It's Monday morning, and you arrive at work. You take care of the morning paperwork, vacuum the store, take a look at the displays to make sure everything is in order and open the doors. It's slow for a Monday, but you don't lose hope as the first customer of the day comes into the store. You casually stroll by the customer before turning around to offer a brief greeting. The customer smiles and responds. So far so good. You come back at a safe distance and begin schmoozing. You're a reasonably witty person and your remarks amuse the customer; they laugh (another good sign). Your strategy is working as the customer becomes more and more comfortable with you. You feel the moment is right to make your transition into probing, so you ask, "Well, what brings you into our store today?" The customer gestures with their hand casually and says, "Oh, I'm just kind of looking today." You think, "Rats!" No problem. You use the take-away technique and throw her response right back at her; "Well that's terrific. What kinds of things are you looking for?" "Well, I'm getting ideas for a new bike." You breathe a sigh of relief. It worked. The door to probing has been opened, and you have been allowed inside!

Now what? You've got to determine the customer's wants, needs and desires so you know which bicycle to demonstrate. That's the goal of probing isn't it? Yes, but it's only an obvious goal. There are subtle benefits to probing that can make or break the sale.

First of all, finding out exactly which bike is the appropriate one to demonstrate must be accomplished. Getting this information is relatively simple when you are successful at breaking down resistance in the opening. After all, the opening paves the way for probing by delivering a customer who is willing to listen to and answer your probing questions. The more difficult goal of probing is to find out "why" the customer wants the bike.

The extra information you gain in probing is the key to closing the sale and adding on additional merchandise. Now that's a pretty bold statement, but it's true. If you don't know why the customer wants "to get ideas" for bicycles, you may end up focusing on a particular feature that you like rather than the features desired by the customer.

You see, salespeople get so familiar with the merchandise in their stores, that they develop their own likes and dislikes of each item. Or worse yet, you fall into such a routine in your demonstrations that you have a memorized pitch for each model, unit or item. Oh, the pitches are different between one item and another, but they never change for each item individually. If you are demonstrating item A, you give pitch A. If you are demonstrating item B, you use pitch B.

The problem is, two customers looking at item A may not respond to pitch A in the same manner. One customer may be looking at the item because it's the latest model and he is trying to keep up with a friend of his who always has new things. Another customer doesn't care at all that it's the latest model; he has heard that this particular brand is very versatile, and that's important to him. If you are demonstrating this item and are always pitching the same feature, chances are you'll miss the mark with your customers more often than not.

Every presentation must be customized to every customer. How can you do that without the extra information you obtain in probing? It's simple; you can't.

The first step in accomplishing this is asking open-ended questions as opposed to close-ended ones. A close-ended question prompts a yes or a no answer from the customer. If you keep the question open, the customer is encouraged to open up as well. For example, if you ask, "Have you decided on a what type of bicycle you're interested in?" the customer may tell you that they are looking for a mountain bike. Instead, ask, "Where are you planning on riding your bike?" the customer might tell you that she and her husband have just started to realize the benefits of exercise and thought that riding bikes on their weekend trips to the country would be great recreational fun and good exercise as well. Additionally, she may tell you that her husband was an avid cyclist years ago and is really looking forward to getting back into the sport. Now you not only know about what type of bicycle your customer is looking for, but you've been able to gain much more valuable information that will help you not only select the appropriate model but to tailor your demonstration points to meet her needs.

Don't stop probing for details at this point. You would be throwing away an opportunity to find out much, much more about the customer, thus finding out more about why. I call this hanging out on the edge for awhile. Don't be so anxious to demonstrate just yet. And don't think because she said she wanted a mountain bike that it's time to start showing your tremendous selection of mountain bikes. If you don't know the most appropriate one to begin showing, you haven't probed long enough. If you don't have a reason that the features of a particular model are perfect for the customer's needs, you haven't probed long enough.

In the previous example, let's say that you found out the customer is interested in a mountain bike because she wants a bike that is comfortable and easy to ride on the hilly roads. Now if that wasn't important enough to the customer to say, she could have left it out and just said she is interested in a mountain bike. But she did say it, which means a comfortable ride is important to her. At this point, find out more about how much they'll be riding-an hour at a time, will they be going on day trips, etc. Don't worry, the customer will love telling you, otherwise she wouldn't have mentioned it. Share in her excitement about it.

What else? She also said that her husband used to be a cycling enthusiast. Is it possible that he, too, may be in the market for a new bicycle? I think so! What kinds of accessories could you add on to the bicycle to make their bike outings more fun?

So far in your discussion with this customer, you have no idea which model to begin demonstrating, but you sure know something about the customer: why she wants a mountain bike and that you may be able to sell additional merchandise as well. Think about how excited she'll be when she and her husband can share in the enjoyment of their new bikes.

When you think of how important probing is with respect to demonstration points, it follows that probing is really one of the keys to actually closing the sale. When you give the product a reason for being in the demonstration, you give the customer a reason for buying. The features you choose have to hit the customer right between the eyes and make them say, "I'll take it!" Without excellent probing skills, you must depend on luck. Not that being lucky isn't great, but you can't earn a living from it.