however whatever they say, you simply say;

"Tell me about it." and listen.
They will now describe it in great detail because that’s really what they want to accomplish. You’ve just discovered their Hot Button.

Another advanced Technique when selling Investments is to ask if they consider themselves to be Conservative or Aggressive. Notice that I didn’t say; "are you". Always ask if they "consider" or "see" themselves as being Conservative or Aggressive. It’s almost like asking someone if they want you to use Conservative words and phrases or Aggressive ones. Do a little homework in the Dictionary and write down every Conservative and every Aggressive word you can find. As long as it legally fits to describe your Product or Service, use as many of them as you can from the appropriate List. Or you can cheat and use the Lists in Article 3.