Some say the longest distance in the world is from the customer's pocket to the salesperson's pocket. I think the reason it's so long is that our focus is often too much on getting the money in the customer's pocket. As a result, many salespeople only care about whether the customer buys, how much they buy, their attitude, their demands, whether they are difficult to handle, and whether they will finally decide to pay. None of these concerns are what the customer cares about. So even after a thousand visits, they still can't find a breakthrough for further communication. Because they can't break through the customer barrier, they naturally can't break through the performance barrier!
Before closing, have you satisfied them? -- Develop the habit of analyzing customer needs I often ask my students: When facing a customer, have you ever thought about what the customer is thinking, what their real needs are, how much you know about the customer in front of you, and whether your topics and communication with the customer go beyond the product? If you haven't spent time on these, how can you satisfy the customer's true needs? For example, if a customer is hungry, you should let them eat, not drink water, because water won't satisfy their need. After confirming that their need is to fill their stomach, you should further break it down: do they prefer noodles or rice, what flavor, salty or light? You need to satisfy each need to have a satisfied customer. Another example will make it clearer: If a baby is hungry, you should feed them milk, not change their diaper. If a baby's diaper is wet, you should change it, not feed them. If you don't satisfy the baby's needs, they will cry until they are satisfied. This is exactly like the customers we face! Before closing, have you satisfied them? Or have you not yet developed the habit of analyzing customer needs?
Successfully sell the product to yourself -- You are the customer; analyze yourself I often see salespeople who, when communicating with customers, only talk about what they think is important, what they think the customer needs. They talk too much and listen too little, completely ignoring the customer's feelings and approval. They talk like a machine gun, endlessly, even trying to change the customer's needs to close the deal. This approach naturally cannot close the deal! Maybe you think you communicated well, but the success of a communication is scored by the customer; only when the customer says it's good is it truly good, not when you say so! I often describe this sales style as "shooting randomly at birds," where success depends largely on luck!
If you were the customer in such a situation where your needs are not valued, would you buy? Unless what they talk about happens to be exactly what you need, I think more than 90% of the time, you wouldn't pay either, right? So I also often ask my students: If you were the customer, would you buy from yourself? Are your points sufficient to satisfy yourself? If your methods and attitude can't make yourself buy, how can you make customers buy? So before selling any product to your customer, try selling it to yourself first. Convince yourself to buy. Play two roles at once: one as the salesperson, one as the customer. If you can successfully sell the product to yourself, you've already achieved 80% success! So spend some time analyzing yourself: besides product needs, what other needs do you have that need to be satisfied? In the process of understanding yourself, you are already understanding the customer.
- Put yourself in their shoes -- Continuously practice understanding customers Habitually practice swapping roles with customers. Pretend to be the customer, and consider the customer's background, personality, and position. Then start thinking: What methods would they like? What thoughts would they have? What feelings would they prefer? What would they need more? You can practice these in your daily life. Because being fully prepared before facing the customer is better than rushing at the last minute and handing over control to the customer.
Not only can you use customers as practice subjects, but you can also use friends and family around you. Often ask yourself why: Why did he say that? Why did he do that? Why did he respond in that way? Why is he angry? Why is he satisfied and happy? Each time you ask yourself these questions, you grow. Customers are also people. Through this way of thinking, you will increasingly understand people's thoughts and needs, and you will become more understanding, caring, and considerate towards others!
You can even ask the other person for the correct answer after practicing. By continuously practicing this way, a salesperson can improve their ability to read people. Eventually, you will find that you increasingly understand what customers want and what they are thinking. You will no longer complain, "I don't know what the customer is thinking," because you can easily get into the deepest part of the customer's heart through role-switching practice. This is what truly means mastering customer behavior and psychology. For salespeople, stable and solid performance starts here!
- Satisfy customer needs -- Fully meet customer needs Customer needs are not always just about the product; product needs are only one of their needs. If you were the customer, it would be the same, but you might not have thought about it carefully. Think about it: When you stand at a counter to buy a product, do you only want the product's function? Or do you also have other needs like being respected, praised, cared for, and noticed? Sometimes their other needs may be higher than their product needs. Have you noticed that? Maybe they lack confidence and need praise, maybe they are stressed and need someone to guide them, maybe they like to expand their knowledge, maybe they like being respected as a senior salesperson. I once went on a sales visit and ended up listening to several lessons from the customer about their personal sales experience. Maybe, like the case I'll mention below, they just need to be cared for!
When I was a salesperson in the health products market, I met a woman in her sixties surnamed Chen. She was wealthy, but because her husband had passed away early and her children were not around, every day she was accompanied by loneliness and solitude. What I did for her each time was very simple: I constantly reminded her of past memories, opened up the conversation, and let her talk freely about her past experiences. My most important job was to listen attentively and engage, and to respond to her conversation content from time to time. Each visit had a good atmosphere, and of course, each visit also had good sales results. Was I selling? Yes, but I was selling what the customer needed, not the product. Because I satisfied her need for companionship, being understood, being listened to, and being valued, she responded to my needs, which was my sales performance! So besides the product, have you discovered other needs of your customers? If so, that's a happy thing!
- Cater to their preferences to win customers In foreign education systems, the emphasis is on heuristic education, not cramming. The same applies to satisfying customers. The easiest mistake we make is to constantly introduce new products to customers, expecting them to buy, without knowing what they really need. We focus on our own performance more than on customer needs. I want to sell this to them, but I don't think about why the customer must buy this, or what other products might be needed. Without prior analysis, we end up showing hundreds or thousands of products for the customer to choose from, wasting their time and energy. You won't get a good response either, because nine out of ten customers won't have the patience to look through all the information you present. The information ends up in the wastebasket like scrap paper!
Customers like you because you think of what they think of, you prepare what they need, you value their precious time more than they do, you provide objective reference opinions when they can't decide, doing business with you is stress-free, and communicating with you is easy and pleasant. You are always the solver of their problems, not the creator. You are even their confidant. It's not hard to win customers; understanding them is where you need to put in the effort. If customers like doing business with you today, or even look forward to the next time, then you have succeeded!
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