How to sell a product to a client and 3 simple tricks to handle them
In today’s world, marketing is everywhere, if you need to sell a product or business service to a client, then you have to understand who are your client’s and how to handle them. In this article, we will be teaching you about
“How to sell a product to a client and 3 simple tricks to handle them”
” Sales is a WIN-WIN game , Its nothing but exchanging money for a quality product or a service “
- Check whether the product is valuable or not.
- Identify the customers problem , give him/her the right solution and help them to get what they want and don’t want.
- The product/service should change the customers life in a positive way.
What are the different types of clients?
All client’s are not same. Let’s divide the client’s into 3 categories
- This is the initial stage, where a stranger client meets a stranger sales or business person.
- Here, people have a requirement of your product or service, but they don’t trust you or your product.
- “A person is not going to give his/her money to you as it is”, we have to create a trust to them by explaining the true value of the product.
- These are people who got melted down from the ICE category by knowing about you or your product.
- They came to know about your product or services either by you or some other referrals.
- They now trust your product/services and have confidence in it.
- These are people who have already purchased your product or services.
- They believe in you or your product and are ready to buy again and again.
- They will also say good about your products to their friends and family and thus it can help to increase your business productivity.
There are few techniques to handle the different categories of client’s and convert a sale or project.
Let’s implement a concept called “AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) “
ABA
(Attention by attraction)
- Always remember “First impression is the best impression”
- when you speak or showcase a product to a client, make sure it is done in a clear, creative and professional way.
- Put some hooks like “free, offer, discounts etc”
- Never use round off numbers such as 1000,2000 etc, people are bored of it, create interesting numbers such as 1999,2999 etc.
FSI
(Free sample interest)
- This technique is useful for the ICE category client’s, they don’t trust you or your product.
- Give them a sample product or a service that has a good value in it as free only for a limited time period.
- Take them to 20% of your product/service journey as free of cost.
- Then stop the services and people start thinking , “if this was free, what would happen if I pay for it?”
DOB
(Desire of bonus)
- This technique is useful for the water category client’s.
- Now people have seen your product/service from the FSI technique. They have an interest to buy it.
- Provide them with special bonus, discount, offers, etc and increase their interest in buying the product.
- Note : You should work on the price accordingly before providing discounts.
TACT
(Take action by closing techniques)
After you have tried the previous techniques, now client is on the edge of a hill, all he need is a small push.
- Puppy dog close
- Yes or No close
- Fear of missing out
- Decision close
Let’s discuss about this in detail.
Puppy dog close :
This is nothing but FSI technique.
Let’s explain this concept with an example, Imagine you have a pet puppy with you, and you are going for a vacation for few days and you can’t take your puppy with you. You have to give it your friend, but your friend don’t like dogs. But still you have given it to him and he has it with him now. He has seen the cuteness of the little puppy all these days and once you have returned from the trip and you are asking your puppy back, he will feel very bad to give it to you since he has started to love the puppy. Use this same technique to sell your product, give the client a valuable sample product or service for a limited period and make him love it.
Yes or No close :
Put questions to your client or customer for which their answer should be yes.
For example :
- Isn’t this a product that interests you? yes.
- Will this product/service help you? yes.
- Do you see that the product/service will be benefitted for you? yes.
Then this is the right time to purchase it.
If client says no for all questions, then he is not your client, don’t waste time with him.
Fear of missing out :
Give them bonus or offers and tell them this is valid only for a limited time or limited seats.
Make their brain think that “if we don’t purchase now , we might miss the opportunity”
Show them proofs of your sales if applicable.
Never force any client or Customer.
Decision close :
Make the client feel that he is going to buy the product by asking questions such as:
Do you like to pay by cash or cheque ?
When shall we start the project or sales ?
Do you wish for a home delivery or do you want to come to showroom and pick it yourself ?
When someone gives an objection, understand that he or she is interested about the product, but they still give an objection because there might any reason for it, all you have to do is ask that reason and give a proper solution.
Be mentally strong and understand that:
- You cannot please everyone.
- Be brave enough to say No if something cannot work.
- Don’t think that the client may speak bad about you if you didn’t do whatever he says.
- Your inner peace is more important than money.
Let’s see some of the objections a client generally puts and how to handle them like a pro.
1. I don't have money
People didn’t see the value in the service or product. When people really need it, they will arrange money for it.
What if they like the product and don’t have money?
Ask them, “how do you intend to arrange money for it” and give them a payment structure suitable to them.
Make iterations of your project with proper payment and time schedule at different stages and give it to the client and work accordingly .
2. Give me discount
People like the product, but still ask for a discount so that they can save some amount.
We must always retain the same price for all client’s. We must not provide discounts for each client with varying price.
