Your income hinges on your ability to provide excellent customer service. If you are not available for your customers when they need you, they might turn to other vendors for the products and services they need. Good listening skills and the ability to really hear what your customers want are also important for success as a sales professional. If you want to succeed in this field, you must combine proven sales strategies with openness and availability.
Timothy Huffaker, president of The Business Performance Group, says that success in the sales industry is a learned behavior, not a matter of practice makes perfect. Huffaker explains that successful sales representatives must apply proven sales strategies and give their best efforts if they want to succeed in a competitive marketplace. One way to succeed as a sales representative is to work directly with customer service representatives to ensure that someone is always available to answer questions or resolve service issues. Doing so does not have to be difficult; taking the time to introduce customers to service representatives takes just a few minutes of your time. It is a great way to demonstrate that you are available to help customers resolve any concerns.
In this Beyond.com article, the author notes that some people are willing to pay more if they know they will get better service. As a sales representative, you have the opportunity to make more sales if you have good relationships with the customer service representatives at your company. Put customers at ease by asking them if they have any questions or concerns. If the customer does not have enough information to ask questions, provide as much information as possible. This will help demonstrate that you are open to their needs and willing to find solutions to their biggest problems.
Rosemary Ramsey of Eastern Kentucky University and Ravipreet Sohi of University of Nebraska, Lincoln, conducted research to determine how the perceived listening behavior of salespeople affects relationship outcomes. They defined several components of sales representative listening. You can use these components to demonstrate that you are open to your customers’ needs and available to answer their questions. The components of salesperson listening as defined by Ramsey and Sohi include sensing verbal and nonverbal information, evaluating the information provided by the customer, and responding appropriately. Characteristics of an appropriate response include responding at appropriate times, giving enthusiastic responses, providing relevant answers to questions, and answering in full sentences instead of providing one-word answers.
Building positive customer relationships is just one of the things you can do to succeed as a sales representative. Showing customers that you are open to listening to their concerns and available to help them when needed is just the start of building these beneficial relationships. As you advance through the ranks as a sales representative, you will find that taking the time to make sure customers are happy will pay off in the form of increased commissions and fewer returns.
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