Sales Tip: How to genuinely help a customer who’s shopping without pressurising him to buy?

Everyone loves shopping. There are certainly no two opinions about this statement. At least, women will never have! But, have you ever noticed that you like to visit stores where salespeople don’t bother you much? This is true because none of us like to be pestered when we are ‘just looking’ for clothes.

There are times although when we need a tip or two from the sales guy, but then, we tend to avoid him at all costs, the reason being obvious that he might just pursue us into buying. There are times we know what to buy but have difficulty in finding the same. And then there are times when we don’t even have an idea what we are looking for. And most of us are always stuck in between one of these situations. And under such circumstances, a wise sales guy can really help us out. But, what if he is too pushy about selling the commodity? This is the thought that stops us from seeking any help.

A typical scene at the store: You are looking at shirts, and then the sales guy walks over and approaches you by saying, ‘how may I help you?’ You simply shoo him away by saying ‘you are just looking.’ Even if you need help, you would hesitate because you don’t want to be pressurized.

Probably due to our previous bad encounters with sales people, we would like to work out on our own. So, how should sales people really offer ‘help’ to these confused customers without getting them all irritated? Learning this sales technique is very essential because without mastering it you will never be able to retain or grow your customers. There are lakhs of retail stores today in India alone. And these retail stores need to know this sales tact. Otherwise, they are just losing on important business.

There is no hard investment that you have to make here. It’s just training on handling such situations that sales people require. Let’s suppose you are the sales person at a retail shirt outlet, and there’s a customer who is staring or looking at a section of shirts. It’s been a couple of minutes he is doing that. Here is how you break into a conversation with him after he says ‘he is just looking’:

1) I am XYZ, most of the customers are confused at times; I think I will be able to help you. May I know your name?

2) Can I just know what exact cloth size that you are looking at? Do you have any price range in your mind?

3) Can you let me know if you want the size to be larger than that you are wearing currently?

4) Amazing. We have a good collection that might suit you the best. Would you be interested in taking a look?

5) If you have anything specific in mind, I will just direct you to a collection that you might like. That might just be easier for you.

6) Can I just offer you some information that will help you in making the choice faster?

7) The reason why we display clothes is that you can have a good look at our collection. But, if you want any help, please let me know.

8) Have a look at our entire range. Please feel free to check our new range as well.

9) When you are taking the final call, please let me know if I could help you in the decision.

10) My job is to make your decision-making process easy, so please seek my help if you feel the need for it. I will provide you with more information.

All you need is an array of such responses that will help the confused customers. If a customer can be helped without being too much pestered, then I think this is an amazing way to grow the business. This is all about sales techniques; the ability to do sales well will determine your growth of business.