Any tips to share on how to influence a person when we are selling a product?

The only way companies make money is through their customers. Too often, we lose touch with our customers and we forget how important they are to the success of the organization. Customer focus means, to make one time customer a regular customer through strategic management . Customer retention is so vital to the firm, and it takes to achieve customer loyalty.
There are seven different skills important to building and maintaining customer focus :
 methods of being attentive and responsive to them,
 techniques for enhancing loyalty,
 ways of building trust and commitment,
 methods for demonstrating competency,
 strategies for recovering from poor customer interactions,
 principles of hassle-free service
 Ways of effectively communicating with customers be it in sales encounter or in a problem solving situation.
The program focuses on what individual employees can do to build and enhance customer loyalty.
ORGANIZATIONS ROLE TO MAINTAIN CUSTOMER FOCUS:
An organization must need to do following steps to maintain the customer focus.
 Competitive advantage
A company may attempt to differentiate itself from its competition through the provision of better customer service. The consistent delivery of superior service requires the careful design and execution of a whole system of activities that includes people, technology, and processes. Although, the rewards will include improved revenue from customers that are impressed with the service provided.
 Role of technology
Technology has made available a wide range of customer service tools. They range from support websites and the ability to have live chats with technical staff to databases tracking individual customers' preferences, pattern of buying, payment methods etc., and tailoring products and service responses based on this advanced data. Specialist software that is designed for the tracking of service levels and for helping recognize areas for improvement are often integrated into other enterprise operational software tools such as ERP software.
Many companies have started to use new channels to capture customer feedback. With record number of people now communicating through mobile phone and sending texts, many argue that the next wave of customer feedback will primarily be captured through channels familiar to most consumers, such as mobile email and SMS. This will enable companies to track the opinions of their customers much more easily and gain valuable insight into how to improve service quality and enhance the customer experience.
 Accountability
Customers tend to be more forgiving of organizations who acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes rather than denying them. Taking responsibility for mistakes and correcting them is considered an important aspect of good customer service. When a Customer experiences poor service and is ignored the customer is less likely to return to that company again.
 Instant feedback
Recently, many organizations have implemented feedback loops that allow them to capture feedback at the point of experience. For example, one of the UK's leading coach companies invites passengers to send text messages whilst riding the bus. This has been shown to be useful as it allows companies to improve their customer service before the customer defects, thus making it far more likely that the customer will return next time.
 Developing & Maintaining a Customer Focused Team

Introduction
Customers are central to our business, the Team Leader is responsible for ensuring the team focuses on and delivers customer requirements. This one-day programme aims to identify the characteristics of a customer-focused team and the development of tools and techniques required to ensure the team members support the organizations customer service policy/approach.

 Develop a mechanism for developing customer focus within your team
 Identify opportunities for improvement within your team
 Develop customer service skills and techniques

Module Content

Who are your customers? - Identifying your customers, internal and external customers
Customer expectations - understanding the expectations of your customer, in terms of service and product, internal and external customer.
What is your role? - the Team Leaders role in Customer Service, what part do you play?
Your current Customer Service level - self-appraisal and analysis, how you measure up at the moment?
The importance of good Customer Service - to you and the business.
Demonstrating customer focus - customer focused behaviors and attitudes:
 Listening
 Questioning
 Rapport
Customer Service Formula - Developing a recipe for delivering excellent customer service/focus , code of conduct for the team.
Personal Action-Planning - developing a plan for transferring tools and techniques into the workplace.

