Asking for the sale can only save you time. When is the proper time to ask? When your customer has a poker face and you feel you have put in enough time you have to always ask for the sale. On small sales you have to ask for the sale right away as they can be time wasters. There are many ways in doing this. If you have any fear that the customer will say no, you can say, “Is this what you were looking for?” This is a way to lead into asking for the sale and to see what objections may pop up. Another wonderful way is to say to a customer if you are in retail, “Before we get carried away would you like me to see if this product is even in stock?” Here you are cutting to the chase and qualifying your customer at the same time.
CLOSING YOUR SALE
Asking for the sale is a good time management tool when you ask for it at the proper time. Most sales people have a small fear of rejection asking for the sale but in doing so at the proper time give you other options besides saving you time. Always ask for the sale when you are selling an inexpensive item; you do not wait for them to buy as this could be a real waste of time when dealing with small or inexpensive items. If you get a no, all your options are now open to you for what you can do next. You can put your customer on hold by saying, “think it over for a few moments and I will come right back to you.” In the meantime look around for more customers.
Do not let the sales floor manipulate you; you have to learn how to manipulate the sales floor. You can apply this closing as a last resort, “take the product home for 30 or 60 days and try it and if you change your mind just bring it in and get your money back.” It is not good opening the door for returns but if you need the sale go ahead and do that. There are customers that abuse return policies and play the system. This is why you must use this closing only as a last resort, as mentioned above…
