A few years ago, was looking for a job where I could do face to face sales and here I am...
It's rare to walk out of a job interview feeling like you've learned a thing or two. But that's exactly what happened when I interviewed at the Harley-Davidson dealership in Santa Fe. Rather than ask us a million questions about ourselves, they explained the sales process that works for them, which made the interview valuable to me. My favorite piece of advice was this, "God forbid you ever say to the customer, 'Can I help you?'" And they're so right. After spending ten minutes talking to customers, you can see that they don't want to talk to you if you act like a salesperson. And nothing says salesperson more than "Can I help you?" The question is, what do you say instead? It's definitely a matter of getting to know people and learning how to connect on a personal level. The guy giving the presentation on sales said you have to learn how to tune in and talk about anything and everything but the motorcycle at first. He had a lot of tattoos and said that he loves to strike up conversations with people about their tattoos. (That may not work as well for me because I have zero tattoos... but I can try). I was able to connect with people about music (if they were wearing anything that suggested they loved music). Once there was a guy browsing and he had the most intent focused look on his face and he did not want to talk, but I was there to talk to people. Finally, I said, "You look so focused!" and he laughed at himself and told me that he was looking for a gift for his buddy for under 20 bucks. We found something he liked really fast.
I no longer sell Harleys but one thing I noticed is that you can't control when someone will be ready to buy. They are going to be buying at their own pace. And that's not just the case for people buying motorcycles. It's true for any type of transaction.
That's why it's so important to give people a reason to join your list and share information that will help them make a decision for themselves.
