The risk of the fast sale is you won’t learn enough about the customer to enable you to make a second sale.
Many times when we make a “fast sale,” we do so without really learning the needs the customer has. Sadly, we then don’t learn how the benefits we can offer will help them. Knowing these things are critical if we have any expectation of being able to serve the customer long-term.
When a sale is made too quickly and we don’t learn these things about the customer, we run the risk of having the purchase become nothing more than a commodity transaction where the customer is thinking of nothing but the cost. When the transaction becomes solely about the price, we lose all opportunity to become a valued partner. We become known to the customer as bringing only one thing — a low price.
If you have found yourself in this situation having made a fast sale, do not think you can’t go back to the customer and ask them questions about the needs they have and the benefits for which they are looking. It may be too late to use them on the initial sale, but you can still use this information to help ensure there is a profitable second sale.
3 Responses
You make some excellent points here.
Whenever a prospect tells me he wants to buy “X” from me and how can he pay, I back up the sale and ask why he want an “X”. In many cases he thought he needed an “X” when, in actual fact, a “Z” would be better fit. If I had grabbed the money for the “X,” I would have had a fast sale and an unhappy customer.
Slow down. Maybe the “X” is the right solution but check out your propspects perception before grabbing the cash and running. You may have ti keep on running… away from an unhappy customer.
Another thing to point out here is that, it is very important not only to establish but also to maintain the business relationship between the seller and the customer. As someone who is working for the outsource telemarketing industry, I also see to it that not only myself makes a sale, but that I also maintain a strong connection with the customer.