BENEFIT OF CUSTOMER FOCUS TO INTERNAL CUSTOMER:
The Internal customer e.g. your staff, will benefit significantly by good customer care. More effective management will lead to a more motivated workforce. It will also give you improved co-operation between your departments. Your staff will welcome the fact that you are willing to invest valuable time and money in them as individuals as well as a team, and will have more job security.
BENEFIT OF CUSTOMER CARE TO EXTERNAL CUSTOMER
Your External customers e.g. the members of the general public are the most important people to your organization. Without these people coming into your shop and buying your furniture your business would not succeed. If a customer feels like she is interrupting your staff she will shop elsewhere in future, which will only result in a lost sale for your organization. It is vitally important to make your External customer feel valued at all stages of the sale, Pre-sale, during sale and after sale. If your customer enjoys her experience and has a good time under your staff, then certainly she will use your organisation again.
THE CONTRIBUTION THAT EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER FOCUS MAKES TO THE ORGANISATION:
Every business wants to be successful. Otherwise why would you go into business in the first place? If our internal customers are contented in their workplace and have good quality customer care training they will feel more motivated and confident. Also it will lower staff absenteeism and turnover of staff. In reality why should the staff want to leave a job they feel confident and secure in?
The same good customer care given to our External customers will lead to success in your company. our customers not only demand and expect our furniture to be of the best quality but also from the level of service they receive from our staff. Satisfied customers lead to fewer complaints for our staff to deal with, freeing up valuable time our staff could be more industrious in. The word of mouth recommendations your External customers will voice is in effect free advertising and this will without a doubt lead to improved reputation and most importantly to increased revenue.
It is essential to identify the considerations prior to development of an effective customer care strategy.
To provide a positive approach to customer care it is important to follow the main key issues.
 Identify customer's needs - Knowing what your customer expects and wants from your organization.
 Developing the right products and services – Once discovered your customers needs it is then vitally important that develop the product so that it will match our customers expectations.

The best way to sell something - ANYTHING - is to start by building a relationship with someone. It's much easier to sell to someone you have taken the time to get to know, and it's much easier to buy from someone you know and trust. Go make a friend and the sale will follow!

Try to make it seems as though the product is going to change the buyer's life. No matter what you are selling, appealing to the personal side always works. If it is soap to wash the floor, say that this soap will get your floors so clean that your family will be able to eat off of them.

It really depends on the product. If you provide with more information about a specific product I can give you tips for that.

Here are some guidelines that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income. I like to call them the Strategic Salesmanship Commandments. Look them over; give some thought to each of them; and adapt those that you can to your own selling efforts.

1. If the product you're selling is something your prospect can hold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible. In other words, get the prospect "into the act." Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it.
2. Don't stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, face him while you're pointing out the important advantages of your product. This will enable you to watch his facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for the close. In handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you're highlighting the important points. Regarding your sales literature, don't release your hold on it, because you want to control the specific parts you want the prospect to read. In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you're telling him about at a given time.
3. With prospects who won't talk with you: When you can get no feedback to your sales presentation, you must dramatize your presentation to get him involved. Stop and ask questions such as, "Now, don't you agree that this product can help you or would be of benefit to you?" After you've asked a question such as this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer. It's a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so don't say anything until after the prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait him out!
4. Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice.

But believe me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell. Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, "I don't know, Mr. Prospect - after watching your reactions to what I've been showing and telling you about my product, I'm very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you." Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for him to say something. Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your "tough nut" will quickly ask you, Why? These people are generally so filled with their own importance, that they just have to prove you wrong. When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves. The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they'll demand that you sell it to them.

If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leave quickly. Some people are so convinced of their own importance that it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them.
5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect. The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook.
6. After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products and collecting money. Any call backs should be only for reorders, or to sell him related products from your line. In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify him, but you're going to be wasting money if you continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of your product. When faced with a reply such as, "Your product looks pretty good, but I'll have to give it some thought," you should quickly jump in and ask him what it is that he doesn't understand, or what specifically about your product does he feel he needs to give more thought. Let him explain, and that's when you go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for him. If he still balks, then you can either tell him that you think he's procrastinating, or that overall, you don't think the product will really benefit him, or it's purchase be to his advantage. You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects. Therefore, your first call should be a selling call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month or so in person) to sign him for reorders and other items from your product line.

Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts. Make sure you have a "door-opener" that arouses interest and "forces" a purchase the first time around. This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you can show him your full line, or a special marked-down price on an item that everybody wants; but the important thing is to get the prospect on your "buying customer" list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer.

It depends on the product and the person, although good selling techniques are the same. Here are two of my fav books for selling.

How to Master the Art of Selling
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010233411033.aspx?CategoryID=CT101172321033

The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource
http://www.amazon.com/Sales-Bible-Ultimate-Resource-Revised/dp/0471456292/ref=sr_1_1/105-2454759-4922010?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185902685&sr=1-1

Hope these help. If you post the issue you are having with a customer, I am sure we can give you more insight.

Know your customers needs! Nothing influences a person more than finding a solution or appealing to their individual needs!

They are only going to buy a product they need. Make them understand how much they need your product.

If you are selling product which is satisfying need of a customer, you are required to convince the customer and not influence.

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