Mark Three

Written By Jeffrey Gitomer
@GITOMER

KING OF SALES, The author of seventeen best-selling books including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude. His live coaching program, Sales Mastery, is available at gitomer.me.

GitBit: MARK THREE

A customer calls you and you’re hoping FOR an order, and hoping AGAINST a complaint. Turns out, it’s neither.

They’re calling you for advice, or they’re calling you for information, or they’re calling you to ask a question about something unrelated to your product or business — but one that they’re certain you can help them with — that’s why they called you. WOW!

Congratulations, your customer now considers you an advisor, and a resource.

RESOURCE ALERT: Most salespeople don’t realize that they have achieved this status.

Here are the tell-tale lead in’s that should give you a clue:
Your customer begins his or her questions with:
What do you think about
What do you know about
Do you know anybody that
I’m looking for
I’m trying to find

BONUS: Get to advisor and resource and you get rid of the competition.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com