If you are a business owner, never underestimate the power of people you put in contact with your customers especially if they have to sell your products, goods and services.

Your products might be the best in town with the most reasonable and affordable prices but they will rust on your shelves if your contact people do not know how to sell them.

Selling your products implies that your staff seizes every single opportunity to adopt professional selling skills. Some people are born with these skills but many others have to learn them.

The first thing every sales person needs to understand is that each person who enters a shop is a potential customer who can leave behind some money for you in exchange of your goods and products.

Customers do not enter your shop because they have nothing to do at home. When you are lucky enough to see them come inside your shop, or simply glance through it, there is for sure a golden opportunity to grasp.

The last time I entered this furnishing shop down town, the guys looked at me as if I had entered the wrong shop. At first, I even had the impression that they were also customers. They did not have anything to differentiate them as staff from their customers.

They glanced at me and continued their conversation that seemed more important than making money.
I do not think my experience is unique from other people who usually buy from this shop. Or possibly for them, I did not look like a "real customer”. 

Perhaps to them - "real customers” are those who look "big”, dressed in expensive suits, drive big cars, carry expensive telephones etc…

Yet the reality is that many sales people lose great sales opportunities just by discriminating their potential customers.

I went round for almost 5 minutes without any of them coming to inquire about what I was looking for. Eventually I left the shop just the way I entered but felt sorry for the owner- investing so much in this business and realizing that your own employees are those who drive away your customers.

I can imagine the number of opportunities that are lost every single day because of the lack of professionalism by sales people.

I blame this once again to the lack of knowledge of most of these people. I have noticed that many of these contact people were never given the basic minimum sales techniques.

They are employed because they were recommended by friends and relatives; they are probably nephews, nieces, cousins etc. Or maybe they were employed because they accepted the meager salary that was offered to them.

Many at times, business owners never take time to take their staff into the basic requirements of their job. If you are into a selling business, you need to invest time and energy in training your staff on sales and of course, on customer care. Selling is an emotional act that needs skillful people.

In order to help you in this of training your staff to become more professional in selling, I will be sharing throughout the following weeks, articles on sales techniques. We will deal with issues such as product knowledge, creating a first contact with potential customers, understanding the power of emotions, knowing the different stages of a sale process, knowing how to persuade and convince, mastering the techniques of closing sales deals, reacting to objections and many other more.

But I also know the people concerned with these issues might not necessary have access to these articles so I will kindly invite you to share them with all your employees who sell your products and services.

Selling can be great job and an immense opportunity to improve on one’s revenue and a company’s bottom line if it is well mastered.
 
The author is a customer service consultant working in Rwanda. sidossou@theservicemag.com