Charles Lau dot Com

No matter how much money you are able to save, you will definitely spend the money you have which you didn’t really expect yourself to.

It can be a real problem when a salesperson is too powerful to handle a small customer. My mother was passing by a supermarket when there is a facial demonstration just outside. She just took a look at it when one of the girls approached her. The girl let my mum tried some facial cleansing and eventually trying to show her how good her company’s products are. My mum didn’t really want to buy the product and purposely gave her a problem saying that she did not have enough money. This girl will just tell her that she can just owe the company first and pay it back when my mum goes to her shop for the next facial session. My mum threw another problem again and again and again. In the end, she paid it and went home trying to tell me how good the product is…

When I hear this from my mum, I could only keep quiet there listening to her. My mum was telling me how good the salesgirl is in selling her the product, while my mind was filled with my mother wanting to have a facial session. I told myself that my mother really wanted to have something for herself and I just agreed as she was telling me the story.

Question

1. When you are approached by a salesperson, what do you do?
   1. Do you keep giving her the problems to avoid buying it?
   2. Do you just keep quiet there?
   3. Do you play along with the salesperson while keeping your focus on not buying it?
2. Do you really wanted that product very much?
   1. Are you trying to act strong not to buy but having a strong urge for that product?
   2. Are you really interested in such products when you bought it?
   3. Are you giving all clues and a green light to the salesperson each time you are interested in a product?

What are the normal procedures of a sales person?
When you are just shopping around, you might just happen to stop at a certain section of the shopping centre. Looking at something which arouses your attention.

1. When a salesperson noticed you, he will start approaching you. If he has successfully approached you, he will start giving as much presentation to you as possible to give you all the information that you need to gather in your mind. He may have a few samples to let you try. Or even some demonstration to show you how it works. Once you have gathered the information, there is always a time when you need to be assured of something. So you would ask a question…
2. Sales person loves questions even though they might not be able to answer all of them. Because questions mean to construct a two-way communication between the salesperson and the customer. So, the more problems you throw at the salesperson, the more likely the salesperson is confident in closing a deal with you… Why?
   1. Try asking a question, the salesperson is trained to convert a question into a deal when he is unable to answer your question. That’s because he would want the product to prove its value to the customer directly and let the product answer itself…

   Every salesperson must understand that their job is to solve problems. The more problems they solve, the more money they make. Customers always look at the salesperson as a solution provider, while salesperson looks at customers as problems provider. So, the customers will always look for solutions from the salesperson, while the salesperson will always look for problems from the customers!

3. The art of closing a deal is the next skill every salesperson is trained to be. The salesperson has to be trained in doing presentations to the customers, dealing with questions, and closing the deal eventually. Closing a deal is not like tackling a question. When a salesperson is tackling questions, he is acting as Mr Nice Guy… But when closing a deal, he is acting as Mr Nice Guy as well but focusing all his solutions towards getting that dollar. Usually, when the customer is fully convinced of the product value, he will only be able to negotiate about the price difference with the salesperson. This is where the company’s various ways of payment methods come in to assist… Help your customer to be able to pay the product smoothly, make it a point to find out his problem…

As you can see, this is what a salesperson will do to close a deal with you. In this way, he is also assisting you in understanding his products while helping you to solve your problems… Just remember that the business of any company is focusing on providing solutions to its customers… And its solutions are through products and services that company provides…

How to Reject A Salesperson completely?
Basically, there is no way you can reject a salesperson if the product is really good, and it really helps you. And if you realize, the more you try to use your mouth to compete against the salesperson into a refusal, the more you are going to buy the product…

Hence, the only thing you need to so is to evade a conversation! That’s the only thing to do… If you are the type who can’t resist to stop any conversation after saying “no”, just keep your mouth shut and go… The salesperson will understand it and will appreciate if you do a prompt refusal and go before he attacks you more…

How to Win Over a Salesperson?
As you can see, any salesperson is the communication pipe to produce more income for the company. Hence, you will still need to go through a salesperson when you need to buy a product or service. So if you really want to buy a product and get the price that you want, you have to do the following:

1. While the salesperson is doing a presentation, try to find out whether the salesperson has the power to lower the prices… If not, you may leave if the price is not right.
2. When the salesperson is done with his presentation, he is always trying to make you ask any questions so that he can close that deal with you… So, try to ask a lot about the product information as much as you like… Make sure that you have some time to spend to “play along” with the salesperson. The focus is to drag time… Have a gut feeling whether he is able to lower the price or not in your mind…
3. After spending almost an hour or so with you, the salesperson will definitely want to close the deal with you because he must have good feelings that you will buy since you have so much questions… Simply avoid his deal closing techniques and keep asking questions… Stop him from opening an invoice whenever he tries to…
4. The final stage is to spend some more time to negotiate prices with him… If you are looking at $500, try asking $470… Simply keep your focus on $470… Make sure there is enough room for the salesperson to “win” you by asking for a slightly higher price… When the deal is below $500, simply take the deal and help the salesperson to close it!
5. If the salesperson is not going to close the deal at $500 or below, have a gut feeling that he will… Simply say “thank you” to the salesperson and say that “unfortunately the price is not right…” Just leave the shop then… If he stops you, just walk back and ask what’s the deal… Sometimes you might not be able to get $500… But somewhere close to it, you might want to take it as well… Case closed!

Negotiation is always all about a win-win situation… It’s never a case where one side will lose terribly… If it does, that negotiation may not be a good one after all. I believe in give-and-take situations… Don’t push your limits so much… Make friends, not enemies…

Conclusion
When you feel that the product is giving you a value, sometimes it is good to pay at the price the company is asking for. Think about it… A company knows that they couldn’t overprice their products or else they wouldn’t be able to do business, while making sure that the company is growing healthily in income… If you can afford it, why not just treat it as a goodwill to buy the products that you want, while the company gets what they want?