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ASK, ASK, ASK……instead of TELL, TELL, TELL
This entry was posted on 12/14/2007 2:55 PM and is filed under Selling Strategies,Sales Training.
For twenty years, I have
been hot on the job creating curricula, facilitating seminars, consulting with
sales managers and bank presidents and retail vice presidents along with call
center managers to reach the bank’s sales and service goals. One step that I find most often used by the
personal banker or the teller or even the commercial lender and especially the
investment representative is they love to tell, tell, tell. What kind of first impression is that? Furthermore,
who wants to be told what to do?
Have the bank “salespeople”
ever noticed the customer’s eyes glazing over?
Have they ever asked the customer if they have any questions? Have these salespeople considered what
educators know? All educators know that hardly
anyone learns or remembers just by being told….or lectured at! Think back to your college professors. ZZZZZZZ !
We learned most of the materials by doing our own research, our own
reading, our own note taking, our own outlining. Rarely by the professors’ lecturing AT
us.
Oftentimes, in jest and to
get my point across, I ask the investment reps and the personal bankers, “Did
you check to see if the customer died on the other side of your desk?” or “Does the customer look like they've been
snowed?” “Does the customer have that
deer in the headlights stare?” What does a salesperson accomplish by using bank
lingo or such “big” words? I fear they
have only made the customer feel stupid as they have little or no idea what
that salesperson is talking about or are sometimes afraid to interrupt that
deluge of knowledge.
Furthermore, is that a good
sales technique to make the customer feel stupid or worse, afraid to ask a
question for fear of sounding unintelligent or naive about some of the
financial products?
Just today, I dialed several Call Centers to inquire about business accounts….lots of them. Again, tell tell tell. What I got – you guessed it – is a list of
all the features of the small and large business accounts, both checking,
savings and then even cash management. Talk
about confusing and yet I am savvy when it comes to all bank products as I
facilitate seminars on these very products.
Plus, you guessed it – the ZZZZZZZZZ!
And talk about
confusing! If I didn’t have a piece of
paper at hand to take notes, it would be
very hard to capture all the information let alone ask a question to
verify as the bank salesperson has gone ever onward and forward. It is common knowledge that all a brain can take
in at one time is about 4 items.
Sometimes I even catch our shoppers who make a myriad number of calls
per month hold the phone 8 inches away as they know the next step after their
question about a product will be a long, long list of features.
Instead, could we focus on
getting all our financial sales wizards to ask a few questions. Why?
- to separate
- to clarify
- to check for understanding
- to make sure the customer is with us
- to avoid boring the customer with all the
details about all the accounts
They should know that a good
salesperson asks the customer a few questions that will separate types of
accounts or investments within a category.
Then next all they have to do is discuss the one or two accounts or
investments that are appropriate for that customer to hear about.
I feel like Andy Rooney
sometimes as it seems common sense to me to ask a few questions first, for
example, what are you looking for in a bank, how do you do your banking, can
you tell me about your business, what challenges are you facing, what will you
be buying in the next 6 months to a year, what kinds of plans have you made for
retirement, why are you thinking about changing banks or investment
representatives or mortgage lenders, for that matter.
This is not prying. This is a savvy sales technique. Answer a question by asking a question to get
a clearer more precise idea of what the customer is looking for, what the
present situation is, what the future holds.
How about asking, “What has changed since the last time I saw you/talked
to you?” I was observing and coaching a
personal banker one day and if I had not asked that question (which the banker did not), we never
would have discovered that this customer was one of a team of 10 who just won
the state lottery.
If a salesperson merely
tells, that is basic feature selling.
The danger in that is that the salesperson will get a “yes” or a
“no.” Furthermore, the salesperson has
not learned much about the customer.
My mantra: Ask, Ask, Ask! A good salesperson will actually sell far
more, close more often and the customer will have the appropriate
products. What a novel idea!
Michaelene S. Mikus,
President
MSM Consulting Group, Inc.
Specialists in Enhancing
Service and Growing Sales
Facilitation, Curricula
Development and Mystery Shops
762
Wedgewood Drive
Suite 202
Crystal
Lake, IL  ostalCode>60014ostalCode>
Office:
815-444-9016
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