Closing the doors

This is a model used in the sales process to build a relationship with a customer whilst also finding out a lot of information about them that can be used later on in the sales process. The idea is that you ask questions about all different aspects of the customer’s life, in as much of a conversational manner as you can and then move on without the customer realising that you were ever digging for information for sales purposes. How much information you need to gather will depend on what you are selling and the level of consultation you need to go into to make a sale, but this works as a good cover-all.

1. Home – You are trying to gather as much information as you can about the customer’s home life. Are they married? Do they have children? Pets? Don’t be afraid to ask for names – this is a great way to build rapport and can be drawn upon later when using the FAB model. Find out what hobbies they get involved in outside of work, where they go on holiday and how often, why they chose to live where they do. Ask them how happy they are with their current situation and what they are hoping to do in the future.

2. Work – Ask what they do, how it’s going, how they got into it and what their future plans are. Ask them how happy they are with the work side of their life as it stands.

3. Your business – Find out how they feel about working with your company, what they like about it and don’t like about it. Ask what you can do personally to make the experience better for them. This will disassociate yourself from any negativite feelings of your company and suggest you want to be better.

4. Last meeting – In the customer’s last meeting with the business, if they have had a previous meeting, find out what they enjoyed about it and what they didn’t. This will give you a good idea of what is the best way to sell to them as a customer. If they haven’t had a meeting before,just explain what your job is and how you will work with them to ensure you meet their needs.

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