You may not have ever realized it but there are similarities between retail selling and asking someone out on a date.
When I was in high school I worked in a large discount store similar to Target. I had a huge crush on a girl who worked in another department. We shared the same manager so I had the opportunity to work with her from time to time.
For months I tried to gather the courage to ask her out. Finally I did but she didn't say yes. She didn't say no, either. I tried over and over for weeks, with little luck. Then one day when I was talking with her she gave me a look and said, "Are you asking me out?" I said yes and she said yes and I could barely contain myself.
Later that week we went out to dinner and I asked her, "How come you finally said yes this time?" Her answer was, "What do you mean this time?" It seemed that all those times I thought I was asking her out I wasn't being direct enough. I wasn't confident enough to come right out and say, "Would you like to go out on Friday night." I have no idea what I was saying but I was clearly not asking her out.
The same holds true for helping a customer make a purchase in your store. If you aren't direct enough in the questions you ask your customer you're unlikely to get the results you want. Here's a perfect example. A few weeks ago I was at the mall shopping for some new clothes. I tried on pants in four different stores. Every time I came out of the dressing room I was asked a question by a salesperson working in the area.
In Macy's I was asked, "How were they?" "They?" I'm not sure if I was to report back on the other people in the dressing rooms or what, so I avoided answering her.
At Sears I was asked, "Everything okay?" I wasn't sure how she knew I had gotten my underwear stuck in my fly so I avoided answering her.
At Lord & Taylor I was asked, "What do you think?" I hated to admit that I wasn't really thinking, so I avoided answering him.
At Nordstrom's I was asked, "Which pair did you like?" Since that question was specific to what I was doing I told her that I liked two of the three. Then she said, "Great. Do you want to look at some shirts to go with them?" When I said "no, thanks" she said, "Super. I'll ring those up for you right over here."
No beating around the bush or vague questions - and on the flip side no hard close either. Just a direct question about what I liked and the saleswoman's assumption of the sale based on my positive response.
I encourage you to be aware of the questions you ask your customers. The more direct you are and the less you leave open for interpretation, the more likely you are to make a sale. And if you're single, it might even help you to get a date!
By the way, after dinner that night my date and I went to see the horror movie Carrie. When that arm came through the ground at the end of movie, it scared me so much I couldn't stop shaking for at least 10 minutes. As a result, it was our first and last date. Oh well, at least I learned not only how to ask someone out but also to never go to a scary movie on the first date.
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