Some buyers are scary. They may be impatient, rude, or obnoxious. It’s rare that anyone is actually mean, but people are people. We have good days and bad. To put it in perspective, they’re mostly afraid.
What can you do about?
Let me answer with short story to see if it helps.
When I was selling car service, I once had a customer walk in and demand, “How long is this going to take!” No niceties, no “Hello, how are you, sorry to interrupt….”
Was I rattled? Of course? He was big and scary, too! He even growled a bit when he talked.
Here’s what I did. I ran my process. My process had three parts:
- Make sure I had all his information correct
- Confirm what he was here for
- Run my standard offerings like I do with every customer
I didn’t deviate from my process just because he was grumpy. I ran my playbook. My playbook was rock solid.
I could’ve reacted to his emotions and just done what he asked for. But that would have been a disservice. I was the car repair expert. I knew his car better than he did. I could see his car was going to need a lot more than just the basics.
So what happened.
I asked.
He was at least going to need 4 new tires, an alignment, and probably front brakes, too, so I asked – “Should we take care of that while it’s here?”
“Yes.” He growled.
“No problem,” I said.
“You have a beautiful car, would you like me have our dent guys remove the dings and have it detailed so it looks like it did the day you bought it?” I asked.
“Do it.” He said.
He came in for a $595 service. He left (happy) with a $3,000 bill. He even thanked my service director for the excellent service he received.
What’s the moral of this story?
Find and stick to a winning process.