Membership Sales Tip #1 for 2016: Find Commonality
On the weekend I went into a Lululemon store wearing Lulu shirt, shorts and socks! In fact, except for my body, I could have been easily mistaken for a staff member I was wearing SO much Lulu!
I was just browsing through the racks of men’s clothes and one of the more attentive male staff strides up to me and says “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
What a frigging STUPID question to ask and quite frankly I would have expected more from Lulu staff! I love the brand but could you get a more dumb arse question to ask?
Especially to someone dressed in Lulu head to toe!!!!!
One of the first lessons the great Steve Jensen from Impact Training taught me when we worked together back in the 90’s was: find commonality. When you find something in common with the prospect this will help build rapport. Rapport will then lead to trust and trust a sale!
Back to Mr DA Lulu Employee . . . what could he have said before asking if he could help me?
- “Oh I see you love our clothes?”
- “Hey they’re our XYZ short. I have a pair just like them, they are so comfortable aren’t they?”
- “I see you have a ABC tank on, is that the Lulu style you normally wear?”
There are 3 options straight off the bat without thinking too hard and not being from a retailing background! All would have led to the start of rapport building and trust.
It can be more challenging in membership sales, so to #STRENGTHEN your sales you must be ALERT.
Commonalities generally don’t come and bite you! You have to have your eyes and ears open for identifying any commonalities from shoes, to work, to where they live, to their current or past exercise.
Find something and I guarantee you will build rapport, then trust and then a sale.
FOOTNOTE – I walked out of this Lulu store spending no money, after walking in with some Christmas money to spend!
Justin is the Managing Director of Active Management, which he began January 2004. He offers coaching to businesses worldwide in everything from start up and design to marketing and sales systems. Justin also facilitates four Australian and New Zealand ‘fitness industry roundtables’ events, which allows him to see a huge cross section of business models.