Asking for the sale

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KirkH

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Do you ask a potential customer for the sale?

This is my biggest weakness I think. A potential customer calls or stops me to ask about prices, menu, schedule, etc. I tell them the menu, the prices, my schedule, etc. and then I say something dumb like "Here's my card, call me when you'd like to schedule."

Instead of saying "I have Monday open, how about 8:30 am?"

I am really going to try to ask for the sale this season.

Any other classic sales techniques that you use?
 
My son suffers from the same affliction. I'm trying to teach him to close the sale. It's hard. It's not in everybody's nature. Just today, he had a guy wanting services on three cars on the line and was on the phone with him for 15 minutes. After he hung up, I said "when are we doing it?" He said "he's going to call me back." Yeah, okay.
 
To fully answer your question, I always do but I do it sometimes in a roundabout manner. When I sense that a customer is wanting to buy, I'll finish my pitch with something like "... so you're probably looking at 2:30-3 hours on a job like that. I have a spot late Saturday afternoon and then nothing until Tuesday." I'm almost forcing him to make a choice between Saturday and Tuesday or say something like "Oh, only Friday works for me." Perfect, now I've got you committed to Friday.
 
i never ask for sale , but i do more custom work - read: i quote each car based of condition and what needs to be done. and everyone who calls or ask is exactly what i tell them.
i think if you project trust, confidence , quality , knowledge when you interview an client , he will know what to do next.
 
You do what works for YOU and YOUR business. Some businesses have established themselves to the point where business is knocking down their door. That's not typical. There's nothing wrong with asking for a sale. In fact, if you read any book about sales or attend professional seminars for salespeople, asking for the sale is a key component of the job. You might not view yourself as a salesman and you might not think you're asking for a sale, but if you're making sales you likely are. You may have created a system for yourself where you get the customer to ask you for the sale. It's the same thing, just a different way of going about it to reach the same final goal.
 
Education and practice. Learn and decide what you want to say. Practice what you want to say. Then make yourself say it, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel. You will close deals, and the fear will go away. To paraphrase legendary sales trainer Zig Zigler, "No matter how good a product or service is, it has to be sold."
 
sudsmobile said:
To fully answer your question, I always do but I do it sometimes in a roundabout manner. When I sense that a customer is wanting to buy, I'll finish my pitch with something like "... so you're probably looking at 2:30-3 hours on a job like that. I have a spot late Saturday afternoon and then nothing until Tuesday." I'm almost forcing him to make a choice between Saturday and Tuesday or say something like "Oh, only Friday works for me." Perfect, now I've got you committed to Friday.
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I've been in sales most of my career. If I were a pro detailer, this is exactly how I would close. I'd pull out my calendar and say something like "I have Friday at 1 PM or Tuesday at 9 AM, do either of these work for you?" It's a polite "trial close" and you're making it easy for them to say yes if they are ready. If they are not ready, you're giving them an opportunity to tell you why they're not ready and you can go from there.
 
When I did sales, we basically gave two choices and asked which one they preferred. So for you, your "Close" would be something like this:

"I have Monday at 10 AM, or Thursday at 9. Which would you prefer?"

Boom! You got a sale! :D

A variation is: "Tuesday is wide open, Would you prefer the Gold Option or the Platinum?" (Of course, insert your own service options)

This is called an "assumptive" close in sales lingo.
 
After talking about the options and prices I usually just ask "when were you thinking of getting it done?". Based on their response you either give them opening dates and get something scheduled or just say "ok just let me know once you are ready!"
. Based on their response you can usually tell if their serious or just shopping around for a deal.
 
For me, most of the time when they call me, it means that they are ready for a detail regardless.

Along with that
it’s normally given that they have shopped around.

Every pitch is different. When a client is already willing to meet me for a VIF quote, I always feel that their money is already half way out their pocket. At this point in time, my job here is to help them spend it. Lately what’s been working for me is giving them this line, “I have your best interest. I will never sell you something that doesn’t make sense or doesn’t fit the needs of the vehicle. So here is my MAXIMUM recommendation. Then give them my weakest option (money-wise).

Then I ask, “which is better for you?”

2 out of 3 this week went with the better option because now at this point for another $100+ they see more value in the gold vs, silver at that price (for example).

For the 1 out of 3, they at least went with my silver package.

After that, we then discuss dates.

People like options.


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This is an interesting thread. I always left it up to the customer up until last year. At the beginning of last year I decided I only wanted to work X number of jobs. This limited my availability obviously and I would end every conversation or email with the remaining dates and times that I have available. It basically put people in a position where they felt that they may not get a slot so they booked quickly. . I started bookings for this spring and summer and within a week I was booked through June simply because I was putting a limit on my jobs and people were afraid of not getting in.
 
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