Selling a product or service over the phone is a challenge in itself. Potential customers have no idea who they’re speaking to or what you’re selling. It’s up to you, as the seller, to make sure a customer is getting exactly what they need without even seeing the item or offer in the first place.
This may become more challenging when you encounter indecisive customers. Any slight hesitation could sway a potential customer away from your offer, lessening your chances of closing a sale. However, there are ways to sway these kinds of customers toward your products or services, and the key is patience.
We collected some strategies to help indecisive customers decide, so you can close a deal faster. Regardless of the industry that you’re in, these tips ideally work for any customer struggling with choosing whether or not to buy your goods or services. After all, indecision knows no industry.
Listen To Your Customer
Your customer is a person with problems that need solving. Their indecision is most likely because they aren’t convinced that your product or service is going to solve their problem. Listening to your customer can help you figure out the best way you can help them. Doing so also helps you avoid assuming why your customer is hesitant in the first place.
Beginners in the sales industry usually offer discounts or promos in an attempt to sway an indecisive customer to their side. While such tactics may work, most customers who decide on buying because of a discount usually only do so when they have extra funds to spare. This is not the same case with every customer.
Listening to your customer explain why they are second-guessing will benefit you and the customer during the sales process. If you give them time to say their piece, you can find out whether you’re in a position to help them with what they need. If not, you and your customer can both move on, saving everyone time.
Listening is also the root strategy in dealing with indecisiveness. Once you get to know your customer and their problems by listening, you can proceed to other strategies and get better chances of closing a sale.
Reassure Your Customer
When a customer is interested in your offer but remains indecisive, keep listening to their concerns. Since you’ll be selling over the phone, your customer has limited ways to confirm for themselves whether your product or service works. In such a case, you can reassure them by citing sources that can confirm to your customers that you’re the real deal.
Another cause for needing reassurance may be the fact they don’t know anyone who uses the product or service you’re offering. While you can go the route of saying you use the item or service you are selling, they still wouldn’t be enthusiastic about taking advice from a stranger. However, this same strategy may build trust with your potential client.
Reassurance may turn into convincing in some cases, like when a customer lacks a sense of urgency. Suppose your customer is already interested in your offer but plays with the idea that they don’t need your product or service right away. You would need to convince your customer that your current offer is in their best interests.
But then you’re treading a fine line between convincing and pushing. The best way to navigate this case is to set a follow-up system with your customer.
Follow Up With Your Customer
You can follow up with customers by taking note of the interested ones and then calling them again another time. If you set a follow-up arrangement with potential customers, you are essentially setting up a meeting to discuss the sale further. With a follow-up system in place, you can give your customers time to reassess their options, so they won’t feel pressured to give an immediate decision.
Giving customers the option to purchase at another time also builds trust between seller and customer because you are respecting their indecisiveness. The main downside to setting up a follow-up system is how you must be timely with your follow-ups. An interested customer may find a better deal before your follow-up arrangement if you scheduled it too late.
Scheduling follow-ups in a gradually longer manner is an ideal way to go. In other words, you would schedule your follow-up after two days, and then once a week, and then once in two weeks, and so on. By the time you start following up with a customer once a month, consider giving them an address they can visit on their time just so they have the option.
Be Honest With Your Customers
Besides patience, honesty with your customers is key to building trust in them and converting leads into sales. Going back to our first strategy, listening to your customer’s actual concerns can help you determine whether you can solve their problem with the product or service you’re selling. If you realize that you can’t, be upfront with them and move on to your next potential client.
If you are capable of solving a customer’s dilemma with your offer, you should still be honest with them. They must have expectations about your product or service, so be sure to highlight your product or service’s good qualities without being too unrealistic. Customers are keen on bluffs, and they can sense when they’re getting played, so save yourself time and be honest.
How To Deal With Indecisive Customers Over The Phone
Dealing with indecisive customers over the phone is challenging when your potential customers don’t know what they’re buying. They may not even have considered your product before you called. So, the challenge lies in convincing your potential customer they need your product or service even before they knew they needed it.
The strategies we presented in this article may point you in the right direction in handling phone calls and turning in more sales. Still, these tips may take time to adapt and fully integrate into your sales routine. Consider getting professional virtual receptionists with the expertise to save you time.
Virtual receptionist services like what we, at Hello By Humans, are designed to handle phone calls with a smile and turn callers from potential customers to lifelong, loyal patrons. Sign up with Hello By Humans to start your 14-day trial today, and see just how much your business can grow with an experienced virtual receptionist.
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