e was very busy and only wnted to buy the kit and take it home immediately. Unfortunately the sales person missed all the cues and insisted on explaining every little detail about the language course, its superiority over other similar courses, and how to take care of the tapes.

So before

When the customer is ready to buy, do not tell more than necessary. Yet how many times have customers been put off by sales people who should know better?

I would like to relate two experiences when sales people nearly lost the sale through "telling too much".

In the first case, a direct marketing representative was selling a health food to a customer. The representative never bothered to find out the customer's background and instead went into the product benefits - that it was supposed to remove free radicals from the body, was scientifically proven and had many testimonials from satisfied customers. A simple check on the Internet would have revealed that the customer was a qualified chemist. The customer was not only annoyed but exceedingly bored by the sales spiel. He only sat through the presentation to note where the direct marketer got it wrong.

In the second case, a customer who wanted to buy a foreign language training kit went to the marketer's office where the marketer insisted on giving a product demo. What the sales person did not know was that the customer had already read up on the product and was very familiar with its features. She was very busy and only wnted to buy the kit and take it home immediately. Unfortunately the sales person missed all the cues and insisted on explaining every little detail about the language course, its superiority over other similar courses, and how to take care of the tapes.

So before

irect marketing representative was selling a health food to a customer. The representative never bothered to find out the customer's background and instead went into the product benefits - that it was supposed to remove free radicals from the body, was scientifically proven and had many testimonials from satisfied customers. A simple check on the Internet would have revealed that the customer was a qualified chemist. The customer was not only annoyed but exceedingly bored by the sales spiel. He only sat through the presentation to note where the direct marketer got it wrong.

In the second case, a customer who wanted to buy a foreign language training kit went to the marketer's office where the marketer insisted on giving a product demo. What the sales person did not know was that the customer had already read up on the product and was very familiar with its features. She was very busy and only wnted to buy the kit and take it home immediately. Unfortunately the sales person missed all the cues and insisted on explaining every little detail about the language course, its superiority over other similar courses, and how to take care of the tapes.

So before

ials from satisfied customers. A simple check on the Internet would have revealed that the customer was a qualified chemist. The customer was not only annoyed but exceedingly bored by the sales spiel. He only sat through the presentation to note where the direct marketer got it wrong.

In the second case, a customer who wanted to buy a foreign language training kit went to the marketer's office where the marketer insisted on giving a product demo. What the sales person did not know was that the customer had already read up on the product and was very familiar with its features. She was very busy and only wnted to buy the kit and take it home immediately. Unfortunately the sales person missed all the cues and insisted on explaining every little detail about the language course, its superiority over other similar courses, and how to take care of the tapes.

So before

he second case, a customer who wanted to buy a foreign language training kit went to the marketer's office where the marketer insisted on giving a product demo. What the sales person did not know was that the customer had already read up on the product and was very familiar with its features. She was very busy and only wnted to buy the kit and take it home immediately. Unfortunately the sales person missed all the cues and insisted on explaining every little detail about the language course, its superiority over other similar courses, and how to take care of the tapes.

So before

e was very busy and only wnted to buy the kit and take it home immediately. Unfortunately the sales person missed all the cues and insisted on explaining every little detail about the language course, its superiority over other similar courses, and how to take care of the tapes.

So before you go into the sales pitch, whenever you can do find out who the customer is, and whether the customer is already "ready to buy". By keeping this in mind you will not lose the "sure" sale.