Close and provide advice
The final step in this process is to close the sale. This simple step is often left out and this can feel to customers like a sentence that has not been finished, and represent poor customer service. They are waiting for this next step.
Closing the sale requires a simple question after the recommendation, such as, “Is that OK?” or “Do you want to buy this?” This gives the customer the opportunity to share any reservations or concerns, which you can then discuss in more detail with them.
When we have closed the sale, we should then provide appropriate advice. This should include:
- How to use the products
- What else can be done to reduce the symptoms
- What to do if the symptoms don’t go away or get worse
- What can be taken or done to avoid the symptoms recurring.
Case study: Team training
Rajesh bought his pharmacy six months ago. He has spent this first period settling everything down and has now identified that medicine sales are the area of the pharmacy that is underperforming most. He has decided to focus on this for the next few months.
He arranges a team training session after the pharmacy has closed one evening. He wants everyone to attend as he believes that everyone needs to think about selling in the same way if they are to make a difference.
The workshop covers what selling is, questioning and explaining skills, how to make a recommendation successfully, and closing the sale. What is obvious is that the whole team don’t feel comfortable selling expensive products and link selling, so he uses the second half of the meeting to discuss ethical boundaries; what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. After this discussion, the team feel more confident that this type of selling must be focused on what the customer needs.
Recognising and rewarding his team is important to Rajesh, so he decides to create targets for medicine sales and a quarterly reward for the team if the target is met. To encourage teamwork, he decides to make this reward a team event, such as a meal or fun activity.
Rajesh gives the team a couple of weeks to think about selling and to start changing their behaviours and then reviews the situation. He notices there was a change at the start, but then people went back to the way things were before. He waits for the next team meeting and asks how the team think medicine selling is going. The staff have been a little disheartened because there have been a number of times when people have declined the more expensive product or the link sale.
Recognising that changing habits in not easy, he asks the team to first think about whether the recommendations they made were in the best interest of the customer. Then he asks them to think about those positive occasions when they have succeeded. Finally they agree how they can help each other to maintain motivation to continue to improve their selling and improve customer service.