Have you ever thought about what makes you go to a beauty studio forty minutes from your home rather than one that is two streets away? Now when you stop to think about it you probably know the answer: it’s about the good service and professional people that work there. Employees there know which product you need, how to offer you a service and know how to communicate with you, which makes their business grow. And even these days we do majority of business online, it’s still important to look and do things in a proper way. We have speakers and a camera, which means that customers still can hear and see you. This is why you need to treat them right if you want to succeed. Even if you chat, you need to do it right, so here’s our suggestion of what you can do about it.
Have a smart appearance
Look like a professional
You don’t need to wear a business suit every time you go to work. Jacket and tie are not necessary, but you can’t come in front of customers in old shoes, tracksuit bottoms and bad hairstyle. However, you can come in nice pants, shirt and shoes that will give you a smart and decent appearance. In this way, you will look professional, and people will like you and have trust in you. Actually, you have less than a second to make a good first impression, and clothes that you wear is one of the first things people will notice about you.
Nice little details
After you choose your clothes that will help you to look professional, now is the time to work on the details. Nice little things that will help you to look elegant. Luckily, we don’t need diamonds or white gold to achieve that. Also, this doesn’t mean that you need to put in hundreds of pieces of jewelry and look like a Christmas tree. Remember, the secret of elegance is in simplicity. Simplicity is beauty. The subtle necklace around the neck, good perfume and a handwatch will help you to look stylish in the best possible way. Again, you don’t need a Rolex around your hand, but Seiko or Boss will do the job for you.
Perfume does not need to be too strong, and you don’t want that! First, it can remind you of cheap perfume, plus, it can be very irritating to the people that are in the room with you to smell it all the time. On top of that, if you look cheap to a customer, you will not sell a pen which will directly affect your earnings and your career.
Take attention to your body language
Good body language is a must, and it will tell everything about you: who you are, how you feel and what you want to achieve. This is enough of a reason, and there are plenty more, why you should take care about your body language.
Without good body language that shows self confidence, all advice mentioned above and under this line will not help you at all.
One of the most important things when it comes to your body language are your eyes. Eyes are the door of the soul, so be careful. When we want to know who the person is, we look them in the eyes. Following this theory, the first rule is to always look people in their eyes. When you speak to them or listen to them, it’s important to have good eye contact. Of course, don’t just stare at them, but normally communicate.
This will help you to gain trust in customers’ eyes and bond with each of them.
Make sure that your posture is correct and you stand with confidence. No need to sit on a table and smoke cigarettes like in 50’s cowboy movies, but nice posture shows that you are confident, feel comfortable and stable. This will make people respect you.
It’s not just what you say – it’s how you say it
You can know everything about some topic, but if you don’t know how to transfer your knowledge and present it to many people, you will not go anywhere, especially in business. That’s why technique of speech is so important.
Just for the moment, come back to your primary or high school days. You miss it now, right? But it wasn’t like that before! However, if you remember from the class you attended, there was a teacher that had a lot of knowledge, but they didn’t know how to teach, and the other teacher that knew how to teach. The teacher who knew how to teach was able to make you interested in subjects that at first you didn’t like. And that is because they know how to represent it in the best possible, understanding and funny way! (Hopefully we do the same with this blog!)
Same goes for business! You simply must know how to speak, so people who will listen can learn something from you and trust you.
As you probably noticed so far, everything goes around trust! Trust is everything when it comes to any relationship! If we want to do something together, we must have trust in each other! The same is when you want to sell something to someone. Trust is the land where we stand!
So, how to achieve conversational skills that will gain trust? Very simple actually, no need to panic!
Speak simple and short sentences with a lot of colorful explanations. Use a lot of quotes and examples in a conversation. Share with people just verified information and never lie to them. Use a simple language that everyone can understand. From scientists to regular people.
Never stop between words with the “Awww” “What was I want to say” or even worse “You know what I mean”. No one knows what you mean, that’s why you must communicate precisely, clearly representing your point to the people.
There’s also one trick that people do not use and make a big mistake when it comes to representing a product, ideas or proposal to anyone. And that happens when it comes to the good and bad side of the product you sell. No, dear friends, your product has just a good side!
You can say now: “But, wait a second? You just said that you do not lie to a client? What was this about?”
Well, I did say do not lie, but you don’t need to. You must turn the bad sides of the product to be the good side that works for you? How to do it? Very simply. Here’s a very good and simple explanation:
You sell two different models of a car. One is a family car with a lot of space and the other is smaller which can drive just two people. But, you will not say to customers “True, the bad side of this smaller car is that it can’t drive the whole family on a picnic”. Or, for a big car, you will not say, “Yes, this car is perfect for a picnic, but the truth is that it spends a lot on oil and you will need a larger parking space.”
