Sales may be achieved face to face, by telephone, over the internet or simply via catalogues  or order forms. In each case you need to question why people buy your product or service rather than those of your competitors.

Also ensure all your literature or sales techniques outline the benefits your customers will receive by purchasing your goods or services.

Sales people need to be trained to listen to the customer and respond accordingly – how many times do you have a sales person telling you what you want rather than listening to what you really want!

Also sales people have to be careful not to ASSUME(as the saying goes ‘making an ass out of you and me’!) who the person who actually has the buying power. An example of this is over the years I have purchased various cars and every time I went into showroom the sales person went straight to my husband to ask his requirements and completely ignored me being the person who in fact was buying!. Many sales people lost a sale due to this error.

You should also make sure that the sales process is completely seamless by recording and processing orders and ensuring that the customers needs are met, invoices issued and payment received. One client we found was losing their customers and after some research it was found that the reason was due to their invoicing and allocation of fund. Maybe a small part of the sales process but so very important.

Each point of sale contact is ideal for collecting information about how people heard about your products and services. Also what were their thoughts about your advertising or marketing and actually what made them to choose your company.  Every piece of intelligence you glean can help with your future activities.

One thing to be aware of is the fact that you as a business, may have processes in place and well trained staff, however  if you are selling through third parties theirs may not be as robust as yours. To avoid any issues in the future it would be beneficial to ensure that you have a process in place for collating information rating your customer experience through these to ensure that you can take immediate action if your business is being damaged.

Need Help ? – Contact – kathryn@legworkms.com