The answers to the question, “Why did you buy from me?” can provide you with a road map for success. You of course need to be willing to listen. I did not realize when I started asking that question that the answers I would receive would help me to analyze my selling techniques and strategies. If you do choose to ask this bold question be prepared for answers you never expected! I did eat some humble pie. You might want to soften it up a bit and ask, “Why did you buy from us today?”
Here are some of the answers I received. “I did not buy from you. You just happened to be the salesperson that approached me.” Ouch! Open wide here comes the humble pie. “We shopped ABC store and XYZ store. We bought here because you had the lowest price.” Good to know but not exactly what I was looking for! “We shopped many stores, but we bought from you because you were the most knowledgeable.” “We bought from you because you were the nicest.” “We bought from you because you treated us with respect.” “We bought from you because we trust you.” And the saddest one, “We bought from you because you did not lie to us.” How sad a state of affairs that I was chosen simply because I did not lie? Is the bar really that low? I am told customers still make all these comments.
Ok but what about that road map? The feedback from your customers is the single most important metric you can analyze. If you are getting many “your prices are low and that is why we bought” that is great for your customer but not great for you and your career. If they buy from you because they trust you, the chances of them buying from you in the future are dramatically higher. If your customer is buying the store’s low prices instead of you, they can buy from any salesperson in the store. While that might be great for the store, it will not help you build a career in retail sales.
Here’s the road map! If you are not on the right course you need to change. Analyze everything from your attitude to your techniques and compare that to what the top salespeople are doing.
As you improve you will get more positive feedback from your customers. What you want to hear is I bought from you because I trust you, because of your creative solutions, and because you are knowledgeable. This should be music to your ears. Your road map to success is listening to your customers’ feedback and letting that feedback guide you in your sales improvement efforts. Hint. It has a lot to do with self improvement and everything to do with being you! People buy from people they know, like, and trust.
One of the interesting dynamics of top retail salespeople is they do not take as many ups from the floor as the less accomplished salespeople, yet they are busy all day long with customers. How can that be? Easy, they are busy with the customers that they have cultivated over time. The top retail salespeople do not just have satisfied customers, they have loyal customers. Their customers ask for them because they have earned the customer’s loyalty.
Wishing You Success,
Pete