Asking the Right Questions
Elmer Wheeler did years of research into the words and phrases that trigger buying decisions. His books, long out of print, teach about selling techniques that still work today. Here is just one of them.
Read what Elmer Wheeler had to say about selling pie a la mode, then I’ll tell you why it matters to you (even if you are not selling pie).
It is the desire of every restaurant owner to sell his pie with a scoop of ice cream on top, for the pie tastes better, the eater is happier, and the restaurant has increased the average check.
“Like a dab of ice cream?” will never induce people, for they carry that depression “no” on their tongues, and will say “no” first and think afterwards.
We determined that there were thirty-six possible methods of asking a customer if he would care for some ice cream on his pie.
Finally we reverted to the old principle and had the waitresses ask, “Would you care for an order of vanilla or chocolate ice cream on your pie?” The mind of the customer would fluctuate between vanilla and chocolate, not between ice cream and no ice cream. Whichever he decided upon meant a happier customer — and a richer restaurant proprietor.
“Which” is a stronger word than “if.”
So what lessons can you take from this? There are at least two:
Always offer an upsell. When you give customers the opportunity to upgrade or add to their purchase, some percentage will. Take a low-end example: You sell a product for $20 and offer an add-on for an additional $10. If half of your customers take you up on the offer (certainly a possibility) you have increased your revenues by 25%. (Here’s the math: Say you make 100 sales at $20. That is $2000. If half of those customers take the upsell, that is 50 times $10, for an additional $500. Your revenues increased 25% with one simple action.)
Instead of asking a yes or no question, give customers a choice between two yes answers: “Would you like the blue one or the green one?” By doing this you are steering customers but you are not forcing them to do anything. Some customers will still say no and if they truly do not want the upsell, they will say no. However, you have planted the idea in their minds that they can have this desirable thing and many will happily choose to take it.
You can incorporate this into your sales process whether you sell in person, over the telephone or online. If you have salespeople or order takers working for you, train them to properly use these suggestive selling techniques to increase your sales, revenues and profits.
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