Designers and Sales People: Ditch the Canned Customer Greeting if You Can!

 Margo’s Reflections   

I am personally the type of sales professional who tries to just be myself and relate to people as if they were a friend coming in to see me. My focus in selling is always to make a friend and then take care of that friend through attentiveness, kindness (helpfulness), knowledge, and exceptional service (meaning doing everything I can to ensure that the customer has a good experience and receives value for what they invest) .

 I realize many stores have a scripted greeting that their sales associates say to the customers who come in the door. I personally don’t like this approach, but I do like the greeting.

If you work for a company that insists you use a “canned” greeting (which is often much too wordy and unnatural) still try to be conversational, and try to be yourself as you say those words, and speak them with sincerity. 

Let’s say you are a design-related sales professional. One suggestion for what you could say between the “official store greeting” and asking the visitor what their current home project is, could be something as simple as “so how has your day been going so far?” This gives opportunity for a little friendly dialog right off the bat. Another option is “so are you taking a little break in your day to have some fun browsing time?” This alludes to the fact that shopping is FUN, a BREAK, and not a chore. If your store manager wants you to keep it more “business-like”, or if you have been chatting for a minute or so, you could ask, “are you browsing with a particular project in mind this morning or are you just in the decorating mode?” Using the word “browsing” instead of “shopping” takes the pressure off the customer, as does talking about “decorating” instead of “buying”. This makes customers feel at ease, which can help them to more easily make purchases.

Think about how you like to be related to. Try to relax in the selling situation, focusing on making a new friend. If YOU stay relaxed, sincere, and approachable, your words will be taken as friendly, and the prospect is more likely to allow you to help them with their interior design needs.