If we do so, then we have cheated the other client’s, who also thinks he/she got cheated from you and feels that you have charged him more.
If still people need discount, try to reduce the services to compensate the price.
3. You are costly
In this world, there will always be someone greater than you as well as lower than you. You are unique.
Request client’s not to compare with others.
Ask them, if you offer the same price as other competitors, from whom will they buy? Obviously the client is going to say it’s you. Ask why? He will bring all positive stuffs about you and your product compared to other deals. Now tell them this is the exact reason why we have charged that price. We offer quality based service compared to other companies.
4. I will ask my family
Know whether those people are related to the product. If yes, then
Tell the client, “Since they don’t know about the product, Will you be able to explain and convince them? or shall I do it for you? if, it’s ok with you we can arrange a group meeting or a call and I can explain the value of the product to everyone.
If client says NO, then ask him, “if you are not convinced, let me know which made you uncomfortable, we can work on it”
5. I don't think I can do this
These objections are for few products that involves daily access such as protein powder.
Client puts objection for 2 reasons
1. He don’t trust you
2. He don’t trust himself
Ask him, “whether the information received about the product is clear enough or he/she need more explanation?”
If client says he will quit the service in half, ask him what makes him quit, and help him with it to continue the usage of product.
6. I need some time ,I'll get back to you
People put this objection because, they might think whether this is something that can be solved later or he/she is still not cleared about the product.
So tell the client , “Sure sir, i can understand that you need some time to think, may i know what is the actual concern that is making you to think? , is it the money or something else, let us know, we can sort it out”
7. I myself don't know what I want, but am sure this is not the one i want.
These people they themselves don’t know what they actually want. They keep changing their requirements again and again.
How to handle them?
Make a written note of what their initial requirement is.
Analyze those requirement if its feasible or not and start the project only if the requirements are finalized.
Be strong in saying that if the requirement got changed ,which leads to rework, then the client has to pay extra for it.
8. It's very urgent and I need it tomorrow
These people think only about their problems.
They lack of realty awareness, they don’t know how much time the work process will take, all they think is once they give you the requirement, they will get the product the very next day.
To handle these people, make them understand that you have other client’s as well and you are working for their project before you even signed up for this and also give them work timeline at the early stage itself to avoid any chaos.
If the project is really urgent, then you can plan it accordingly based on your time schedule.
9. I thought this was included earlier.
Before you start any work, make sure you have made a proper documentation of the requirements, payment schedule, work timeline etc.
Paperwork is always better than promises given by speech. It acts like an agreement.
Any additional works apart from the agreement can be chargable.
Never do it for free.
Be very particular when you provide the documentation, never say that “sorry is missed this, i have to add extra amount” client will feel bad and also lose confident in you.
10. I need big from small
Let’s make this simple to understand, How would you feel if client gives you just Rs.100 and tells you that you have to buy the entire google company for him, don’t you feel this is invalid?
Make them understand what is feasible and what is not.
A client has come to you that,you might solve his/her problem, try your best to do it.
11. I am only free on weekends
Few client may say , am free only on weekends or after business hours, we shall work on those time only.
We everyone are free on weekends, after business hours and we have to be free.
Work is a never ending process, that doesn’t mean that you can keep working all day, even after business hours.
End of the day, either a machine or a human being, we all need rest.
Try to explain this to the client in a polite way and see how you can help him to get his/her problem solved.
12. I hate this colour and design
When client throws an objection like he didn’t like the design or colour’s etc, never take it personally.
End of the day you are doing something only for the client. So his/her satisfaction should be on priority.
Show your expertise by suggesting him few sample reference and see what are the options he/she is interested in.
If neither of the reference didn’t work, then request the client to suggest options that he like.
- If we know that a person is not going to buy your product, then without any delay stop explaining them or running behind them, if not then you are wasting your time unnecessarily.
- People who ask for guarantee (Reason: He/She hasn’t respected/beleived your product at the very first stage, if any small defect arises in future, they are going to blame your product blindly.)
- Never sell to price peddlers. People who ask for discount. (Reason : They don’t care about your quality product, they just need a cheap price product and they will keep comparing you with others)
- Never sell to friends and family until or unless they come to you and ask your product (Reason: Even if they found a small problem or defect , then they are obviously going to tell about it to the entire friends and family circles, Remember that these kind of information will spread faster than corona virus)
- Also never sell to those people who ask discount or free service by saying that we will get you more clients and contacts ( Reason : They just need a free/low cost product from you, always understand that, in this world nothing is for free, no person is going to give you clients or contacts and make you rich for free. Once he or she got what they want, they are obviously never going to come back to you. If they really like your product then they will surely say good about your service to others.