A Trip to Belgium and a Lesson About Sales
As college students my husband and I backpacked trip through Europe. I still remember the lesson we learned about selling we learned in Belgium.
My husband and I were searching for the PERFECT glasses for him. Glasses with style. Classy eye glasses. Round glasses whose frames were squared out on the sides. Eyeglasses that we could only find in Europe.
We stopped in every eyeglasses store from England to Amsterdam. We spent hours in every one on them trying on frames. We still hadn't found the perfect eyeglasses but we needed to mail something so we stopped at the post office.
Inside the post office was a clerk wearing the perfect glasses. My husband really wanted to try them on. But how do you walk up to a person and say, hey, can I try on your glasses? My husband and I looked at each other. We both knew those were the glasses we wanted. We wondered how we could get the clerk to let my husband try on his glasses.
If They Say Yes One Time, They'll Likely Say Yes Again
We tried an approach we learned about getting from no to yes. The key is a series of small yesses to get to the big yes.
Make Friends Before You Make Sales
People don't automatically say yes when they have no relationship with you. You must first establish a repoire. We went back to the post office. This time we told the man we really liked his glasses. We talked about our trip. We shot the breeze a little. Then we asked him where he got the glasses. We told him about our quest and asked where he got his glasses. A small request that he would definitely agree to.
By this time he was smiling and so were we. We all felt like we were making a new friend. You see when people help you, they feel good. The funny thing is by this time he was onto us. We didn't even need to ask. He offered. Do you want to try them on?
Move from a Small Commitment to a Bigger Commitment
We didn't know it but the key was to get a small commitment and then move to bigger ones. Once people say yes a few times they don't want to break the streak and say no.
Direct marketers and other salespeople use this technique all the time. They start by earning your trust with testimonials, using your name, complimenting you in some way. Then they offer you something free that is valuable to you and costs them little (like a sample, or a newsletter, or free guide). From there they ask you to do something else. In the process you build the value of the paid offering. Since you already like ______ (insert newsletter, free sample, report, etc) you may be interested in ________ (the thing they're selling).
Use This Technique to Sell Anything
This technique works in a variety of forms. I used it selling cherries one summer at a farmer's market. If I could get someone to try a cherry, they would buy a bag. If they didn't try one they usually didn't buy any. I knew I didn't want to take home a big bag of cherries at the end of the day so I made sure to offer everyone a free sample. It's much easier to sell a free sample than the whole bag but that is the very key.
Remember this simple technique when you are selling anything. An idea. A product. An e-book.
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Janet Meiners is a marketer who is learning about sales. She is particularly interested in direct marketing and measuring results of your writing. She is currently enjoying the book "Ogilvy on Advertising".
Janet blogs at newspapergrl.wordpress.com
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