Dealing with difficult customers is a part and parcel of retail sales. If you are in retail sales you are bound to come across customers who will rub you the wrong way finding constant fault with the way you try to sell a luxury product may be or could be that when you are on the verge of closing a sale you find that the potential buyer is just not interested in the item - a designer outfit you have been raving about and moves away to a different item altogether conveying the message that you failed to understand his/her choice altogether. Difficult customers come in every shape and size and communication happens to be a tricky element as some customers resort to terse replies when you are trying to build a rapport or unimportant talks interrupting
your flow every now and then. The fact of the matter is that customers are bound to be difficult and being part of this daily grind is what retail sales all about.
As a sales person you must be wondering why these buyers are so difficult. Or is it actually them?
Well, when you wonder why it just does not click when you most want it to be then you need to take a closer look at your own personality which might come in the way of your sales. In reality customers prefer salespersons who know who they are and it basically boils down to the fact that there are four distinct types of personality which can belong to both buyers and sellers like an affable, an articulate, an analytical or a driver.
We can say a lot about the natural selling techniques if we dissect the above mentioned four personality types. The behavior pattern varies according to the four personalities when it comes to sales:-
Affable – Affable salespersons usually turn out to be friendly and remain accessible to the customers who turn in their favor and they end up wining the hearts of their customers.
Articulate – They are good talkers and love to socialize. They look forward to meeting and interacting with customers irrespective of their buying status.
Analytical – The analytical salespersons usually turn out to be product experts and they expect customers to reach out to them for assistance.
Driver – They can drive higher sales as they have the power to filter the right buyers and can pick the right player.
You are also expected to know yourself better and aware of the various personalities and what they desire from their customers:-
Affable – They want to understand their needs and wants so that they can extend their helping hands.
Articulate – They can occupy the attention of the people who are happy to share their lives.
Analytical – They take pride in their knowledge and expect appreciation from serious buyers.
Driver – They go for bigger sales to fulfill their quota and not to forget their bonus of course.
Now we come to the most interesting part and that is adapting your sales personality to that of your customer’s personality types:-
We go back to where we began. The customer finding fault with the luxury product you are dealing with is an Analytical personality type frequently found in engineers as they are mostly perfectionists. They take all the time to narrow down their options to settle for the best.
When you are on the verge of closing a sale you find that the potential buyer is just not interested in the item and turn to unrelated items you instantly know that you are dealing with an Articulate personality type. Most of the time something else catch their eyes and they seem to be rooted in the future rather than in present. A patient salesperson will take back the Articulate type to the original item.
Customers who resort to terse replies when you are trying to build a rapport are the Driver personality types and are the most difficult ones as they always have a feeling as if they rule the world. So it is advisable to cut to the chase and answer them quickly and get on with the sale but a motivated Driver who trusts you can be the most loyal and price un-conscious customer of all.
Finally, that difficult customer diverting to unimportant talks actually tries to make a friend because Affable personality types do not want to do business with people who are unfriendly. You must cultivate the attitude within to become friendly first and put sale in the second place.Customers being difficult can be for a variety of reasons and sometimes their harshness need not be intentional and in most cases they expect to be greeted properly and be given genuine attention and they just want you to talk to them in a way that lets them be them.
In retail sales do not expect your customers to be just like you but instead learn to be like them.