You naturally want the most optimal service for your customers. And to be able to offer that, you have knowledge and experience. You are aware of trends and developments, you keep up with the novelties and you can dream up the product properties! That is why you are ready every day to help your customers make the best choice.
But yeah…. Today's customers come into your store loaded with information from the internet and have already made decisions, both unconsciously and consciously. Not knowing (certainly) whether it is the most appropriate decision.
The choices customers make are only 10% conscious. They are not guided by product properties and the most optimal solution, but rather by impulses from our conscious brain. Impulses such as expectations, for example.
If a customer only thinks about the price when purchasing a product or providing a service, this will mainly be due to the conscious part of his consideration. However, if you delve deeper into the most optimal solution, completely different considerations emerge. As a specialist, that gives you the opening for free adequatesolution, but the most rangesolution for your customer.
When your customer walks into your store, armed with insider knowledge of the internet, he already has his arguments ready to choose a particular product, brand or model. You can go along with that. Most likely, the customer will then walk out of the store with exactly what he had in mind. You can also look for the true motives for a purchase. Is that price really that important? Or is another characteristic more important, for example durability or quality? Put your customer at ease, ask the right questions and discover the unconscious considerations he or she makes.
It is possible that the customer has also found your website in his digital search. It is therefore important to ensure that there is also the right message for the unconscious considerations that a customer makes. So make conscious use of your customer's unconscious decisions. He will leave your store satisfied, and maybe even leave a positive review online. Which is good news for your next, unknowing customer….
Consciousness and the four phases of learning
This principle is known as the four-phase competency model. In the first phase, you are unconsciously incompetent: you do not know what you do not know. Think of the novice salesperson who believes that enthusiasm is enough to succeed. In the second phase, you become consciously incompetent: you realize that there are skills you still need to develop. That can be confronting, but it is actually a sign of growth.
The third phase is consciously competent: you can do it, but you still have to actively think about it. Like a salesperson who consciously applies the right questioning technique during a conversation. In the fourth phase, you reach the unconsciously competent status: the skills are so integrated that they come naturally. You ask the right questions without thinking about them, and you read the customer effortlessly.
From knowledge to skill
The difference between knowing and doing is greater than most people think. You can know everything about sales techniques, but that doesn't mean you apply them in a conversation. The step from knowledge to skill requires practice, repetition, and feedback. That is precisely why training is more effective than simply reading a book: you practice in a safe environment and receive immediate feedback on your approach.
At Kenneth Smit, we work with practical training courses where you practice directly with realistic situations. In our sales training You go through all four phases of the competency model, so that you not only know how to do it, but can also actually apply it when it matters.