By Jim Callahan
Cancellation….that dreaded word! Every one of us has been there and it’s no fun.
YOU lose, YOUR CUSTOMER loses and the COMPANY loses.
One of the hardest things to repair in our business is a customer that changes their mind because he or she is uncomfortable with some aspect of the sale. Once a customer makes a decision to cancel the order it becomes very difficult, if not impossible to reverse their decision. The very BEST time to handle any problem or uneasy feeling the customer may have is while you are there, in front of the customer – hands on.
What if you could find a way to GREATLY reduce cancellations, build customer’s confidence in their decisions and ANCHOR their buying experience to a POSITIVE FEELING? Would you do it? YES! Great, let’s get started.
After the sale is made and just before you walk out the door…..
“John, before I leave….I’d like to ask you one more question. How comfortable are you with everything we discussed here today?”
“Great!!! Since I do this for a living, there are two things that are important to me.
Number one is to do business with someone who takes pride in their products and services. Number two is to do business with someone who has confidence in themselves and their own decisions. It is obvious to me YOU have both those qualities! Congratulations! (Put out hand – shake and smile.) You have made a wise decision. I look forward to hearing a success story from you.”
If the customer is not comfortable with some aspect of the sale, address the issue now while you are there. “John, that is not uncommon. Others have FELT the SAME way you FEEL now….but what they FOUND is….”
Or
“John, I understand. Maybe I didn’t cover that point thoroughly enough. That is my fault. Let me go over that again….”
Bring the customer’s objection or problem to closure then…”Does that make you feel more comfortable? SUPER…..John, is everything else in line? GREAT! Since I do this for a living….”
When you ask these post sale questions, it gives you the opportunity to SOLIDIFY the order. The customer will continually LINK his pride in his products or service and his ability to have confidence in himself and his buying decision….thus ANCHORING his buying decision to GOOD FEELINGS. When or if the customer thinks about cancellation, he or she is saying to himself that he doesn’t have confidence in his products/services or confidence in himself. Do you see what I mean? Excellent!
“Our goal is to help every dealer grow and prosper and to have fun doing it.” ~Tom Johnson
Taking Control Of The Inner Elephant By Rick Rossetti
Perched atop a lumbering elephant, the tiny rider only has precarious control. As soon as the elephant and rider disagree about which direction to go, the rider will lose.
Imagine the rider as our voice of reason and the elephant as the impulses and emotions that threaten to overtake our dealers and ourselves in the field. Logically, we know that proper activity combined with the proper program produce fantastic results. The elephant starts to think for itself and move in the wrong direction when the number of lite-ups without sales starts to add up. The “law of averages” is a wonderful thing as long as we understand it.
A .350 hitter in baseball will hit .350, given a long enough period of time. It doesn’t matter if they start out hitting .180 or .480, that .350 hitter will hit .350 over time as long as they don’t change their approach or their thinking. If you close an average of 1 out of every 5, you will continue to close 1 out of every 5 (it just doesn’t necessarily happen every fifth presentation) as long as your approach (attitude), activity and program remain the same. By the way, what I’ve found over the 30 yrs. I’ve spent in this business is that if we are doing everything right; we will lite-up at least 1 out of every 2 business owners we talk to. At least one out of every two lite-ups will proceed all the way through TAP. At least one out of three TAP calls will be a sale as long as we get the proper activity every day.
One of the best ways to strengthen our logical rider so that he has better control of that big emotional elephant is to insist that we and our dealers use a record of victories. We logically know that when we are riding around in our cars licking our wounds, we are unemployed. We have much better control of that inner elephant when we know that just walking through that next door will earn us $40. That next lite-up earns us $150. And so we proceed in the right direction, continuing the positive momentum that our business is built on.
Attitude, following the proper program and engaging in the proper activity every day insures our success. Simple? Yes. Easy? No. That big lumbering inner elephant is what makes it difficult. Control the emotions, and you control your future.
Thank you, Tom Johnson for sending out a great Record of Victories. Focus on the proper activity and following the program, and you’ll have a strong group of $100,000 plus income earners on your team. Get to know your inner elephant. Slow down, reflect and harness its strength.
“When you give to others, you give to yourself.” ~Brenda Moore
A Story Of Courage
Attached to this e-mail is a GREAT story on COURAGE. When you think you have problems, reconsider the thought. Watch this video, and you will be filled with renewed strength and courage. Enjoy!
