When assessing a process for successful selling, don’t overlook the value of providing a service to your customers. The catch is that putting the customer’s needs first is not easy if you don’t know what their needs are.

Most customers have no idea how products offered in the finance office can benefit them. Therefore, having a conviction and understanding how the customer can benefit from and save unforeseen costs by using the products you offer is necessary to convey the value that is available for them.

Exploring what the customer wants to accomplish and then offering solutions is really as integral to the sale as getting the customer’s name. The questions you ask are the most important part of your sales process and discovering your customer’s needs requires some honest dialogue.

Don’t get caught up in interviewing everyone the same way, because not everyone is the same. You should have a variety of questions that allow you to make the customer comfortable while you extract information necessary to determine how they might benefit from what you’re offering.

If you believe it, they will see it!

If you subscribe to the 80/20 rule as a fundamental basis to sales, then you need to apply that same rule to the time you take to interview your customer. It is nearly impossible to sell anything until you establish why your customer would want your product and how they would use it.

Spend the necessary time determining that need and then build your features and benefits around their specific experiences and circumstances. Remember, one size does not fit all prospects. Tailor your products to fit your customer. The only way you can size the customer up for a good fit is by doing a quality needs analysis to determine exactly what their needs are.

Also, don’t struggle when asking your customer what they want to accomplish. If you subscribe to “consultative selling,” then you should understand that you can’t properly advise unless you find out as much information about the person as possible.

Only by asking questions are you able to determine what your customer is telling you. Also, it is a good idea not to use metaphorical examples that don’t apply to a person. Nobody wants to be challenged in the way of their personal finances or responsibility to their family. They know their circumstances better than you.

Having already asked the most important question of your customer, “How can I help you?,” you should move forward with that thought and help them - not provide advice or improperly challenge them! Follow-up questions can help provide additional information on how the benefits of your products fit your customer’s lifestyle, without sounding prying.

However, you first have to gain their confidence with your professionalism. You have plenty of product and inventory knowledge, but you have to apply all that to the customer’s needs.

Differentiate yourself from the last place or person who wanted to sell them something. Get to know your customer and your customer will be impressed and thankful for the time, service and information you have made available for them.

Just like you, everybody appreciates doing business when the interaction is comfortable and pleasant. A true professional works to ensure that her customer is in good care and given good advice. It only becomes comfortable for our customers when we start to learn about them and the parts of their life that they share with us that are applicable to the products that we have to offer them.

Building rapport is important, and if the customer thinks you are hard selling them, they will disconnect. People buy from people they like and from people who they think are credible. If you really care about them and their needs, they will realize your presentation of product(s) is more of a lesson of benefit than a “sales pitch.”

As the saying goes, “They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” When we are able to make that connection, the process becomes productive for them and profitable for you.

Remember, the question you have to ask yourself is, “Am I asking the right questions?”

A fundamental sales process asks you to greet and meet the customer so you may better understand their needs. But, listening to what your customer is saying is a key component to this process and it will give you the opportunity to provide them with your specialty service. The “art of selling” happens when you discover “the art of service.”