You notice a well-dressed customer walk into the store and immediately head toward the display case housing the most expensive items in the store. Clearly it appears as though this customer can afford to buy the entire store. As you make your way over to this person, and say something like, "Isn't that widget a beauty? It just came in this week," you notice that your manager is making his way toward you. Before you even have a chance to utter another word, your manager is at your side, greeting and welcoming the new district manager. You begin to wonder what made you think that this was going to be a good day.

The Merchandise Approach Is Both Ineffective and Rude

The merchandise approach is an ineffective technique that too many salespeople continue to use to open the sale. It simply entails greeting customers by commenting on the particular item they begin looking at when they enter the store. Originally, this approach was brilliant because it allowed the salesperson to begin demonstrating an item to a customer almost immediately. But today there is a fundamental problem with using the merchandise approach: it is so overused that customers react to it in the same way they do to "Can I help you?"

If you greet a customer with a business line, then you will get a reactive and resistant response such as, "I'm just looking," or something similar. Customers have become so conditioned to using that line that most of the time they blurt it out unconsciously. If you've ever asked a customer how they were doing only to hear them respond with "No thanks, I'm just looking," you know how true the last statement really is. It's a spontaneous reaction, and as long as it continues to get salespeople away, customers will continue to use it.

Here's an example to illustrate how ineffective the merchandise approach can be. A man's brother buys a tennis racket for $500. To this man, $500 is an extraordinary amount to spend on a tennis racquet. He is curious why his brother would spend that much money on a tennis racket-maybe it has a motor or some built-in parts to help his game. To satisfy his curiosity, the next time he goes into a sporting goods store, the first thing he does when he walks in is look at tennis rackets!

Now, this customer has no interest whatsoever in tennis rackets. He certainly has no interest in buying one, yet the salesperson comes over and says, "It just came in, isn't it a beauty? I'm sure that no matter how well you play now, it will improve your game." How do you think this man feels as a customer in this store?

How could you possibly determine what customers want or why they have come in by what catches their eye, or where they just happen to stop? Additionally, it's rude to have someone come into your store, where you spend a major portion of your life, and not even say "Hello" before you start your sales presentation. The merchandise approach ruins more relationships than it helps.

You will always come across situations when using the merchandise approach may seem like the right thing to do. Perhaps, you'll overhear one customer going on and on telling her friend about why she has a widget just like this, and why her friend should buy one as well. Don't yield to the temptation to comment on the merchandise. Isn't it possible that the friend has no interest in owning this widget? Maybe she doesn't want to hurt her friend's feelings and is only pretending to be interested in what her friend has to say, while trying to come up with some reason why she wouldn't, shouldn't, can't or won't buy the widget! By commenting on the merchandise you are in effect siding with one person. Don't put yourself in that position and jeopardize your opportunity to sell the friend a widget she likes.

There are hundreds of lines that you can use to effectively open the sale-commenting on the merchandise the customer is looking at is not one of them. Start using non-business related opening lines and you'll be on your way to breaking down your customer's resistance and ultimately, closing more sales.