by Barbara Ehrentreu

Created on: November 02, 2008

Do salesmen or salespeople, since they are both men and women, sell or do customers buy? One way to show this is by my own experience as a customer. Anyone who has gone shopping for a large appliance, such as a refrigerator or a flat screen TV, knows that although you came into the store to buy the item, you might leave empty handed. Why is that? You wanted to buy it, and the product was in front of you, but you still didn't buy. We went to at least three different places looking for a flat screen TV. In one appliance store that shall be nameless, we found the TV we wanted and we were discussing our purchasing this TV with a salesperson. However, this salesperson pretty much ignored us, deciding instead to speak on his cell phone. We left the store and went instead to the same named store in a different location, where we found an even better product. This time, the salesperson gave us his full attention and answered all of our questions. He gave us a feeling of trust and confidence and moved us from our original TV to a larger one that was a better choice for us. We bought this new TV and also we added a new Blue Ray DVD player.

After hours of classes concerning this subject, it seems that it is the salespeople who sell to customers who want to buy. It all starts with the original impression a customer has of the salesperson. You can say the sale is made from the first hello. Customers who have a good rapport with the salesperson will buy almost anything that salesperson shows to them. However, rapport isn't everything. It's very important that the salesperson be familiar with the product they are selling and that they don't push the customer into a sale. When a sales appointment goes correctly, both the salesperson and the customer should be satisfied. The decision to buy comes from learning more about the product and having confidence in the information the customer receives from the salesperson. It is very important that the information be accurate and up to the minute or this will cause the customer to question whether they should buy this product.

Many times customers want to buy, but the quality of the sales person keeps them from buying as what happened in my own experience. Salespeople provide the environment for customers by outlining the features of their product and showing the drawbacks of the competition. The job of a salesperson is to create a need for their product in the customer. Many customers come to a sales situation without a clear understanding

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