Great sales results, regardless of the business type, is simply a matter of seeing more people and never stop following up. Ever!

I’ve just returned from a short trip to Asia and every time I go there I’m constantly amazed at their sales skills and the simplicity of those skills and especially how well they work. I know it’s different there, competition is huge, there’s little support if you don’t work, so you make it work. But why is that so different to here? They just don’t take no for an answer and in many cases it gets the sale.

There are two great examples of how this works there and how it could and should work here, but sometimes because most people here aren’t directly paid for what they do, or how they perform, they are often paid regardless, there’s less incentive, whereas over there, if your don’t make a sale, you don’t get paid and just because you say no the first time, doesn’t mean your going to say no the second, third, fourth or fifth time. What’s it going to take to do a deal. Here’s a couple of examples.

1: Markets are everywhere, but shop style retail isn’t that much different. If your going to look at something, ask a question, or show interest in something, they are going to help you do anything to buy it.

1. They always smile, their attitude is always great.
2. The first word is often yes and the second how many. Not “can I help you?”
3. If you show interest in something, they assume your going to buy, not just inquire.
4. If you say no the first time, they’ll negotiate (on price, quantity or quality, something cheaper) and keep going, even walking after you until you say yes.
5. Then they’ll smile when the deal is done and paid, “thank you, bye bye, come back again”.
6. And if by some chance you do “pass by” again, they’ll call out, your back again, more of this or that?

This simply doesn’t happen here, but should. Statistics tell us that:

• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make only a second contact then stop
• 12% of sales people make three contacts and then stop and yet,
• 80% of all sales are made on the fifth contact or more.

No wonder most sales people don’t get the results that either they or the business wants and eventually leave, hence the high turnover of sales so called professionals. But is it training, management or both that’s the issue?

2: Encourage prospects to walk in.

We were walking past a restaurant, it looked pretty busy and this little old lady walks up and just asks table for two, shows you the menu, gently guides you to a table and you take a seat. The food was good, so we came back again. Not everyone says yes, but a lot do. If this little old lady wasn’t there, us and other people would have just walked past.

Now this does happen here, but not a lot. Lygon St Melbourne is one example (and coincidentally a couple of Italian restaurants on opposite sides of the street in Perth do it), with its wall to wall Italian restaurants doing the same thing, the ones that have someone out the front, talking to people in great Italian accents that you can’t walk past, you stop, look at the menu, the question is table for two? And you sit down, they get the customer. But why would people rather have an empty restaurant or cafe than get someone out the front encouraging people to come in? Get a staff member to take a tray of small slices of pizza, (or whatever you do) show a menu and encourage them to come in and if they don’t, hand them a special card for next time.

You can learn some really simple business fundamentals from watching other people do what they do, (especially in other countries) simple things that any business could do to some degree. Why not try some of these.

• If you have a cafe or restaurant, get someone to stand out the front, show people the menu, handout a free sample, or maybe a card so they remember you next time. (Some businesses have a saying with their staff, if you have time to lean, you have time to clean, maybe staff have time to sell, promote, or stand out the front and talk to potential customers)
• If you’re a service based business, working somewhere and people are walking past, why not handout cards to people that might just need you at sometime, or handout cards or brochures to the houses or businesses nearby and let them know what your doing.
• If someone’s walked into your business, interested in something, find out what it will take to do a deal, is it the price, or something else, if they don’t buy, get their details to keep in touch, then,
• If you’ve presented to someone, never stop following up, if they’re interested, it’s just a matter of when or how much, often there’s a deal to be done somehow, but don’t give up. Ever!

Far too many business owners attempt to build their businesses by waiting for a customer to walk in and buy, rather than attempting to sell to everyone. They do nothing if you don’t buy and just let you, the customer walk away. They are focused on what I call the one sales model. Someone walks in, maybe buys and then walks out, never to be seen again.

These businesses also believe that because of the way they deal with prospects and customers, that they just need to constantly attract more, so they continuously spend a fortune on advertising, marketing and social media in a hope to attract more customers and if they don’t, then they just wait for the next walk in.

The trouble is that, if the service, delivery and followup doesn’t meet the expectations of the customer, even if they buy once, they probably won’t be back and definitely won’t refer anyone else.

Business360 is about helping businesses get the fundamentals of running a business right, so you don’t have to rely on marketing, advertising and social media alone, to attract more business.

Building a strong, sustainable business, that continues to grow, isn’t just about the product or service, in fact often little to do with it and it isn’t about having the best marketing and advertising campaign that you have to constantly spend more money on, it’s the little things that make a huge difference to the way your business attracts and keeps customers coming back again and again and then referring others to do the same. It’s called Business360grow. It’s about getting all the little things right.

If you’d like more information on how Business360 can help grow your business massively from where it is now, click on our website at www.mybusinessnow.com.au/business360 or email info@business360now.com.au

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