No, no and no!
You will say something like this: “This smaller type of car is perfect to drive you from home to work. And this very-well designated trunk will be more than enough to transport all the food items from your weekly shopping list”. And for the bigger car you will say: “This car is ready 24/7 to drive you and your family for weekly shopping or a picnic. It is very huge and has enough space to put all your clothes when you go to a Christmas holiday in another town to visit a family.”
You see? You didn’t lie, but about certain characteristics you do not speak negatively. You just show it as an advantage of the product. And at the end of the presentation you don’t say, “Depending on your needs, you can choose between these two beautiful cars. Or one can be yours, and the other can be for your daughter that starts university in another part of the town, so she can visit you more often”.
Alright, this about “visiting more often” is a lie, but you see how to sell something? The same comes for the ideas, projects or proposals of the team at work.
Principles are the same!
Give value to the people
The “good old days” when you can sell anything through the television shopping channels are gone. Customers these days are smarter and they have ways to check if you told the truth when you promote your product. Besides the fact that their neighbor may have your product, these days people have the internet. Competition is even higher than in 90s home shopping channels, and people can read about your product or ideas, compare it with others and read reviews from real people on their social networks.
That’s why it’s much better for you to sell something that has real value, and to think about your long-term business. If you lie to people to earn revenue, you can take a few steps forward in your business, and even make a ton of cash if you have luck, but after that your reputation is gone, and hardly any money will bring it back.
So, when it comes to sales these days, sell something in which you also believe and know that it’s the truth and that it works.
Life the life you speak about
A few months ago, I was watching a TV debate with two doctors. One, Miroljub Petrovic – practitioner of holistic medicine, and the other, Tatjana Radosavljevic – Doctor of Modern medicine. In that duel they speak about methods of modern medicine that Tatjana didn’t approve of, and spoke about it as pseudoscience. However, Miroljub answered her in one moment with words, “With all respect to the education of Tatjana, I will not allow someone whose weight is more than 120 kilos and come to the television studio with the cane to teach me about health and wellbeing”.
In this way, all her diplomas and authority fell down. You must be a real example of what you speak, represent or sell. In business, but in private life, too!
If you sell sports shoes, you must know something about them. You must know what the feeling is when you are wearing them, how to wear them and how to take care of them to survive longer and in that way save customers money. Or better to say, put yourself in customers’ shoes! 😉
But you will not know how to do that if you don’t wear it. In that situation, the clients will know much more about the product you sell, and you will not sell it actually, as you will passively stand and just charge a customer that chooses what it wants.
That simply can’t happen. So, live the life you speak about, and be the business you represent!
Have basic manners in your behavior
One of the biggest mistakes in basic steps is how the majority of people treat their clients. This summer I spent time in Sliema, a beautiful locality on the island of Malta. In the area of one kilometer where I used to walk, there were a lot of kiosks with ice creams and drinks. Every day I went to one kiosk to buy an ice cream. The man that sold it to me was very rude, didn’t want to explain anything, not even want to serve you or look at you. On a question “Do you maybe have a peach ice cream” He answered, “What you see, that I have”. And to the girl after me he said, “I just said it: I have what I have, take it or not”.
Well, we all have bad days, we do not sleep well, but this is not how you communicate with people, especially not the people you depend on – your customers.
No matter how tired you are, or you don’t want to work, that’s not the problem of other people, especially customers. And no matter if you run a business or work for someone, at the end of the day you represent yourself, and just yourself. That’s why words like “Hello”, “How can I help you” and “Thank you very much, have a nice day” are recommended in conversation with people that surround you.
After sale service
Do you sell products or services to your customers? That’s great, but this is not the end of the story. One of the best ways to make a sustainable business and best possible reputation is with after-sale service. When you sell the product to the customers, you earn money once and never again. But if you stay in relationship with those customers, there’s a high chance that customers will buy the same product from you and recommend you, and in that way you make a profit at least three times per customer.
It sounds perfect so let’s see what steps we need to do to climb on that mountain.
Check the customers satisfaction
At least twice a year, call your customers just to check if they use your product and if they have some problems or questions that you can solve and answer. Do not offer any sales or service, just call to see how they are and if they are satisfied.
In this way, your reputation in front of ‘customers’ will elevate to the maximum possible level. This is millions of lightyears better than calling customers simply to sell them something.
When the customers see that you care for them, they will be thankful to you, they will recommend you and your business will benefit.
And at the end of the day, we are all people, and that comes before a business. Being there for people and making a friendship is more than a business, it’s a way of life.
This is the basics. You can always search more and read about customer satisfaction and ways that your business can be run better.
Wishing you a lot of luck,
Your Business Magazine Team!