Breaking the Pattern

I was recently at a morning seminar on sales skills. The moderator brought up a great point. How do we break our prospective customers out of their natural pattern. The natural pattern he was referring to is a pattern that society has programmed into us. How many times have we gone into a retail store and been asked by the clerk “May I help you?” What is the most common response? “No I’m just looking.” I’m not the type of person that ‘looks’ for anything. When I go to a store I am there to buy. And yet, I find myself giving the same lame “No I’m just looking” response when I’m asked the same lame “May I help you question.”

How can we engage our prospective customers in a way that breaks them out of the normal ‘just looking’ pattern?

When I was a young lad selling running shoes, without any sales training, I came up with a way to break the pattern. When people came into my store, I would say “Hi!” Far from clever, but as I said, I was young and untrained. The interesting thing is that a few people would still respond with, “I’m just looking.” These individuals had fallen into a certain comfort level with that phrase and probably believed that I would just go away because ‘why would he bother me if I don’t plan to buy anything?’

I would respond with “That’s OK, I’m just saying hi and I’m here for you if you have any questions.” Again…not original, but it was enough to break many customers out of their pattern and also to break the ice. It helped me transition from ‘just looking’ into an engaged conversation.

As a professional salesperson my job is to engage people in conversation. In new home sales, prospective buyers are preprogrammed with three ‘leave-me-alone’ objections:

1. We are just looking at decorating ideas.
2. We just wanted to see the model.
3. (Still an old stand by) We are just looking.

How many people drive around on weekends from neighborhood to neighborhood to look at decorating ideas? And how fascinating could a model home be that I would take time away from my already cluttered schedule to visit? As a salesperson you have to assume the sale. They are there because they are looking for a new home. So how do you engage these standoffish prospects?

A strategy to engage:

1. Greet with a simple hello.
2. Acknowledge their desire to be left alone.
3. Let them know you want to help them accomplish this goal but that you want to make sure that they get the most out of their visit.
4. An easy question, “What else are trying to accomplish on your visit today?”

It’s amazing how much valuable information you can gather by breaking them out of their pattern, and changing the emphasis of their visit from your goals to their goals. At URBaCS we’re always interested in learning. If you have an effective way to engage customers please let us know.