What You Reveal: Answer

Last week, I wrote about my experience in buying a new car. Every Hyundai dealer I went into had the same exact approach. They would greet me, talk to me a minute and then they all asked me to sit down. Next they would want my name, address, etc. so they could contact me again.

I asked last week what information a salesman can glean from you at this point.

If I am a salesman, I want to know as much as I can about you, my customer, and the sooner I can get information about you, the faster I can act to close a deal by meeting your and my needs.  I also want to identify easy sales from more challenging ones, right?

These simple, benign requests, will reveal a lot about a person in just a minute or two of time!

If I were to ask every customer to sit, I would immediately take notice of the customers who follow my instructions.   If they sit and even better, give me all the information I ask for, I know right away, this person is much more likely to follow my lead (I’m in the driver’s seat so-to-speak), be open to suggestions (up selling), and wants to be polite and pleasing so I can sell MORE and MORE!

That’s the perfect customer who has the highest likelihood to sign on the dotted line for a much higher price than a person who questions me along the way or doesn’t follow my instruction.

I suspect you can guess what I did at that time. I gave them no name, no address, no information, and no, thank you, I don’t want to sit.  I see it this way: I am the paying customer. I am paying you to be there to service me and my needs, not the other way around.  I will only give you information that benefits me!

So the next time you are a customer buying a product, think twice at what you do and say. Each interaction you have with someone reveals information about you, and that information can and most likely will be used against you!  So remember, what are you revealing?

In sales, it always behooves you to stay in the “drivers seat”:  You be in control.  You call the shots and not the other way around.