In my last blog, I described why many sales employees struggle with the first ten minutes of the presentation. I wrote about the significance of “Hello!,” a handshake and asking the question, “What brings you to the club today?” You could lose potential clients in the first 30 seconds, so it’s important to work on making sure your staff is genuinely interested in the prospect.
Today, we are going to shift our focus to the transition process, from the introduction to a presentation.
It is safe to say that consumers want to buy, more so than they want to be sold. We have to understand that we are not going to sell the customer, but we are going to enroll the customer into our vision. We are going to share facts about fitness, we are going to relate to the customer’s needs and we are going to talk about the benefits of exercise. We call this the “enrollment process.”
To get the enrollment process started, we must first learn more about the customer. We need to ask the customer several fact-finding questions so that we may better serve the needs of the prospective client. Remember, you are only here to serve the customer!
So, let’s work on the transition from the lobby to the question-and-answer session.
After you ask the customer, “What brings you to the club?,” they will respond with one of many possible answers, such as, “I live nearby,” “I have friends at the club,” “I am a former member,” etc.
How do you reply? Simply say — “That’s great!” Then, explain the following:
1. “What I would like to do is ask you some questions so I can learn more about you.”
2. “I will give you a tour of the club.”
3. “I will give you some pricing information to take with you.”
4. “I will give you details about our facility and programs.”
5. “This will all take about 15 minutes; is this okay with you?”
People tend to respond in a positive manner when they know what’s about to happen. Often, sales reps will simply say, “Walk this way,” start the tour, and not ask the prospect any questions. With this approach, the customer does not enjoy the process from the very beginning.
The five statements above are critical to building a little bit of trust. It allows comfort for the prospects; they know exactly what is about to happen and they know exactly how long the process will take. When the customer agrees, they are telling you everything is okay so far. It’s like getting positive confirmation; you can see they like that you are interested, the body language is positive and everyone is about to enjoy the question-and-answer session.
Next week, I’ll discuss how to administer the question-and-answer session. Read “How Important Are the First Two Minutes,” if you missed my last post, which describes how to make proper introductions with prospective clients.
Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs. He can be reached at chall@bigvanilla.com.
