It all seemed to be going well. Karen had just finished test driving the car and was chatting with the salesman.
He said “Well, what did you think?”
She explained that she liked it, but found the steering a little stiff and didn’t like the blind spot. Realizing she wasn’t in love with that one, the salesman said “What other cars are you looking at?”
It was going so well … but he didn’t get the sale. He messed up and didn’t recover. Karen ended up buying a car from a dealership that was quite far away, but she would have preferred to buy from one closer to home.
What happened, and more importantly, how can you be sure that you aren’t missing sales or other opportunities that are right in front of you?
Knowing how to figure out what is important to the person you’re speaking with is a critical skill in business. It doesn’t matter if you’re in sales or on a team of people delivering the end product – if you don’t know what is most important to the people you’re working with you you’re missing sales or other cool opportunities.
Image Credit: © Iancucristi | Dreamstime.com
