Sell More by Selling Less

“How can I help you,” the sales person asked.

“I need to organize my closet,” my wife replied.

Then the salesperson proceeded to show my wife the top of the line closet organizing system that she thought we would love and told us why it was a great deal.

Compare this to the Container Store. The sales person at the Container Store asked a lot of questions: “What do you want to organize in your closet?”, “What do you keep in there now?”, “What do you think is out of place?”, and a personal favorite that I also ask my wife, “How many pairs of shoes do you have?”

After hearing the answers, the salesperson showed my wife a system that would organize our closet, and explained how. The sales person wasn’t selling a product. She was solving our problem.

Focus on uncovering and solving problems. You’ll sell more products.

How can you sell solutions instead of products? What do you think helps sell more?